Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany (Year 1, NL)
31 results found.
Why is faith so difficult?
I am writing a sermon on Matthew 14: 22-33, the passage wherein Jesus invites Peter to get out of the boat and walk on the water with him…in the midst of a storm. Peter has always seemed to me to be the naïve, overeager, overachiever type.
Feed them: Matthew 14:13-21
How do you summon compassion when you’re depleted?
Reign of Christ Sunday (Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24; Psalm 95:1-7a; Matthew 25:31-46)
Does our discomfort over God’s judgment come from the fear of taking sides? Or the fear of being found on the wrong one?
Stepping out: Matthew 14:22-33
Matthew’s story of Jesus walking on the water with Peter can spawn bad theologies.
Big story: Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21
Paul claims that no one is “out”—neither the people of Israel for not accepting the Christian story nor the non-Jewish people for not being part of Israel’s story.
Spiritual snobs: Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; John 4:5-42
It is tempting to sit in judgment on others. Sometimes we do it in jest, as Mark Twain did when commenting on Adam. “Adam was but human—this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.” But sometimes the serpent eats us, and then we judge in earnest.
The shadow side: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Matthew 14:22-33
Fear rules the emotions of Joseph’s brothers and strikes the hearts of Jesus’ disciples.