Writings and Sermons
With the pandemic and all the new important safety precautions, this Gospel really hit me differently this year. I’m now much more understanding of Peter. Also, wear a mask, distance, and wash your hands. I worked most closely with Matthew 16.21-28.
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I don’t know that I’ve ever preached on Shiphrah and Puah. But this year their refusal to go along with Pharoah’s death plan, their instance on doing the right thing in hard and dangerous circumstances, their bravery, seemed not only important, but like the first in the series of dominos. I could imagine Moses’s mother […]
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I love Peter trying and failing to walk on water. I do. But this year it wasn’t preaching for me. Instead I kept hearing this joke that’s sometimes funny and that I’ve never really liked. The work of holding it in conversation and prayer with this passage brought me to a question: Do I believe […]
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Today’s Gospel is the collection of all of the short parables from Matthew 13. I have never enjoyed preaching on these parables as much as this year. Because, after ten years of ordained life, I finally feel like I began to understand some of what Jesus is teaching in here. I worked most closely with […]
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St Paul can be a difficult theologian for me. His writings about women and leadership aside, I’ve often struggled when Paul veers into interpretations that have been harmfully used and contrary to historic understandings of Scripture. After this week, I think I need to trust Paul’s theological thinking more. I worked with Matthew 13.24-30 36-43, […]
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Even though this is the parable that Jesus explains, I love all the ways it remains open to interpretation. This year, especially with the lack of appropriate treatments and healthcare and social contact, the freedom the sower has to use so much seed was especially intriguing. Here’s what I said: I worked most closely with […]
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Every time I preach on this text, I can’t help but mention that Abraham laughed to. The laughter wasn’t about Sarah, it was about the promise God is continuing to make to them. I have laughed that sort of “stop kidding me” laughter at what God promises. I suspect that there is a lot of […]
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Jesus comes to his disciples and shows them his scars. Which isn’t our normal greeting. What do we learn from Jesus’s actions? I worked most closely with John 20.19-23 (link).
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Jesus prays that his followers may be one as he and the Father are one. Which I’ve always heard with a mournful tone as the Church is so often not one. Right now, as Churches are open so differently and we are learning new answers to the question of how we are a community, this […]
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Jesus offers his disciples the comfort of “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Which, as a person who sometimes struggles with following Jesus, doesn’t always sound comforting. How do we hear that in ways that help us navigate our world today? I worked most closely with John 14.15-21. You can find the […]
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