Commentary posted on January 16, 2017

Epiphany 3A Sermon Commentary

 

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Matthew 4:12-23 Sermon Commentary

Epiphany 3A

We’ve come to call it “the Holy Land.”  From the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the country of Jordan in the east, from Syria in the north to the Sinai in the south, travel companies, tour groups, and tourists treat this piece of Middle Eastern real estate as a unity.  It’s where Jesus walked…

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Psalm 27:1, 4-9 Sermon Commentary

Epiphany 3A

It was Emily Dickinson who clearly enunciated one of the great principles of effective preaching: “Tell the truth, but tell it slant.”  Most everyone who hears your sermons already knows the truth.  Thus, you’ll have to find a new way to tell it so they will listen to the “old, old story.”  No, I didn’t…

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1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Sermon Commentary

Epiphany 3A

In the previous sermon commentary on the first 9 verses of 1 Corinthians 1, I riffed on Tom Long’s suggestion that Paul wrote those opening verses with tongue firmly embedded in cheek.  He praises the Corinthians for the very things Paul knows full well they were in deep trouble over.  He names as would-be compliments…

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Isaiah 9:1-4 Sermon Commentary

Epiphany 3A

In the northern hemisphere this time of year is characterized, in part, by darkness.  While daylight is already beginning to push that darkness farther and farther back, people sometimes think of January as one of the darkest and, as a result, bleakest seasons of the year. That’s part of what makes Isaiah 9 an appropriate…

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