Today in the Spirit

The Gospel of Matthew sets up the narrative of our Lord’s final week in Jerusalem before the Last Supper as a one-two strike: first, a prolonged, direct attack on the hypocrisy of the religious leaders in Jerusalem (21:23–23:36); then, a set of urgent exhortations directed to his disciples for perseverance in the faith and to…

The intensity level of the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders of Jerusalem reaches its highest pitch in the last days before our Lord’s death. At Proper 22A, the church assigns the second of three parables in Matthew addressed to the priests and elders of the city.  Spoken right after the parable of the…

With the assigned readings in Proper 21A, the church takes us forward in Matthew to Jesus’ teaching in the temple after his final entry into Jerusalem.  The Gospel reading out of Matthew 21:28-32 is the parable of the two sons. Our Lord’s main purpose in giving this parable (found only in Matthew) is to illustrate…

In our year-long meditation from Matthew on the revelation of Jesus, the church now moves us forward to a point just before our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  The assigned Gospel reading is Matthew 20:1-16. Only Matthew contains the parable of the workers in the vineyard, which Jesus delivered to the disciples after teaching them…

With the Bible readings assigned for Proper 19A, the theme of our worship this week is repentance and forgiveness in the believing community. The passages hold out both the prospects of abundant reward from God where forgiveness exists and the deadly consequences where it does not.  In the Gospel reading from Matthew 18:21-35, we hear…

Following Matthew’s sequence of events, our Lord now returns to home base in Capernaum for a brief time before setting out for Judea and Jerusalem. In our worship, we come to the fourth major teaching discourse of Jesus in Matthew (18:1-35), this one directed to his disciples alone and centered on themes of humility toward…

At Proper 17A, we come to Jesus’ first prediction in Matthew of his crucifixion and resurrection, followed by the signature messianic teaching, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”   In Matthew, Mark and Luke (the Synoptic Gospels) there are as many as three…

Following the Gospel of Matthew in Year A, this week in our worship we contemplate another recorded incident of Jesus and his disciples while north of the Sea of Galilee; this time in the district of Caesarea Philippi, an important city in the region governed by Philip, the son of Herod, and a center of…

At this point in our walk with Jesus in the Season After Pentecost Year A, we are approaching the end of his ministry in the north (mainly Galilee) before he journeys south to Jerusalem and the cross.  The assigned Gospel reading out of Matthew 15:21-28 is the narrative account of Jesus’ encounter with a Canaanite…

This week we continue walking with Jesus on the move in his ministry, now coming to Matthew’s account of the miracle of his walking on water. At mid-Pentecost in both Year A and Year B, the church assigns this Gospel reading to follow that of the feeding of the five thousand, “immediately” just as it…

At Proper 13A, following the Gospel of Matthew, we return to the trail of our Lord’s itinerant ministry in Galilee. The assigned Gospel reading is Matthew 14:13-21. Over the course of the three-year cycle, we hear the account of the feeding of the five thousand three times on a Sunday–once here, twice in Year B…

This week the church will have us finish overhearing the remaining parables in Jesus’ third major teaching discourse in the Gospel of Matthew. The themes of growth, value, and abundance in the revelation of the kingdom of God continue to be front and center in our Lord’s teaching.  The Gospel reading from Matthew 13:31-33,44-50 covers…