Tag: advent

  • Preaching Paths 1 December 2024  Advent 1 Year C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Advent opens every year, not with choirs of angels, but with some version of what is known as the “Synoptic apocalypse,” found in Mt 24, Mk 13, and Luke 21. In these parallel texts, Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem, including its magnificent Temple. He foretells persecution…

  • 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…

  • 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…