Pentecost 19 C: Who is Your Widow?

Luke 18:1-8 Dear Partner in Preaching, Where has the persistent widow showed up in your life? Or, maybe better, who has been the persistent widow in your life? Perhaps it was an advocate for LGBT inclusion, motivated by the love of a gay son or daughter who is always pushing you to move your congregation to a more inclusive welcome sooner than you – charged with keeping the congregation together and therefore leery of divisive issues – were ready. Or maybe it’s the parent of a special-needs kid, asking – and, honestly, it probably feels more like demanding – more accommodation for his or her child than your congregation...

Pentecost 8 B: Two Stories, Two Truths

Mark 6:14-29 Dear Partner in Preaching, I’ll be honest, when this story comes along once every three years, my first response is to scratch my head in bewilderment. I mean, what is going on? Or, more particularly, what is going on with Mark? Usually the soul of brevity whose favorite word, if not middle name, is “immediately,” Mark luxuriates over this gruesome scene for sixteen whole verses – a veritable novella in relation to the rest of his Gospel! Not only that, but it is the only story Mark tells in which Jesus makes no appearance. And it’s told in flashback, the only time Mark employs this particular literary device. So,...

Statement Against White Supremacy

Dear friends, Like you, I have been shocked and saddened, grief-stricken and outraged, by the violence in Charlottesville and, increasingly, around our country and globe, the “normalization” of extreme and bigotted rhetoric, and the rise of neo-Nazism and white supremacy. Again like many of you, I have wondered how, beyond prayer and lament, to respond. Toward answering that question, I’ve put below a statement I’ve written with Prof. Rolf Jacobson, my former colleague at Luther Seminary and good friend. You can access and sign the actual petition by clicking on this link. It is addressed to Lutheran clergy not to...

Pentecost 22 C: The Beginning of Justice

Luke 18:1-8 Dear Partner in Preaching, So what is this parable about? I realize this isn’t the first time we’ve asked this question this fall, but I find this to be yet another rather vexing little story. In part, that’s because the “parable proper” seems to end one way, promising that God will indeed grant justice quickly to those who call out for it, while Luke introduces the story with another interpretive slant altogether, encouraging Jesus’ followers to pray always and not lose heart. Then again, perhaps the interpretive key falls right in the middle, as we are encouraged to beseech God day and night for justice and, indeed,...

Harlem Dec13

Harlem

The poem that has been coming to my mind most frequently of late is Langston Hughes’ “Harlem.” Its brief, spare construction holds so much emotion and describes in profound and simple ways the tumult after the grand jury decisions in Ferguson and Staten Island. Not everyone understands...