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Preaching Paths 10 March 2024
Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary John 3:16, nested in today’s text (John 3:14-21), is a verse recognizable even to non-Christians. This reference, and sometimes the entire verse, has been emblazoned on everything from placards held aloft in a football stadium to highway billboards and bumper stickers. Unfortunately, it has been reduced in…
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Preaching Paths 3 March 2024 (Lent 3B)
Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The violence of Jesus’ clearing of the Temple courtyard in today’s lection (John 2:13-22) can lure an unwary preacher into presenting a sermon with an anti-Semitic slant. It is crucial for preachers to make clear that John is a Jewish gospel. Jesus is a Jewish teacher and…
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Third Sunday in Lent, 3rd March, 2024
John 2:13-222:13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2:14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 2:15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the…
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Second Sunday in Lent, 25th February, 2024
Mark 8:31-388:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 8:32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.…
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Preaching Paths 25 February 2024
Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The gospel lection this week, Mk 8:31-38, falls into two sections. First, verses 31-33 bring to a head questions about Jesus’ identity and mission that have been intensifying since the middle of Mark’s first chapter. Verses 34-38 then spell out the costs of discipleship, reframed now by…
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First Sunday in Lent, 18th February 2024
Mark 1:9-151:9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 1:10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 1:11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are…
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Preaching Paths 18 February 2024
Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Most of the verses comprising today’s lection, Mark 1:9-15, are familiar. We’ve encountered vv.9-11, Jesus’ baptism and divine commission, on the Sunday of Baptism of Our Lord. John the Baptist’s arrest and the inauguration of Jesus’ preaching ministry were read on Epiphany 3B. Today’s new material, vv…
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Transfiguration Sunday, 11th February 2024 (Last Sunday before Lent)
Mark 9:2-99:2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 9:3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 9:4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses,…
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Preaching Paths 11 February 2024 Transfiguration Sunday
Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Mark’s gospel presents the ministry of Jesus as the pivotal event in a two-tiered struggle for the triumph of the reign of God, fought on both an earthly plane and a heavenly one. Mark presents Jesus confronting Satanic temptation and evil spirits long before he contends with…
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Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, 4th February 2024
Mark 1:29-391:29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 1:30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 1:31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever…
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 