Luke 18:9-14 Dear Partner in Preaching, I’ll start first with an assertion and then with a question. The assertion: Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector is a far better passage for Reformation Sunday, IMHO of course, than the Gospel normally appointed for the day. So whether you are preaching the passages for Pentecost 20 or Reformation Day, I hope this is helpful. And now the question: Do you know the name Essena O’Neil? By the time Essena, a native of Australia, was eighteen, she had more than 200,000 followers on YouTube and a half million on Instagram. And then she quit. She vacated the social...

Luke 17:5-10 Dear Partner in Preaching, I have to admit that I feel for the disciples. (Even more than usual!) In recent passages Jesus has been asking some fairly extraordinary things of them – to give away their possessions, to forgive those who wrong you…countless times, to take up his cross, and more. No wonder then, they ask for more faith. They feel inadequate to the tasks around them, insufficient to the challenges, unable to imagine accomplishing any of what he is asking. And after a week like the one we just had – with shootings, stabbings, injustice, hacking, and more – I suspect lots of us feel the same way. Like we need...