Sermons

‘Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was

Matthew 23:1-12 In Matthew’s gospel these words are spoken on the day after Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem (our Palm Sunday story) thus Jesus is speaking of humility having just exemplified it. His three parallel prohibitions against giving sovereignty to anyone than God (you have one

The Greatest Commandment When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your

Matthew 22:15-22, New Revised Standard Version This passage records the first of three debates between Jesus and religious leaders. Jesus eludes their plot to entrap him, and instead astounds them with his clever, profound response. Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he

Jesus replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” ~ Luke 11:28

In Matthew we have yet again another kingdom of God parable. To capture the dynamism of the original Greek, the theologian Karl Barth translated the Greek word, “basileia,” often translated as “kingdom” or “reign” for kingdom, as “revolution.” He thought “the revolution of God” better captured