Tag: jesus

  • Preaching Paths 6 April 2025 Lent 6C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Anointing honored guests as a sign of hospitality and respect is found in ancient Egyptian and Greek sources, as well as the New Testament. Each of the four gospels includes a scene in which a woman anoints Jesus with scented oil at a dinner where he is…

  • 30th March 2025, 4th Sunday in Lent

    Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 The parable of the forgiving father 15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 15:3 So he told them this parable: 15:11b “There was a man…

  • Preaching Paths 30 March 2025 Lent 4 Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary In today’s reading (Luke 15:1-3,11b-32), Jesus responds to Pharisees who condemn his habit of sharing his table with notorious sinners and tax collectors. We focus today on what many know as the parable of the “Prodigal Son,” the third in a triad of parables about God’s concern…

  • Preaching Paths 23 March 2025  Lent 3 Yr C

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary The Gospel text for Lent 3, Luke 13:1-9, continues the apocalyptic tone of Jesus’ teachings in ch 12.  Four themes shape these verses: 1) the fragility of human life; 2) the imminent inbreaking of God’s reign; 3) the narrowing window of opportunity to take appropriate action (repentance);…

  • 16th  March 2025 , 2nd Sunday of Lent, Yr C

    Luke 13:31-35 A hen gathering her brood 13:31At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 13:32He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third…

  • 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…