Tag: bible

  • Preaching Paths 27 July 2025 Luke 11:1-13, Proper 12C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s Gospel text (Luke 11:1-13) includes Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. It is quite brief; when Jesus’ disciples request that he teach them to pray, he offers just four concise petitions. Phrasing  found in Matthew’s version is missing here (“Our;” “who art in heaven,” “Thy will…

  • 13th April 2025, Liturgy of the Palms

    Luke 19:28-40 Entrance into the final days 19:28After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 19:29When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 19:30saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it…

  • Preaching Paths 6 April 2025 Lent 6C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Anointing honored guests as a sign of hospitality and respect is found in ancient Egyptian and Greek sources, as well as the New Testament. Each of the four gospels includes a scene in which a woman anoints Jesus with scented oil at a dinner where he is…

  • 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…

  • Preaching Paths 26 January 2025

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Jesus announces the scope and purpose of his mission in today’s reading (Luke 4:14-21). “Filled with the power of the Spirit” and “praised by everyone” (vv 14-15), he arrives in Nazareth with his Galilean teaching tour already well under way. On the Sabbath, Jesus goes to the…

  • Preaching Paths 24 November 2024, Feast of Christ the King, Year B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary On this final Sunday of the Year B lectionary cycle, the Feast of Christ the King, we turn to John for the gospel text, John 18:33-37. Before us is the second of seven short scenes that make up a brief, but intense and decisive drama in John’s…

  • Preaching Paths 29 September2024

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Mark scholars agree: today’s gospel lection, Mark 9:38-50, presents interpretive challenges.* John’s question about an “unauthorized” exorcist, as well as Jesus’ reply, seem at first glance far removed from our experience; yet they prompt us to think more deeply about the freedom of God’s liberating power to…

  • Proper 20 (25), 22nd September 2024

    St Mark 9:30-37 Prediction of the Passion 9:30They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it, 9:31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed,…

  • Preaching Paths 14 July 2024 Proper 10B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s Gospel reading, Mark 6:14-29, opens with a report of various speculations about Jesus’ identity (vv 14-16). The dramatic, skillfully crafted story of the execution of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas functions as “back-story,” explaining Antipas’s belief that Jesus is John the Baptist come back to…

  • Preaching Paths 7 July 2024 Proper 9B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Mark sets two closely related pericopes side by side in Mark 6:1-13. Both stories advance a now-familiar theme: those who share news of the reign of God, in word or deed, should be prepared to face opposition or downright rejection. Jesus did, even in his own hometown.…