All Posts for July, 2007

Blogging Toward Sunday

Blogging toward Sunday

Hosea 11:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

Jul 30, 2007 by William H. Willimon

As a woman was leaving church, she whispered to her pastor, “Do you have some time for me to talk with you about a matter of concern?”

“What’s the problem?” he asked abruptly.

Blogging Toward Sunday

Blogging toward Sunday

Hosea 1:2-10; Luke 11:1-13

Jul 23, 2007 by William H. Willimon

Jesus was praying one day when his disciples interrupted him, begging, “Teach us to pray like John taught his disciples.”

Jesus graciously obliged them, giving them a succinct prayer. “When you pray, do it like this….”

Blogging Toward Sunday

Blogging toward Sunday

Amos 8:1-12; Luke 10:38-42

Jul 16, 2007 by William H. Willimon

The gospel gets domestic as Jesus—who is homeless, without a job, traveling from place to place, and looking for a free meal—intrudes into the home of two unmarried women.

Blogging Toward Sunday

Blogging toward Sunday

Isaiah 5:1-7; Hebrews 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56

Jul 13, 2007 by Jo Bailey Wells

I was teaching a class on Isaiah and we had reached chapter 40,”Every valley shall be exalted.” A student piped up, “So Isaiah borrowed these words from Handel?” He was reading the Old Testament in the light of “new” history. In Isaiah I find it hard not to read the Old Testament in the light of the new—the New Testament, that is.

Blogging Toward Sunday

Blogging toward Sunday

Amos 7:7-17; Luke 10:25-37

Jul 09, 2007 by William H. Willimon

God promises the people of Israel that he will not “pass them by.” At the same time, God sets a plumb line against Israel, using a divine standard to measure the fidelity of God’s people. A visit from God, then, is presented as judgment that shall lead to desolation and destruction.

Blogging Toward Sunday

Blogging toward Sunday

2 Kings 5:1-14; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Jul 02, 2007 by William H. Willimon

As I read through one of the epistles, with Paul hammering an early congregation for its members’ infidelities and numerous discipleship shortcomings, I wish I had the guts to give my people the sermonic tongue-lashing they so richly deserve. Then suddenly, in mid-diatribe, Paul asserts, “Now you are the body of Christ.”