Magazine /

January 27, 2004

Volume 121, Issue #2

Lectionary

An outbreak of Easter (Luke 5:1-11)

By Luke 5 Jesus is master not only of the word of God, but also of fish.

Things get nasty (Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30)

Those of us who have been trained to make rhetorical peace with the congregation marvel at the freedom of Jesus to preach over their heads, to wound in order to heal, to use their own beloved texts against them. How sly of the common lectionary to pair this linguistic assault by Jesus at Nazareth with Paul’s pretty words on love. Poor preachers. Sometimes we love our people in the name of Christ, enduring just about everything with them, and sometimes we love them by throwing the Book at them.

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