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Tag: Matthew

Violence, Division, and the Kingdom of God

Violence, Division, and the Kingdom of God

On the last Sunday in June I preached a sermon on Matthew 10:24-39. That passage came to my mind again as I read about the events in Charlottesville last weekend. In part of that passage Jesus says the following: 34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her…

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Christmas According to Matthew

Christmas According to Matthew

In an online essay, New Testament scholar James Boyce makes the following statement as he reflects on the Christmas story as it is told in the Gospel of Matthew: “If we do not anticipate the Christmas event both with hope and with just a bit of anxious fear, then we are not sufficiently tuned to the implications of God’s presence among us.” This might strike us as a bit odd. “Hope” we are okay with, but why would he say…

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