Tag: christianity

  • Preaching Paths 6 September 2026

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s Gospel reading, Mt 18:15-20, is brief; yet its implications for the inter-relational life of Christians, assembling down the centuries for divine worship and public witness, has been profound. Jesus is not naïve; he anticipates that rifts and instances of personal failure among his disciples are inevitable.…

  • Preaching Paths 30 August 2026 Proper 17A

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Preachers should take care to read today’s gospel text, Mt 16:21-28, in close relation to last week’s lection (Mt 16:13-20), especially Peter’s confession and commissioning (vv. 15-19). Jesus predicts his suffering, sharply undercutting reigning notions of “messiahship” as the exercise of political or military power. Commentators note…

  • Preaching Paths 16 August 2026 Proper 15A

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita of Preaching and Worship                     In today’s text, Mt 15:21-28, Jesus and his disciples are traveling in the region of Tyre and Sidon, a locale populated by both Jewish and Canaanite villages. Suddenly, they are accosted by a persistent Canaanite woman making a public spectacle of herself for the best of…

  • Preaching Paths 2 August 2026 Proper 13A

    Sally A Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Matthew 14:13-21 presents Matthew’s version of the wilderness feeding of 5,000 men and unnumbered women and children, the only “mighty work” of Jesus found in all four Gospels. The context in which each evangelist sets this scene is significant. In Mt, it occurs immediately after Jesus and…

  • Preaching Paths 19 July 2026

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s gospel lesson (Mt 13:24-30, 36-47) presents the parable of the wheat and weeds and Jesus’ interpretation. The parable, unique to Matthew, trades in tropes familiar to Matthew’s audience: agricultural and eschatological imagery, and a stark divide between good and evil actors. Although such imagery is less…

  • Sunday, 19th July 2026 Proper 11 (16)

    Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 The parable of the weeds 13:24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, 13:25 but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. 13:26 So when the plants…

  • Sunday, 12th July 2026

    Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 The parable of the sower and the seed 13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 13:2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 13:3 And he told them…

  • Preaching Paths 12 July 2026

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The parable of the Sower and Soils (Mt 13: 1-9), coupled with its interpretation (Mt 13:18-23), is familiar to many congregations. One reliable approach to this parable has been to see the sower as Jesus, the seed as the gospel summons to trust and follow him, and…

  • Sunday, 5th July 2026

    Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 The yoke of discipleship 11:16 “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, 11:17 ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’ 11:18 “For John came neither eating nor…

  • Preaching Paths 5 July 2026, Proper 9

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s Gospel lection, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30, can seem an odd collection of rhetorically disparate fragments. A parable (vv.16-17), judgment in the form of an antimony (vv.18-19b), a proverb (v. 19c), a brief prayer (vv. 25-26), a chiastic theological self-identification (v.27) and a summons accompanied by promise (vv.…