Sermons (Page 78)
Feast of Mary Magdalene
An ancient rumor has it that she was a prostitute. A medieval rumor says that she was Jesus’s concubine. A twentieth century rumor notes that she conceived Jesus’s child. Rumors, imaginative history, and slanderous stories have veiled the image of Mary Magdalene for thousands of years. Yet, as professor Chilton puts it, “history reveals a stronger Mary Magdalene than the predominately male projections that have reigned from the time of Jesus’ critics to her sexualized portraits in New Age fantasies.” And, this all makes me wonder: how did we get here? How did we take a beloved disciple and apostle and turn her life and witness into a sexualized story of slander…
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
When I came to United States for the first time in 2016, my advisor invited me for lunch and we went to a restaurant. I saw the menu card and I absolutely had no idea what I wanted to eat. There were so many choices, but still I was not able to choose because I was not aware of any of those. However, if I go to an Indian restaurant, even though I haven’t tasted all the dishes in that particular restaurant, I am quite confident in what I want to eat…
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
There’s a class in seminary called “homiletics.” It’s a fancy term for the exploration of the art of preaching and writing sermons. As a pastor, one of the more common questions I am asked is how I can come up with something to say every single week. While I sometimes explain this whole sermon thing as a weekly TED Talk of sorts, the homiletician, or the one who prepares to preach, always begins with the Scriptures and then lets the Scripture speak to the context…