Tag: jesus

  • Preaching Paths 16 March 2025 Lent 2 Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s text, Luke 13:31-35, presents preachers with interpretative challenges. Luke joins two short scenes, each of them surprising. First, sympathetic (?) Pharisees warn Jesus that Herod plans to kill him; Jesus responds. Luke follows this scene with Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, which in Matthew occurs much later,…

  • 9th March 2025, Lent 1, Year C

    Luke 4: 1-13  The temptation of Jesus 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 4:2 where for forty days he was tested by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 4:3…

  • Preaching Paths 9 March 2025  Lent 1 Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Luke’s version of the wilderness temptations of Jesus (Lk 4:1-13) follows Mt closely, yet with variations. Luke brackets the wilderness experience with statements that Jesus is “full of [the] Holy Spirit” (vv 1, 14; the definite article is missing in the Greek text). While Mt tells us…

  • 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…

  • Year C, 16th February 2025, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany

    Year C, 16th February 2025, 6th Sunday after the Epiphany Luke 6:17-26 Blessings on the poor, woes on the rich 6:17He came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon.…

  • 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…

  • Preaching Paths 9 February 2025

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Luke 5:1-11 describes what happened the day that Simon Peter, James, and John—the three disciples who became, ultimately, Jesus’ closest associates—left the fishing business to follow Jesus. Here again, Luke’s account differs from the accounts of both Matthew and Mark. For preachers, the most striking difference is…

  • 9th February 2025, 5th Sunday after the Epiphany

    St Luke 5: 1-11 Luke 5:1-11 Jesus calls the disciples to fish for people 5:1Once while Jesus was standing beside the Lake of Gennesaret and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 5:2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gotten out of…

  • 2nd February 2025, 4th Sunday after Epiphany

    Luke 4:21-30 The prophet Jesus not accepted 4:21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 4:22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 4:23He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote…