Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. –Matthew 5:3 One of the common beginnings in homiletics is for the preacher to begin with some kind of invitational device to pull her/his listeners into the sermon. Oftentimes it is a joke or a humorous story that creates some kind of…
An Introduction One of the curious ironies of preaching is that what a preacher says and what members of the congregation hear are sometimes different things. The prism of context can change the shape and sometimes the meaning of what is preached. A marvelous example of that comes from a satire created by the Monty…
Staying in Touch with God and Each Other During this Imposed Interim “Grace and peace” are words that Paul often employed when writing his scattered flock, and they seem so appropriate today because we are indeed a “scattered flock.” The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused major changes in the ways we go about our normal…