Tag: grace
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On Knowing What Good Is
Substance of a sermon based on Isaiah 55, preached at a small church in Southern Indiana on the Third Sunday in Lent, 2022 At first, this beautiful passage from the book of Isaiah might seem out of place in the very middle, the third Sunday in Lent. It’s awfully happy, for Lent. Yes, there are […]
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Studying Romans 10 5-17
What is at stake for Paul, and for us, in Romans 10:5-17, the text we are studying for Sunday, August 1? In line with the summer’s overarching theme of “confident hope,” we could say it’s Paul’s hope for the salvation of Israel, which is the explicit concern of Romans 9-11. But upon reflection, we could […]
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Reflecting on Romans 5 1-11
Can we see how Romans 5:1-11 supports “confident hope”? “Confident hope” is allegedly the stated theme of all the texts we are studying this quarter, but Romans 5:1-11 really brings that theme into focus. [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are a few more questions about the text we might want to think […]
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Studying Romans 5 1-11
Maybe if more people knew how precious they are to God, people would be happier, and the world would be different. We are studying Romans 5:1-11 for Sunday, July 25, and I hope it will be impossible for any of us to read this text without coming away with an even deeper sense than we […]
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Experiencing Grace
Grace is all around us, all the time; we could experience it more often, if we got in the habit of noticing that. A sermon – text Luke 17:11-19 – from the Corydon Presbyterian Church yesterday. Luke’s story of Jesus healing 10 lepers is probably well known to us from stewardship seasons past. Because […]
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Studying Leviticus 19 18, Luke 10 25-37
We are studying Leviticus 19:18 and Luke 10:25-37 for Sunday, October 20. This is the instruction in the Torah to “love your neighbor as yourself,” and the commentary on that instruction provided by Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan, as told by Luke. [Some questions on the text are here.] Here are a […]
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Reflecting on Luke 6 27-36
We are studying Luke 6:27-36 for Sunday, October 11. This is a portion of a longer teaching text in Luke’s gospel that has come to be known as the “Sermon on the Plain.” [Some notes on the text are here.] Here are some questions we might want to consider or perhaps discuss in class: Jesus […]
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Studying Luke 6 27-36
We are studying Luke 6:27-36 for Sunday, October 11. This is a short section in Luke’s parallel to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, sometimes known as the “Sermon on the Plain.” Here are some notes on this text: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT: Our text is from the gospel of Luke, so we’ll want to remind ourselves […]
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Noticing Grace
The parable of the laborers in the vineyard was the gospel for last Sunday. We could think of it as being about egalitarianism, and the source of opposition to it: the laborers who get hired early in the day feel aggrieved, because they feel they deserve more than the latecomers. “It’s not fair.” The loafers […]
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Second Sunday After Epiphany
Today was one of those days when a lot of ideas come together. And probably suggest some things I need to do about them … First, we ended up going overtime in the not-that-early class, because of talking about the timeline of ancient Israelite history and its relationship to 1 Kings and the likely time […]
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Study Notes – Luke 7 37-48
We are studying Luke 7:37-48 for Sunday, October 27 – we may know it as the story of “a sinful woman forgiven” (NRSV) or “Jesus anointed by a sinful woman” (NIV) or some similar heading in our Bible. We will be having class as usual, as much as we can on the day that is […]
Matters of Interpretation 