Preaching Moment 284: Thomas Long on Preaching Matthew



Tom Long offers tips for preaching Matthew, the featured gospel in Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary.

The structure of the Gospel of Matthew, according to Long, “is a rhythm between teaching and action, so, Jesus teaches and then there’s ethics or a kind of deepening of the teaching … I think that’s kind of instructive about preaching today. People need teaching, but then they need the ethics of the narrative to go along with that.”

He also points out that in Matthew, the disciples actually understand Jesus’ teaching whereas in Mark they don’t. “Matthew becomes a reminder to us that one of the goals of the Christian life is ethically alert, intelligently informed discipleship — know-nothing Christianity is out in the Gospel of Matthew,” said Long.