A contest. Another contest. And the Lectionary Commentary for Proper 13, August 2, 2015. Tripp Fuller joins the party yet again. We end up threading together a conversation about neighbor love: how can focus on God get in the way? how can sermons on unity and gifts facilitate it rather than unraveling it? how does it show itself in acceptance of people who are just finding their way to Jesus and the church?

2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:13a & Psalm 51 

Back to David’s abuse of power: Uriah’s wife and a wee ewe lamb. We remember that the Old Testament isn’t a collection of hero stories. We reflect on storytelling and awakening. Then the big question: is sin against God alone?! Tripp lays it down for us.

For more on sin check out Fall to Violence by Marjorie Suchocki. It’s epic.

Ephesians 4 Tripp shames everyone into not preaching on this text, but then provides the most epic sermon title ever when he drops, “The Kingdom of God and Retirement Plans.” Talk about a conundrum.

John 6:24-35 Linking “only believe” with John’s logos Christology. Daniel said “proceeds from the Father” like a good Nicene Christian! Tripp wants you to be nice to the people who come for shallow reasons, Daniel’s a little harder on the crowds. So you’ll have to choose: nice like Tripp or mean like Daniel?

Daniel Kirk is a writer, speaker, blogger, and New Testament professor who lives in San Francisco, CA. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from Duke University and is the author of a pair of books, Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God and Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul? His third book A Man Attested by God: the Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels, is off to the printers. He blogs regularly at StoriedTheology.com  (jrdkirk.com). You can follow him on Twitter @jrdkirk and on Facebook at Facebook.com/jrdkirk.

Tripp Fuller

Follow Tripp on Twitter because that’s his favorite form of distraction.