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Only Two Ways
In an age of too-many options—too many cable channels, too many brands, too many things—I’m not sure we can believe there are really only two ways when it comes to life. Now I would be quick to add...
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In the Center
When we leave the world of right living in the first Psalm, where the wicked blow away like chaff but the righteous stand strong like a tree, we come to the disorienting world of the second psalm. Here...
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Who Do You Think You Are?
Psalms 8 begins and ends as a psalm of praise to God; however, in the middle there is a strange, unexpected shift—it is almost as if this psalm praises humanity. The moves of this psalm are easy to...
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The Final Word: Reflections on Hebrew 1.1-4
The letter to the Hebrews is unique among the documents in the New Testament. It begins like a sermon and ends like a letter. The writer says it is a “brief” “word of encouragement” (13:22) but it is...
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It’s All About Jesus (Hebrews 1.4-14)
My friend John Mooney once told the story about how he and his son would walk together playing a little word game. John would ask a series of questions to which the correct answer was “Jesus.” After a...
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Pay Careful Attention (Hebrews 2.1-4)
Some things require special levels of attention. For example, driving requires focused attention. Texting, talking on the cell phone, or even visiting with passengers can be deadly. The nature of...
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Bringing Many to Glory (Hebrews 2.5-18)
Long before verse numbers were added to the Bible, the Hebrews writer used a less than helpful method of citation: “…there is a place where someone has testified.” Some place in the Bible it says… This...
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The Truth about Mary Magdalene
I wish the movie, The Da Vinci Code, based on Dan Brown’s novel, motivated people to search their Bibles or even read some good sources on church history. Instead, many readers and viewers will...
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The Son’s House (Hebrews 3.1-6)
Some sermons require a lot of those who are listening. And so is the case with the sermon we call the Letter to the Hebrews. However, this sermon is worth the effort. So far the preacher has announced...
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Do it Today (Hebrews 3.7-4.13)
The recent movie Inception explored the possibility of having a dream within a dream. This engaging sci-fi thriller imagined going even deeper, as much as four levels deep. In the text covered today,...
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Jesus: The Sympathetic High Priest (Hebrews 4.14-5.10)
The emphasis of the preacher/author of Hebrews is hard to miss. In a word (or two): Hold on! Don’t give up! Hang in there! To encourage his congregation, the preacher of this ancient homily has...
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Arrested Development (Hebrews 5.11-6.12)
Beginning in Hebrews 5.11 and going through 10.25, we have what one commentator calls the “Difficult Discourse.” And it is rather difficult: in it, the author of Hebrews will call his readers “lazy,”...
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Jesus: A Different Kind of Priest (Hebrews 6.13-7.28)
The writer of Hebrews has a big problem. He needs to show how Jesus is our great high priest; however, everyone in his audience would know that high priests come only from the tribe of Levi. He finds a...
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The New Covenant (Hebrews 8.1-13)
When a writer takes a reader through a difficult discourse, it’s nice to have a summary every now and then. In Hebrews 8.1-2, we have just that: “ We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the...
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True Worship (Hebrews 9.1-28)
Chapters 9 and 10 of the Letter to the Hebrews require some effort on the part of the modern reader to grasp. In this article I hope to give such a reader some help. The basic structure of these two...
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Sacrifice of Praise (Hebrews 13.15-16)
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices...
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Sight Unseen (Hebrews 11)
A journey has a certain open-ended-ness to it. Those who set out on a journey usually have a certain destination in mind, yet there is also a level of uncertainty when it comes to getting there....
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When the Resurrection is Assumed (Hebrews)
The resurrection of Jesus is largely missing in Hebrews. Have you noticed? So how could a preacher so committed to making sure his listeners understand what Jesus did for them say nothing about Jesus’...
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How Well Do You Hear? (Mark 4.1-20)
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s...
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How Well Do You Hear? (Mark 4.21-34)
The need to listen well remains the focus of the rest of the parables in Mark 4. At the end of the interpretation of the Parable of the Soils, Jesus left us with four options: (1) we don’t get it; (2)...
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