Tag: bible

  • Preaching Paths 31 March 2024 Easter Yr B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Mark’s gospel ends with Easter morning (Mk 16:1-8). Three women carry burial spices to the tomb “early in the morning, when the sun had risen.” They are relieved, at first, when they see from a distance that the immense stone closing the tomb has been rolled aside. …

  • Preaching Paths 17 March 2024

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s gospel lection, John 12:20-33, forms part of the “bridge” in John between Jesus’ public ministry and his Passion (arrest, trial, crucifixion, resurrection).  In John, Jesus refers to this as his “glorification”—the revealing, through his dying, of the glory of the Father  (Jn 1:14, 18). John’s gospel…

  • 5th Sunday in Lent, 17th March 2024

    John 12:20-3312:20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 12:21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 12:22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 12:23 Jesus answered them,…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Genesis 32: 22-31:Jacob and the divine wrestler

      22 ᾿Αναστὰς δὲ τὴν νύκτα ἐκείνην ἔλαβε τὰς δύο γυναῖκας καὶ τὰς δύο παιδίσκας καὶ τὰ ἕνδεκα παιδία αὐτοῦ καὶ διέβη τὴν διάβασιν τοῦ ᾿Ιαβώκ· 23 καὶ ἔλαβεν αὐτοὺς καὶ διέβη τὸν χειμάρρουν καὶ διεβίβασε πάντα τὰ αὐτοῦ. 24 ὑπελείφθη δὲ ᾿Ιακὼβ μόνος, καὶ ἐπάλαιεν ἄνθρωπος μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ ἕως πρωΐ. 25 εἶδε δέ, ὅτι…