Tag: holy-spirit

  • Trinity Sunday, First Sunday after Pentecost, 15th June 2025

    St John 16: 12-15 The Spirit will guide you into the truth 16:12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever…

  • Preaching Paths 15 June 2025  Trinity Sunday, Year C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s brief gospel reading, John 16:12-15, powerfully conveys to the Church the promise that fuels its witness:  today, as from the beginning, the Father and Son continue to accompany, teach, and lead Jesus’ followers through the Holy Spirit. Preaching preparation can include reviewing chs 14-16. The Father…

  •  Preaching Paths 8 June 2025, Pentecost Sunday Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Acts 2:1-21 is just one of the possible readings on Pentecost, but it is offered in all three years of the lectionary cycle. After ten, twenty, or thirty Pentecosts, a preacher may be restless for new material. It’s tempting to set Acts 2 aside; we know that…

  • Day of Pentecost, 8th June 2025

    Acts 2:1-21 Filled with the Spirit 2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2:2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 2:3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among…

  • Preaching Paths (S. Brown) & Grammar (Y. Petropoulos), 25 May 2025 Eastertide 6C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary This week’s lection, John 14:23-29, is again taken from Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse,” in which he prepares his disciples for his imminent departure. Jesus speaks of three promises, or divine gifts, each as crucial for sustaining faith in our day as they were for the disciples. First, Jesus…

  • Preaching Paths 19 January 2025

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary To rightly interpret today’s text, attention to context, both cultural and literary, is essential. John 2:1-11 tells of a wedding at which Jesus, one of the guests, changes a large quantity of water into wine. If one works out the math, the supply can seem outrageously excessive—but…

  • 12th January 2025, Year C

    Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 The baptism of Jesus 3:15As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 3:16John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy…

  • Trinity Sunday, 26th May 2024

    Romans 8:12-178:12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh– 8:13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 8:14 For all who are led…

  • 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’…

  • Preaching Paths 19 May 2024 Pentecost Sunday

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Why, one might ask, would we preach from John when Luke’s dazzling Acts 2 account of the Spirit poured out is on the lectionary menu? We can preach from John without setting Acts aside.  A celebrative presentation of Acts 2:1-21 is fitting every Pentecost Sunday. Overlapping readings…