Tag: gospel-of-st-john

  • 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…

  • 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 28 July 2024 Proper 12B

    Preaching Paths 28 July 2024  Proper 12B Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The two miracle stories that comprise today’s gospel reading, John 6:1-21, were of utmost importance to early Christians. All three Synoptics have some version of the feeding of the multitude; all but Luke include the story of Jesus walking toward…

  • Preaching Paths 12 May 2024 Easter 7B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The Gospel reading today, John 17:6-19, is the middle section of Jesus’ intercessory prayer, the final chapter of the “Farewell Discourses” (John 13-17). Here, the one who is God’s Word embodied in the world communes with the divine Source, the one he calls “Father,” about his mission…

  • Preaching Paths 28 April 2024 Easter 5B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The metaphor of the vine, its gardener,  and its branches is a familiar one (John 15:1-8).  Jesus clearly alludes to OT passages that envision Israel as God’s vine (sometimes lamentably fruitless). The text opens with the last of the “I am” statements (with predicate nominative) in John,…

  • Fourth Sunday of Easter, 21st April 2024

    John 10:11-1810:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 10:12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away–and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 10:13 The hired hand runs…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…