Sheep, Shepherds, or Both

The story in Mark 8:31-38 fascinates me because the disciples were, in one sense, so right, yet they were so wrong.  What we often forget is that there was good reason for the disciples to expect the Messiah to take over the throne of David immediately, to rescue their nation from the Romans, and to…

There are so many ideas that come from reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.  The worst is the notion that many foolish human notions are actually divine wisdom.  Paul doesn’t tell us any such thing.  Certainly human wisdom falls far short of God’s wisdom, and we may have some very foolish ideas that we mistake for wisdom,…

Read:  Mark 9:2-9 Reading the gospel lesson for today–and I’m writing this on Sunday morning before going to teach Sunday School–I was struck by the parallel to a question I commonly get from Bible study classes.  “Why can’t God just make it clearer, unmistakable?  Why all this variety and human stuff?” I can imagine the…

This week’s gospel reading is Matthew 25:31-46.  There will be plenty of sermons preached on serving one’s neighbor and how this is serving Christ himself.  There will also be quite a number preached on the judgment and how we will stand in it.  I have already written a bit about how the texts today would…

I talk about this quite a bit (here, for example), but I don’t think it can be emphasized enough.  It’s very difficult to get people to listen to your theology, your theories about how God works.  It’s much easier to get them to listen–and understand–when they hear your story. Psalm 107 from this week’s lectionary…