The Pharisees were at it again, plotting to get Jesus tangled up in His own words. They were looking for what Sarah Palin called a “gotcha”. Get Jesus to say something that could be used against him. A sound byte. Slip of the tongue. Get Him to take sides in…
Sometimes you need to lose your religion in order to gain Christ. It sounds strange, I know, but it’s true. Sometimes you have to lose your religion, your view of God, the world, you. Sometimes you have to drop dead to all your preconceptions and funny notions of how God should be…
By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you that authority? Those are the questions on the table in this morning’s Gospel reading. Jesus is challenged by the temple authorities - the chief priests and the elders, the guardians of the religious institution and theological status quo. Who did…
You’re probably not going to like this parable. There. You’ve been warned in advance. This isn’t going to be one of those sermons you want to send off to the relatives. This one’s kind of embarrassing. Best keep it “in-house” so to speak. You won’t like this parable…
“Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” There’s a great question. There has to be limit, doesn’t there? The line in the sand. The point beyond which you will not go, and be justified in it. Yes, Jesus taught His disciples to pray as…
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God. (Romans 13:1)
We are talking about “life as liturgy”, today from Romans chapter 13. Your life is a priestly liturgy as you, a baptized priest to God offer your own body as a living…
At first, it would appear that we’ve been dealt a weird hand by the folks who assembled the lectionary for this Sunday. We get part of Romans 11 tacked on to part of Romans 12. The part that begins with “Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” and…
She was desperate. You could see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice. The urgency, the fear verging on panic, the despair. Her little girl was suffering from demon possession. We don’t know more than that. How long had it been? What were the symptoms? But our…
We’re pressing on with Romans chapter 10 this morning. Last week, we heard Paul speak of his passionate desire that his fellow Israelites, the blood descendants of Abraham, would turn from the religion based on commandment-keeping to the true righteousness of God that comes through faith in Christ. In fact, this is the…
So what about those Israelites, the blood descendants of Abraham, God’s chosen people? What went wrong? If the Gospel is the power to save, why didn’t they believe? Why did they reject their own Messiah? They had it all: adoption as sons, the divine glory, the covenants, the Torah, the…