Epiphany 4 B: First Things First

Dear Partner in Preaching, I suspect there are days when you wonder if what you do makes much of a difference. Days when you worry about attendance, struggle to find a Sunday School teacher, look ahead to the prospect of an uninspiring committee meeting, or wonder if any of the kids in confirmation even want to be there. Days that drain the body, wear on the spirit, and cause you to question, not so much your vocation in general, but the usefulness of it in particular. And then comes a passage like this one. A passage on an exorcism, of all things, using words like “rebuke” and “unclean spirit,” and you fear that if your people ever...