Paul takes much of the first chapter of Romans to articulate the trouble: it’s a big trouble and deeply troubling. It has caused all of us all kinds of trouble. …
We’re hearing hard things. Paul is explaining the meaning of what we can see everyday but perhaps not quite understand. It ought to be comprehensible. Some find it very difficult…
Which of them would be the greatest. I don’t even know where to begin. Maybe at your high school graduation, there wasn’t any category, Most Likely to Succeed, but everybody…
Jesus is back from the wilderness, tested, steeled with the Spirit, with purpose, devotion, zeal, focus. People notice. People gather. So many bump through life wishy-washy, pale, bruised. Oh, why…
Prestige, status, honor, respect, deference—marks of power and authority. The authority comes by virtue of the office, the position. We tend to show respect and deference to a police officer…
You’d think, after what had happened there just the day before, the Temple officials would be on the lookout to bar Jesus from the Temple: strict orders to the gatekeepers. …
Over these several weeks since the end of the Christmas season, we’ve been exploring the first part of what Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth. That was an exciting…
We’ve been reading our way through 1 Timothy. Timothy was in Ephesus, trying to get some things straightened out in the church there. If we think of Ephesus at all,…
Until today, I’ve never preached on the Song of Solomon. I remember hearing only two sermons on this love song, only one of which was in church. That was nearly…
I’ve spoken of purification, obedience, and rejecting the world. We reject the world when we say Yes to Christ and No to the panorama of alluring sins in vogue…