The noted preacher Fred Craddock once observed that there are two kinds of sermons that are difficult to hear: bad sermons and good sermons. Bad sermons are hard to listen to because the preacher has nothing to say. A good sermon is hard to hear because it gets under your skin and bothers you. Sometimes we preachers even aim for this, and it can be disappointing when people say, “I really enjoyed that sermon, Father!” We want to reply, “Well, I was actually hoping you’d be

Not long ago, Huston Smith was speaking to a group at a university. As he strolled through all of the world's major religions, he cited aspects of each religion that made it unique. When he spoke of Islam, he noted the way that faith penetrates every aspect of life, and the way Muslims pray. With respect to Judaism, he admired the Jewish people’s identity and story maintained for thousands of years. When he came to Christianity, Smith chose Forgiveness. The forgiveness Jes

In some segments of the Christian church, “Matthew 18” has become rather like “Miranda Rights.” When dealing with a seemingly recalcitrant sinner in the church, people’s first line of response is something like, “Well, did you ‘Matthew 18’ him? Did you give him the treatment, follow the rules, read him his rights as Jesus laid them out?” Reading this passage from the Gospel of Matthew it strikes me that Jesus never intended his words to be taken as a “pastoral police proced

“Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” When we hear these words, they usually strike us as a challenge, a threat, an obstacle to our happiness, to getting what we want. But the truth is, these words are one of the most encouraging, most hopeful, most liberating commands Jesus gave the Church. I realize that sounds crazy, unbelievable, but it’s true.

Many times, how a question sounds depends on the setting! This is certainly true about the question Jesus poses to the disciples in today’s gospel lesson. Every now and then Jesus quizzes his disciples to see how much they are taking in, how well they’ve been paying attention. Here he asks questions that touch on something truly central to what Jesus was up to: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Who do you say I am?”