Matthew 4:12-23 Dear Partner in Preaching, This is the third time I am starting this letter to you. The first time I felt like it was going in the wrong direction after just a few paragraphs. The second time, even with more than 900 words, it just didn’t seem like it said much. And so I’m trying again. Some weeks it’s like that – you just have a hard time finding something to say and then another hard time saying it. You’ve been there, I’ve been there. It’s part of the call. And that’s what I want to focus on: the call. Except not just our call, but instead the call, God’s call, God’s call to each and every one of...

John 1:29-42 Dear Partner in Preaching, It all starts with a question and an invitation. Jesus’ ministry and mission in the Gospel of John, that is. And I find that both interesting and instructive. First the question. Jesus’ first words in John’s Gospel are not a sermon or an exorcism or the proclamation of the coming kingdom, as in other accounts, but rather a question. When disciples of John the Baptist come looking for him, he asks them, “What are you looking for?” The richness of this question in the original Greek bears notice, as the question could also have been translated, “What are you seeking?” or “What do you hope...

Matthew 3:13-17 Dear Partner in Preaching, In the summer of 1906, my great-grandfather, a pastor and professor of theology at Wittenberg Seminary, ventured east to look for a summer cottage. The cottage he bought, on Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, New York, has been in our family ever since and has served as a wonderful retreat for several generations of pastors and their families who otherwise would have had a hard time affording a summer getaway. The last name of my great-grandfather, and the majority of my aunts and uncles and cousins descended from him, is Gotwald, and as a kid I would go by that name, rather than my own, while at...

Matthew 2:13-23 Dear Partner in Preaching, Too soon. This reading, I mean. It comes too soon. We have, after all, just celebrated Christmas. If your Christmas Eve was anything like mine, it was filled with songs about the “holy infant so tender and mild” and the “little town of Bethlehem” that sheltered him. The story you heard was most likely Luke’s depiction of a young mother giving birth to her firstborn child and angels greeting shepherd with words of peace on earth and good will to all. It was, I’m sure, a beautiful and hope-filled evening and celebration. Which is what makes the transition to this harrowing reading from...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Beginnings are so very important. And while there are many, many ways to preach the wonderful and well known passages for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, this year I was struck by how the first verses of the narratives of both Luke and John set a helpful context in which we may hear the Christmas story and promise anew. Christmas Eve: Luke 2:1-20 Over the years you’ve probably had one or two parishioners who believed – and told you! – that the King James’ Version is the only “real” translation – “if it was good enough for the Apostles, it’s good enough for me!” While I don’t normally share...

Matthew 1:18-25 Dear Partner in Preaching, Do you sense some of the heartache in Matthew’s story about the nativity? If you didn’t catch it the first time you read or listened to the story, that’s understandable. It’s easy to miss. Part of reason is simply that Matthew’s depiction of Christ’s birth is so remarkably brief, contained in a half verse at the beginning of this passage – “Now the birth of Jesus took place in this way” (1:18) – and in the verse bookending it at the end – “but he had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus” (v. 25). Another reason it’s easy to miss...