Dear Partner in Preaching, This is one of the hardest parables we’ll ever preach on. Actually, that’s not quite true. The parable itself is actually pretty straightforward; it’s the reality the parable describes that’s hard. The parable itself, we should keep in mind, comes on the heels of Peter’s question to Jesus about how many times he should forgive. When Jesus stuns him by multiplying Peter’s generous suggestion of forgiving someone seven times to seventy-seven (or, probably a better translation, seventy times seven) times, Jesus then illustrates the importance of forgiveness by sharing this parable. While the overall...

You probably don’t know who Jack White is. Then again, maybe you do. So let me say it this way, until earlier this morning I didn’t know who Jack White is. But I’ve recently learned something important from him, something I want to share about creativity through this 2-minute except of an interview with him. It’s actually something I know to be true from my own experience, but I seem regularly to forget, and so I appreciated the clear reminder about the relationship between creativity and freedom. Before getting to his insight, though, consider this description of Jack from Wikipedia: He has been ranked No. 17 on Rolling...

Karl Barth on occasion referred to “secular parables,” cultural artifacts produced by non-Christians (or Christians not attempting to point directly to their faith) that nevertheless bore witness to the truth of the God we know best through Jesus. I love that phrase. Which is a little odd, as I’m not normally a huge fan of the sacred-secular distinction. Often that distinction is used in a way that feels to me very limiting and, moreover, I’ve often wondered just what is not sacred to the God who comes in Jesus to redeem in love. Be that as it may, I still love that phrase. Perhaps it’s because Barth, one of the most influential...

One hundred and fifty years ago today, Abraham Lincoln delivered a remarkably brief speech of just 269 words as part of the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, PA, just over four months after the decisive Battle of Gettysburg. We call that battle “decisive,” and in the larger picture it was, but at this time the war was hardly over. Though later called the “turning point” of the war, that effort could have been forgotten were there not other monumental victories and, for that matter, Lincoln’s own re-election in 1864. For this reason, he was conscious of the need to remind those in attendance of the...