Tag: kingdom of heaven
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Insight
Because I live with “a doctor in the family,” I have been on one side of a lot of medical conversations with family and friends of family over the years. Recently, there was a long conversation that went something like this: “It’s a serious disease.” “You don’t feel bad, because you’re used to living with…
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Reflecting on Matthew 11 7-19
We are studying Matthew 11:7-19 for Sunday, July 5. This is the first in a series of lessons on Jesus as a wisdom figure in the gospels. This one really just gives us a hint of that, in the final line of our focus text. [Some unfortunately long notes on the text are here.] Here…
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Studying Matthew 11 7-19
We are studying Matthew 11:7-19 for Sunday, July 5. This is the first in a series of four lessons that look at the way the gospels present Jesus as a wisdom figure. This week, we’re looking at a short, cryptic discourse on John the Baptist and his role in the kingdom of the heavens that…
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Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
It turned out to be a big theology day. In not-that-early Sunday school, as we were thinking about 1 Peter 1:13-25, we got all wrapped up in some of the big stories of the Bible, thanks to some concerns about blood and sacrifice (which seems coercive) vs. grace (which seems like a gift): the story…
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Matthew 4 12-22
We are studying Matthew 4:12-22 for Sunday, March 31. This text includes a prologue to Jesus’ ministry that presents Jesus as fulfilling a prophecy in Isaiah[*], and then tells the story of Jesus calling Simon [Peter], Andrew, James, and John. [Study notes on the text are here.] Here are a few questions we might want…
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Transfiguration
Everyone seemed tired today – but happy. The tiredness, and the happiness, would have been related to yesterday’s Cajun Dinner. The Cajun Dinner is an annual event: the Saturday night before Ash Wednesday, or, alternatively, the Saturday night before Mardi Gras. It takes place in the all-purpose room of the church, which one of the…
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Questions for Reflection and Discussion – Matthew 18 21-35
The Uniform Series text we’re studying for Sunday, July 1 is Matthew 18:21-35, the “parable of the unforgiving servant.” Here are some questions raised by the text that we might (or might not) find it useful to consider in class:
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Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[A sermon partly on Jeremiah 1:4-10, delivered at a small church in southern Indiana] We’re continuing to look at stories of God’s calling in the Bible; this is the prophet Jeremiah’s autobiographical account of his call, which came in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, in the late 7th century, and whose career…
Matters of Interpretation 