Tag: faith

  • Preaching Paths 26 May 2024 TRINITY Year B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary On occasion, preachers find themselves taking issue with editorial divisions of a biblical text, as I do with our chosen text for Trinity Sunday Year B, Romans 8:12-17. Commentators express consternation at the “awkward transition” from v 13 to v 14, yet take for granted the editors’…

  • Fifth Sunday of Easter & Sixth Sunday of Easter, 28th April & 5th May 2024

    John 15:1-1715:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 15:2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 15:3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 15:4 Abide in…

  • Preaching Paths 21 April 2024 Easter 4B

    Sally A. Brown,  Professor Emerita,  Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s lection, John 10:11-16, presents metaphors familiar to many since childhood. Jesus identifies himself as “the gate” of the sheepfold and the “good shepherd” of the sheep. Most of us have heard (or preached!)  feel-good sermons that romanticize this text as a pastoral “love song” of the…

  • Third Sunday of Easter,14th April 2024

    Acts 3:12-193:12 When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 3:13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of…

  • Preaching Paths 14 April 2024 Easter 3B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary We shall focus this week on the First Reading, Acts 3:12-19 (20-21), Peter’s second sermon in Acts. Texts from the Acts of the Apostles stand in for OT readings in Eastertide. They present key events in the emerging community of Jews—and later, Gentiles—who affirmed Jesus’ resurrection and…

  • Second Sunday of Easter, 7th April 2024

    John 20:19-3120:19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands…

  • Preaching Paths 7 April 2024 Eastertide 2B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary John’s gospel reports four post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples. Mary is the first to meet the risen Lord; she does not know him until he speaks her name. The fourth appearance is on the lakeshore, where some disciples have been fishing (Jn 21). The second…

  • Resurrection of the Lord, 31st March, 2024, Easter Day

    Mark 16:1-816:1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 16:2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 16:3 They had been saying to one…

  • Liturgy of the Palms, 24th March 2024

    Mark 11:1-1111:1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 11:2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and…

  • 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…