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...

Matthew 2:13-23 Dear Partner in Preaching, Too soon. This reading, I mean. It comes too soon. We have, after all, just celebrated Christmas. If your Christmas Eve was anything like mine, it was filled with songs about the “holy infant so tender and mild” and the “little town of Bethlehem” that sheltered him. The story you heard was most likely Luke’s depiction of a young mother giving birth to her firstborn child and angels greeting shepherd with words of peace on earth and good will to all. It was, I’m sure, a beautiful and hope-filled evening and celebration. Which is what makes the transition to this harrowing reading from...

Luke 9:51-62 Dear Partner in Preaching, As is true of all texts, there are any number of interpretive directions in which you can go this week. Having said that, however, one simply jumped off the page for me and demanded my attention: why is it that when the James and John meet resistance to Jesus’ mission, their first instinct is to call down fire from heaven that will consume those they see as opponents? Let’s set the scene for a moment before trying to answer this question. Chapter nine is a pivotal chapter in Luke’s story about Jesus. It is, in a variety of ways, the hinge of the story, as it provides the pivot point between...

John 18:33-37 Dear Partner in Preaching, As I read the Gospel of John – and, indeed, all the Gospels – I am increasingly convinced that I have missed the more radical nature of the message of and about our Lord. Today’s reading offers a perfect example, as of late I’ve come to suspect that I have misread a key, and perhaps central, portion of it. Here’s the verse in question: “Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here’” (John 18:36). For most of my interpretive...