Category: Uncategorized

  • Preaching Paths 14 January 2024

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary This week the lectionary steps aside from Mark to take up John’s story of the gathering of Jesus’ first disciples (John 1:43-51). Preachers will need to get acquainted with the lection’s literary context. The Messianic “secret” is out, so to speak, in John. The opening verses  (1:1-18)…

  • Baptism of the Lord, 7th January, 2024 First Sunday after the Epiphany

    Mark 1:4-111:4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 1:5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 1:6 Now John was clothed…

  • Preaching Paths 7 January 2024 (Baptism of Our Lord)

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s gospel reading, Mark 1:4-11, includes verses (vv 4-8) already familiar to us from 10 December (Advent 2B). Now, these verses are connected with the brief, striking account of Jesus’ baptism (vv 9–11), clearly shifting our gaze from John to Jesus.  Jewish readers of Mark would recognize…

  • First Sunday after Christmas Day, 31st December, 2023

    Luke 2:22-402:22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 2:23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), 2:24 and they offered a sacrifice…

  • Preaching Paths  31 December 2023

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Luke 2:21-40 opens with a brief narration of four rites that Mary and Joseph undertake after Jesus’ birth, as required by Jewish law.  Jesus is circumcised on the eighth day, and he is publicly named “Jesus” (as Gabriel had instructed Mary). After forty days, Mary undergoes post-partum…

  • Fourth Sunday of Advent

    24th December 2023 Luke 1: 26-38 1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 1:27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 1:28 And he came to her and said,…

  • Preaching Paths 24 December 2023

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The visit of God’s heavenly emissary, Gabriel, to a young woman in insignificant Nazareth  (Luke1:26-38) is not Gabriel’s first birth-announcing errand in Luke. Some six months earlier, Gabriel visited the priest Zechariah to announce that his barren wife Elizabeth would give birth to a son, God’s appointed…

  • Third Sunday of Advent,17th December 2023

    N.B.  We have decided to focus this week on the Luke text suggested for Advent 3B as an alternative to the psalm, Luke 1:44b-55 (Mary’s Magnificat). The usual Gospel text for Advent 3B, John 1:6-8, 19-28, focuses, as did the Advent 2B text (Mark 1:1-8), on John the Baptist. Online resources for John 1 abound.…

  • Preaching Paths 17 December 2023

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary NOTE:  We have decided to focus this week on the Magnificat (Luke 1:44b-55), suggested for Advent 3B as an alternate to the psalm of the day. The usual Gospel text for Advent 3B (John 1:6-8, 19-28) focuses, as did last week’s text (Mark 1:1-8), on John the…

  • Second Sunday of Advent,10th December 2023

    Μark 1: 1-8 1:1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 1:2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 1:3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the…