Tag: christianity

  • Preaching Paths 2 March 2025  Feast of the Transfiguration, Year C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary On Transfiguration Sundays, whatever Synoptic gospel is featured in that lectionary year, many congregations can predict what the preacher will say: “We can’t cling to our mountaintop experiences, trying (like Peter) to freeze-frame the glory; we must engage trouble  in the valleys.” It is a reliable approach,…

  • 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 16 February 2025, 6th Epiphany Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s gospel reading (Luke 6:17-26), the opening scene of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain,” includes beatitudes similar to those that open Matthew’s “Sermon on the Mount” (Mt 5:1-11). Yet, these texts are markedly different. In Matthew, Jesus’ beatitudes are in the third person plural, addressed to his…

  • 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany, 26th January 2025

    Luke 4:14-21 Jesus reads the prophet Isaiah 4:14Then Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding region. 4:15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 4:16When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to…

  • 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 5 January 2025  Second Sunday after Christmas Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Through Advent, Christmas Day, and the first Sunday of Christmastide, the preacher’s task has been to bring to life Luke’s intimate scenes, each presenting men and women inspired to prophetic song by the holy wonder of God’s gift of the divine child.  This week, we turn to…

  • Proper 29 (34), 24th November 2024

    John 18:33-37 The kingdom of Christ 18:33Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 18:34Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 18:35Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief…

  • 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,…