Dear ______: You make a good observation when you say “Half the battle is done if the point you make to the kids is rooted in a biblical text.” But at the risk of mixing my metaphors, any preacher who stops because half the battle is done will preach a sermon that is only half-baked. […]
Letters to a Young Pastor: The Children’s Sermon — Is it Yours?
Dear ______: My goodness, with the kids being out of school for summer the time gets swept away. Sorry to have not written for so long. You are kind to ask if there are other criteria for making sure your children’s sermon is on track. I mentioned checking what you prepare to make sure it […]
Monday Meditation: RCL Year B, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 6:1-13
This week’s text is one that always makes me smile. Mark 6:1-13 — Jesus Is Rejected in Nazareth In Mark 6:1-13, Jesus has come home for a visit, and when he teaches in the synagogue all his old family friends and neighbors are blown away. They just can’t believe that the kid they watched growing […]
Monday Meditation: RCL Year B, 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 4:26-34
I have come to dearly love the parables of the kingdom — all those rich metaphors for how God works in the world, in us, through us, and despite us. I love them even when, like this week, the lectionary wrenches them from their context. Mark 4:26-34 This week’s little parables come in Jesus’ sermon […]
Letters to a Young Pastor: The Children’s Sermon — Is it Gospel?
Dear ______: Thanks for asking me to clarify. I said something about how children’s sermons often reveal a preacher’s real theology, for good or for ill. I suspect it is because pastors do not think of the children’s sermon as a sermon. They think of it more as a conversation. If they have a warm, […]
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