Matthew 16:21-28 I surely cannot count the number of times I have preached on the words of Jesus words before us now — both as we hear them in Matthew and also in Mark’s Gospel. Given that this is so, why is it that now it is as though I am hearing them for the …
Month: August 2017
The Keys of the Kingdom: Opening Doors and the Gift of God that Heals
Matthew 16:13-20 It was more than a decade ago now — the day the moving truck came and unloaded almost everything I owned at the home that is still mine. My mother had driven over to help direct the movers, ensuring, at least, that boxes and furniture got deposited in the right rooms. It had …
Holy Surprise: Great Faith and the Canaanite Woman
Matthew 15: (10-20) 21-28 I can’t help but wonder if there is a more challenging Gospel reading than the one before us now. Indeed, is there a more unpleasant picture of Jesus than this one where his words compare a Canaanite woman and her tormented daughter to ‘dogs?’ If there is, I certainly cannot think …
Getting Out Of The Boat
Matthew 14:22-33 No doubt about it, the disciples are in trouble by the time we catch up to them in this piece of Matthew’s Gospel. While Jesus has been praying alone on that mountain they have found themselves on the Sea of Galilee in a boat that is ‘battered by the waves, far from the …