Pentecost 16A: Promising an Open Future

Dear Partner in Preaching, Can I give you some advice? Clear some time on your calendar next week for additional pastoral conversations with people. Because this Gospel reading, with its tussle over authority and deceptively tame parable, has the potential to really stir things up in the life and identity of your people. On one important level, the topic at hand is authority, as the religious authorities challenge Jesus’ right to teach and preach, particularly in the Temple, and Jesus in turn reverses their challenge and ensnares them in their own trap. And certainly you could preach a whole sermon on the dramatic exchange here, how it...