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When interpreting Acts, especially the speeches it contains, it is important to pay attention to how this peculiar book communicates its theological understanding of what’s going on in the post-Easter world.  That’s a big topic, (...)

This reading is designated for “Palm” Sunday.  But I feel the need to draw our attention to the elephant in the proverbial room: there are no palm branches in Luke’s Gospel. None. Not a single (...)

If anything, belief in Jesus’ resurrection should get us to see things differently. Based on what he says in Acts 10:34-43, what does Peter, a chosen witness to Jesus’ resurrection (verses 40-41), see differently? What (...)

Mark 11:1-11 depicts Jesus as a long-awaited king. It does this in both obvious and subtle ways, and with a heavy dose of tension and irony. It helps to recall that, for Mark, the very (...)

Some preachers avoid the e-word while others do not, yet we are all evangelists. We all long to proclaim Jesus in the most appealing terms possible. Few messages appeal more than the inclusive Jesus, the (...)

In Texas where I grew up we didn’t bother much with winter. The year’s seasons were early summer, hot summer, and late summer. Adapting to a northerly climate where winter gets its due—a full six (...)

The Passover story in Exodus 12 is a story of a new beginning.  Of course there are other beginnings in the Bible such as creation (Genesis 1), new life after the flood (Genesis 8), or (...)

“I am a servant.” – Larry Norman, 1976 This lectionary reading for Palm Sunday is the third of four servant songs in Second Isaiah (see also Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-6; 52:13-53:12), explicitly identified as Israel in (...)

As we near Holy Week, we arrive in Jerusalem with Jesus in the Gospel of John.  Jesus enters to much fanfare, with calls of “Hosanna” from Psalm 118 and a re-enactment of Zechariah 9:9 marking (...)

Reality bites.1 The book of Numbers from the Hebrew Bible is not well-represented in the lectionary; only three different texts (Numbers 6, 11, and 21) are included. Our text this morning could be preached in (...)