Matthew 21:33-46 Dear Partner in Preaching, I think I know what Matthew’s up to here and, quite frankly, I’m not a fan. This parable, quite similar to that in Mark and Luke, has one major and one minor difference from its sibling accounts. First, the major: after telling the story of violent tenant farmers who not only refuse to give the landowner the portion of the produce lawfully owed, all three synoptic gospels portray Jesus as asking a question: “what will the landowner do to those tenants?” But whereas Mark and Luke depict Jesus as answering his own question – “he will destroy those tenants and give the land to...

Matthew 21:33-46 Las Vegas. Dear Partner in Preaching, I will confess that I have had a very hard time getting beyond the images and sounds from the horrific shooting in Las Vegas. They have preyed upon my imagination relentlessly, and perhaps they have for you, too…and for many of our people. Violence. More ominously, inexplicable, seemingly random violence. Which is part of what is most frightening. Not only is it becoming clear that there is no easy way to protect vulnerable crowds from gun violence, but also that we can discover no motive, which simultaneously makes this act of horrific violence more random and harder to understand and...