Remembering 9/11 – Lost and Found

The fifteen year anniversary of 9/11 causes me to remember how I was a young pastor that struggled to find words to place this attack into any sort of narrative that made sense to me. I was in the third month of being the new pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in Niagara Falls, New York....

Day 3 Preaching the Parables

Understanding the context of the writing of Matthew has caused scholars to imagine that he is writing in Antioch Syria and is writing in the midst of the tension between Judaism and the developing Christian community. Four Puzzles about Mt that keep scholars up late at night! 1) Social circumstances that Matthew was written towards?...

Day 2 Preaching the Parables

The structure of this class on days 2, 3 and 4 is for a lecture on the context of each gospel and how the shape and purpose of each gospel influences the interpretation of the parables. In the second part of the class there is a presentation of a parable by a student and then...

Day 1 Preaching the Parables

This week I am taking a class with Thomas Long, a well known preacher and teacher. This class is called “Preaching the Parables” and so, surprise, we are talking about the parables of the New Testament. Here are some thoughts after the first day of class…. Based on the readings we had to do to...

Thesis Proposal Turned–First Draft

I turned in on Monday evening my first draft of my thesis proposal. This proposal has sections in it that provide me an opportunity to demonstrate to my advisor that I do have a thesis worth completing. TitleState the QuestionJustification/RationaleBiblical/Theological FrameworkLiterature ReviewMethod of ResearchBibliography My working title is “Catechetical Preaching as Purposeful Piece of a...

Preaching from the Gospels in the New Year

In 2012 I will plan to preach more often on the gospel readings of the lectionary. I want to be able to teach the doctrines of the Christian Faith through sharing the life of Christ. I remember a classmate of mine from the seminary, Jeremy Gorline, said he spent one year just preaching from the...

Interpretating and Preaching New Testament Narratives – Day 2

Today all seven us preached sermons on narratives from the New Testament. I love to be edified by God's Word, but still tough day. I did find some good sermon moves that I look forward to incorporating into my preaching. But still seven sermons was hard, even though one of them was mine. I did...

Preaching as the Proclaimed Word–Day 3

Today in the morning we talked about MLK Jr. and the famous speech, “I Have a Dream.” We prepared for this discussion by reading Richard Lischer’s outstanding book, The Preacher King. The use of set pieces that are repeated by the preacher is present in the African-American preaching context and I think it could be...