Preachrblog

Matthew 21:23-32 “Jesus and the Jerusalem Authorities” If I were to write a ticket or arrest someone for speeding down Whitley Road, I would probably be arrested for impersonating a police officer, and rightfully so. I don’t have the authority to do such a thing.  If I were to walk into an operating room at Baylor Grapevine and perform a surgery, I could very well be charged with attempted homicide, and for good reason…I am not a physician. I don’t have that authority.  Or, if I were somehow able to sit behind the president’s desk in the oval office and make executive decisions, I would be promptly seized by secret service and escorted to jail. I don’t have that authority. The question of authority is worth asking, and worth knowing. And when Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  In today’s reading from Matthew 2...

"God's Strange Ways" Matthew 20:1-16 Today we hear God speaks to us through the prophet Isaiah:   My ways and thoughts are higher than yours, as much higher than the heavens are above the earth.   In a similar way, Paul says in the Epistle that his imprisonment has really served to advance the Gospel.   Well that’s strange.   When is prison ever a good thing?   When does a prisoner ever talk like this?   When his thoughts are shaped by God’s thoughts.   When God’s ways and thoughts are to take something evil and make it good (like Joseph being sold into slavery). God’s ways and thoughts are to take fishermen and make them apostles.   To take enemies and make them friends.   To take sinners and make them saints.   To take the things that are not, the things that are foolish and despised and make them the things that are, the things that are wise and glorious. So here, again in our Gospel reading, God’s strange ways are on displa...

Matthew 18:21-35 “How Much Forgiveness?” Last week I mentioned the preaching challenge of tying together a number of seemingly disconnected thoughts in the Gospel reading.   Today, in the same chapter, there is another preaching challenge.   This parable, called the parable of the Unmerciful Servant or the Unforgiving Servant – is a tough one.   And I’d like to take an unusual approach to this reading today and work backward. It’s tough, partly, because it ends on such a harsh note.   “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”   Those are tough words from Jesus.   For several reasons: It’s a threat of punishment for being unforgiving.   And we saints who are still sinners – don’t always forgive as we should.   This is some harsh law for us.   In the parable, it meant that the wicked servant was thrown into prison until he could pay his debt – which was really a life se...

  “How Serious Is Sin?” At first it may seem that this section of Matthew’s Gospel is a bit of a patchwork – 20 verses in four paragraphs – touching on different topics that seem to have little to do with each other.  Who’s the greatest?  Temptations to sin.  The Parable of the Lost Sheep.  And what to do if your brother sins against you.  I have to confess that as I studied this text I also grappled with which direction to take things this morning.  What, if anything, connects these thoughts? And the best I can say is this:  In each section here, Jesus teaches us to take seriously the problem of sin.   It’s a lesson we need to learn.  We live in a world that thinks about sin less and less.  Let alone the secular world – which by and large doesn’t consider sin to be a major problem.  For that matter we see churches that barely ever mention the word “sin”.  Instead they may talk about “mistakes” or even “poor ways of t...

“Taking Up Crosses..." Crosses hurt.   They are not pleasant.   You know, the Romans designed crucifixion to maximize pain and suffering.   We sometimes forget this.   We see crosses as decorative artwork to hang on the wall.   We might wear them as jewelry.   We have so many around us, perhaps they lose their sting. But it is a reminder of something very bitter. A cross is an instrument of death.   Jesus knows this, of course.   When Peter makes his great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, Jesus begins to explain what that means – the Christ is the one who will be dying.   He will suffer many things.   He will be killed. And on the third day he will rise.   Yes, I’m the Christ, Peter, but this is what being the Christ means. It means a cross. And then Jesus gets to something else unpleasant.   He says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” ...