Category: Uncategorized

  • Preaching Paths 23 March 2025  Lent 3 Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The Gospel text for Lent 3, Luke 13:1-9, continues the apocalyptic tone of Jesus’ teachings in ch 12.  Four themes shape these verses: 1) the fragility of human life; 2) the imminent inbreaking of God’s reign; 3) the narrowing window of opportunity to take appropriate action (repentance);…

  • 16th  March 2025 , 2nd Sunday of Lent, Yr C

    Luke 13:31-35 A hen gathering her brood 13:31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 13:32He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third…

  • Preaching Paths 16 March 2025 Lent 2 Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s text, Luke 13:31-35, presents preachers with interpretative challenges. Luke joins two short scenes, each of them surprising. First, sympathetic (?) Pharisees warn Jesus that Herod plans to kill him; Jesus responds. Luke follows this scene with Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, which in Matthew occurs much later,…

  • 9th March 2025, Lent 1, Year C

    Luke 4: 1-13  The temptation of Jesus 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 4:2 where for forty days he was tested by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 4:3…

  • Preaching Paths 9 March 2025  Lent 1 Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Luke’s version of the wilderness temptations of Jesus (Lk 4:1-13) follows Mt closely, yet with variations. Luke brackets the wilderness experience with statements that Jesus is “full of [the] Holy Spirit” (vv 1, 14; the definite article is missing in the Greek text). While Mt tells us…

  • Transfiguration Sunday, 2nd March 2024

    Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a) Jesus is transfigured on the mountain 9:28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 9:29And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.…

  • Preaching Paths 2 March 2025  Feast of the Transfiguration, Year C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary On Transfiguration Sundays, whatever Synoptic gospel is featured in that lectionary year, many congregations can predict what the preacher will say: “We can’t cling to our mountaintop experiences, trying (like Peter) to freeze-frame the glory; we must engage trouble  in the valleys.” It is a reliable approach,…

  • Preaching Paths 23 February 2025 Epiphany 7, Year C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s text, Luke 6:27-38, begins with Jesus’ command, “Love your enemies.” Later, when Jesus teaches about love of neighbor, there will be questions; but apparently no one needed to ask, “Who is my enemy?”  Status-defining social, ethnic, religious, and economic divides and hierarchies set groups against one…

  • Year C, 16th February 2025, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany

    Year C, 16th February 2025, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany Luke 6:17-26 Blessings on the poor, woes on the rich 6:17He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.…

  • Preaching Paths 16 February 2025, 6th Epiphany Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s gospel reading (Luke 6:17-26), the opening scene of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain,” includes beatitudes similar to those that open Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Mt 5:1-11). Yet, these texts are markedly different. In Matthew, Jesus’ beatitudes are in the third person plural, addressed to his…