Show me the money! Many of us probably remember that famous line from the movies, and it’s really apropos to our Gospel text today. Rev. Dr. Barbara Rossing, New Testament professor at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago points out that money is in many ways connected to power and influence in our […]
I invite you today to listen in on a one-sided conversation, like the reading of a letter from me to Matthew the Gospel writer… (This concept is a result of the fine work of the folks at Preachingpeace.com) Dear Matthew: What a difficult time you must have been experiencing – your community beginning […]
I want to do something different this week: I want you to turn to the text of our hymn of the day, The Church of Christ, in Every Age, by Fred Pratt Green, #729 in ELW, and I want to look at the text of this hymn together in the light of our readings today […]
Let’s be honest, from the start today, about ourselves and about what today’s lessons reveal about us. We humans expect fairness. We equate it with justice in terms of getting what we deserve – reward for doing what we ought, and punishment for doing things we ought not. It’s a very human thing. I mean, […]
What a strange story we read from Numbers 21 today. First of all, the people have been delivered from slavery, but they’re really unhappy. Repeatedly they ask to be returned to slavery, though they stop short of that here in this particular story. But still they complain that God and Moses have led them […]
As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live. Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth […]
I love Romans 12. I really do. I think it’s some of Paul’s best stuff. Through the first 11 chapters of Romans Paul has been telling us in all sorts of different ways what God is like, and what that means for us, and about what God has done in Christ, and about what that […]
Who do people say that the Son of Man is? There are lots of answers to that question, even as there were in Jesus’ own day. A couple years ago, now Assistant to the Bishop, then Pastor in Trenton, Aaron Richter, attending our Tuesday morning study group, talked about a conversation he had with a […]
On his deathbed, Martin Luther scribbled these words on a scrap of paper: We’re all mere beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. Dr. Beth Huwiler once preached on Mark’s version of our Gospel story for today at a seminary chapel service at LTSP. In the sermon, which I saw and read online […]
We pick up this morning where we left off last Sunday in Matthew’s Gospel. In case you weren’t here, here’s what’s going on: Jesus has found out that his cousin John the Baptist has been murdered by Herod, and he tries to get away from the crowd, by himself, presumably to pray and to mourn. […]