Dear Partner in Preaching, Anyone else feeling rather pruned of late? Don’t get me wrong. I lead a blessed life with a wonderful family and job and friends, for all of which I am profoundly grateful. And yet… And yet there was another devastating earthquake, this time in Nepal, with so many dead and so many more left in dire circumstances. And we just passed the one-anniversary of the kidnapping of all those school girls in Nigeria by Boko Haram. And the 2016 – yes, 2016! – election campaign is already beginning and negative statements and ads are already flowing. And I heard from several friends recently who are dealing with pretty...

Dear Partner in Preaching, I have, as you likely have, preached more sermons on the tenth chapter of John than almost any other (except perhaps the story of Thomas!), as we read portions of it each year on “Good Shepherd” Sunday. That, I know, can make preaching this text challenging, as we wonder what new element might speak to us and our congregations. But every once in a while, something completely new jumps out of a familiar passage, grabs your attention, and makes you wonder why you hadn’t noticed it before. And that’s what happened this week. It may or may not be what focuses your work, but I offer it in the confidence that you...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Here’s my brief take this vignette from Luke’s larger narrative about the resurrection appearances of Jesus: if you don’t have serious doubts about the Easter story, you’re not paying attention. Seriously. I mean, just read the story. Actually, all of the stories. For while the four gospels have many interesting variations in their account of Jesus’ resurrection, they are absolutely consistent on one thing: no one believes the good news of Jesus’ resurrection when they first hear it. No one. And that includes Jesus’ own disciples, the ones who were closest to him and spent the most time with him. In...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Here’s my simple contention about this passage: Thomas is not so much a doubter as he is a realist. Think about it. Everything we know about Thomas up to this point suggests that he is forthright, genuine, and even courageous. Way back in chapter 11, for instance, Thomas is the one who urged the disciples to go with Jesus to raise Lazarus even thought it might spell their deaths (Jn. 11:16). And in chapter 14, when Thomas doesn’t understand Jesus’ metaphorical speech about the place he is going to, Thomas calls him on it: “Lord, we do not know where you are going, how then can we know the way.” Thomas, I...

Dear Partner in Preaching, I’ll be completely honest and just admit that I totally sympathize with the monks. The monks, that is, who just couldn’t believe that Mark really ended at verse 16:8a in such an awkward, unsatisfying, and distressingly incomplete way. Here’s what we know about this ending: Although there are numerous later manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel that have alternative and longer endings, all the earliest manuscripts end right here. Which means that this is most likely where Mark wanted his story to end, with a final sentence that is grammatically awkward, ending rather abruptly and with a preposition – an unusual...

Dear Partner in Preaching, Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to imagine a future all that different from the past? We somehow get stuck in patterns of behavior and eventually come to believe that our past performance isn’t simply a predictor of our future behavior but rather its guarantee. And so the older we grow the less open the future seems and more ominous the past looms in our lives. The key to all of this, recent psychological research tells us, is story. Because the past isn’t simply the past, it’s the interpreted past. The past, in short, is the story we’ve told ourselves about the past. Which is why two siblings can...