Lectionary 26 (B) — Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Mark 9:38–50 Before I begin, there are two details I need to address, that don’t fit in my sermon. The first is about cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye. Sometimes we try to soften Jesus’ hard sayings, and usually that’s a mistake. But this […]
Lectionary 25 (B) — Mark 9:30–37 I think one of the reasons I get along so well with children is that I’m still one of them. That seems like a bad thing; an adult, “entering” middle age, who hasn’t “grown up” yet. But that’s not what I mean. I pay my bills and have a […]
Lectionary 24 (B) — James 3:1–12, Mark 8:27–38 Our biggest problem is often a failure to communicate. For example, last week, I preached on James, and said that Martin Luther, who gave birth to Lutheranism 500 years ago, was wrong to reject the book. A few days later, I got an email suggesting that I […]
Lectionary 23 (B) — James 2:1–17 and, in a way, The Formula of Concord, Article IV When Martin Luther translated the Bible into German, he wanted to skip the book of James (though he couldn’t bring himself to do it, since it IS scripture, after all). He wrote that it could not have been written […]