Luke 4:14-30 Dear Partner in Preaching, Okay, I actually started this Sunday evening and it’s coming through in drips and drabs. That tells me, among other things, it will be a little longer than usual. 🙂 So maybe diving it up a bit will help. First, when working with this passage three years ago, I referenced Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall.” At the time, the poet’s confession, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” helped me give voice to what I heard as Jesus’ proclamation that God has come to save all, even those we fear or despise, and that, in order to extend God’s love to all, God will not...

Luke 4:14-21 Dear Partner in Preaching, This week’s passage is only part-one in a two-part drama or, really, tragedy. The larger story presages the Passion, I think, as the crowds who are first so impressed by, and excited to hear, Jesus preach (this week), quickly turn on him and threaten to throw him off a cliff (next week). Chapters later, crowds will welcome him with equal measures of acclamation, admiration, and anticipation when Jesus enters Jerusalem, only to call for his execution days later. Which makes it a bit hard to preach this week’s story, as we know it’s only the first half of a larger narrative and that the...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Another wonderful week in the parish has left me with little time to write, so I will repost the piece I wrote 3 years ago. Given all the acrimony and accusation that colors our political discourse, increasingly free-floating anxiety fueled by very real concerns about the economy and environment (among other things), and a generally bleak news cycle, perhaps it will still be helpful, as I think that at this moment in particular it’s easy to forget that grace abounds, often in unlikely places, and that witnessing to it and sharing it with others still has the ability to transform lives. Blessings on your...

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 Dear Partner in Preaching, You may remember from a New Testament class in seminary that Jesus’ baptism – which we typically take for granted as part of the biblical story and, for that matter, the church year – was actually quite scandalous. You can appreciate the logic. If baptism is for the remission of sin… and we confess Jesus was sinless… then why was Jesus baptized? Or, worse, are we contradicting ourselves: is baptism not about forgiveness, or was Jesus not sinless? That ambivalence, combined with a similar ambivalence about the character of John the Baptist (he also had disciples and was a...

Matthew 2:1-12 (13-17) Dear Partner in Preaching, This isn’t the Christmas story most of us shared with the kids and grandkids in our lives. It’s not the Christmas story any of us read on Christmas Eve. And, truth be told, it’s not the Christmas story we like to remember. (And the lectionary, for some reason, spares us the worst part!) But it is in Scripture, and it’s important to take it seriously. Here are the troubling elements most briefly: An easily threatened and manipulative despot who turns to violence when thwarted; traveling and well-intentioned astrologers/seekers first duped, but then enlightened into...

Luke 3:7-18 Dear Partner in Preaching, To scold or not to scold, that is the question. At least that often seems to be the question many preachers ask themselves in Advent. Facing a Christmas celebration that is shaped at least as much by a consumption-driven culture as it is the nativity story, noting the painful disparity present in our communities between the “haves” and “have-nots,” and given just 10-15 minutes on Sunday morning to counter a 24/7barrage of ads that promote self-indulgence over sacrifice, we preachers feel a perhaps understandable tug toward not simply calling our people to resistance but also scolding...