Matthew 1:18-25 Dear Partner in Preaching, Do you sense some of the heartache in Matthew’s story about the nativity? If you didn’t catch it the first time you read or listened to the story, that’s understandable. It’s easy to miss. Part of reason is simply that Matthew’s depiction of Christ’s birth is so remarkably brief, contained in a half verse at the beginning of this passage – “Now the birth of Jesus took place in this way” (1:18) – and in the verse bookending it at the end – “but he had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus” (v. 25). Another reason it’s easy to miss...

Matthew 11:2-11 Dear Partner in Preaching, It’s quite a change, isn’t it? I mean, last Sunday’s gospel reading all but brimmed over with John the Baptist’s confidence and his clear and compelling call for repentance. Yet John’s tune changes markedly in the reading we will be preaching this Sunday. Now, sitting alone in a dark and dank cell, John questions his earlier confidence and perhaps his very mission and identity, and so sends a disciple to go and ask Jesus a poignant, even heartbreaking question: are you really the one who is to come, or should we look for another? The movement from last week’s reading to this one is both...

Matthew 3:1-12, Isaiah 11:1-10 Dear Partner in Preaching, What do you think: Is there any chance we can reclaim the value of the word “repentance” this Advent? Or, for that matter, Advent itself? Here’s why I ask. I’m guessing that most of our folks assume repentance means saying you’re sorry. Or better, that you’re really, really sorry and will never do it – whatever “it” is – again. And, sure, that’s a part of repentance but, honestly, a pretty small part. As you know, the heart of the word repentance means turning around, starting over, taking another direction, choosing another course. All of those actions by their...

Matthew 24:36-44 Dear Partner in Preaching, I am writing this letter to you on the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day. In a few hours, stores will open and people will flock to cash in on Black Friday deals. It used to be that Black Friday started on, well, Friday, but as you likely know those shopping “opportunities” have slowly but surely crept back into the wee hours of Friday morning, then to midnight, and most recently into the evening of Thanksgiving Day itself. On the whole, we seem to have a very hard time waiting for things. So did the early Christians to whom Matthew was writing. Keep in mind that Matthew likely writes in the early...

Luke 23:33-43 Dear Partner in Preaching, “What kind of king do you want?” In one sense, this is the question Jesus put before those crucify him. Keep in mind that just days earlier the crowds of Jerusalem had greeted Jesus as their king, rolling out the “red carpet” as it were by spreading their cloaks on the road, and receiving him as the one sent by the Lord (Luke 19:36-40). And now he is rejected, derided by the leaders of the people, then the soldiers, and even one of the criminals next to them. They mock his titles, asking why, if he is Messiah, chosen One, and King, he does not save himself. “What kind of king do you want?”...

Luke 21:5-9 Dear Partner in Preaching, Want to shake things up a little bit this Sunday and invite a fresh hearing of an extremely challenging Gospel reading? Then move the hymn of the day to before the sermon and sing “Joy to the World.” Now, I suspect I know what you’re thinking: why would we sing a Christmas carol in mid November? The truth is, however, that “Joy to the World” wasn’t originally composed for Christmas but was part of hymn writer Isaac Watts’ attempt to translate, and set to new music, the Psalms for Christian worship. Watts’ inspiration for this hymn was Psalm 98, the Psalm appointed for this day....