Princeton Theological Seminary

April 1, 2021 | Miller Chapel Maundy Thursday John 13:1-14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 13:14 It is not a reassuring or comforting image to find our Lord and Teacher, who we worship, washing the dirt off of our feet. It disturbs our notions of holiness. But it also transforms them. We find holiness by reaching up but by reaching down. As disciples of a foot washer, we are never more than foot washer trainees.

March 25, 2021 | Miller Chapel Lenten Series on the Road to Emmaus Scripture: Luke 24:32-35 Were not our hearts burning within us? 24:32 Renewed in the vision that the risen Christ was with them, the disciples are filled with passion and reverse their direction to return to Jerusalem. That which they had fled in discouragement now becomes their place of mission. A time comes to turn, or repent, from discouragement.

March 18, 2021 | Miller Chapel Lenten Series on the Road to Emmaus Scripture: Luke 24: 28-31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 24:31 The unseen visible presence of the Lord became the seen invisible presence. Faith is a way of seeing the Christ who has been with us before we recognized him. This transformation came to the disciples through the ordinary breaking of bread. All of life can be sacramental if we have eyes to see the holiness in it.

March 11, 2021 | Miller Chapel Lenten Series on the Road to Emmaus Scripture: Luke 24:25-27 Oh how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe… 24:25 The risen Jesus has to interpret the scriptures these disciples knew but did not believe. In a theological community it is easy to confuse knowing about Jesus with knowing him. The scriptures as the Word of God are meant to open our eyes to the living Word who walks with us even in our deep disappointments.

February 25, 2021 | Miller Chapel Lenten Series on the Road to Emmaus Scripture: Luke 24:22-24 …some women from our group astounded us. 24:22 The discouraged disciples only had the testimony of the women who heard from angels that Jesus was alive. But apparently that was not enough because we are told these disciples were "sad" and walking away from their dreams for what Jesus could do. We too only have the testimony of those who were a part of the Easter story. That’s not certainty. And that is what makes room for faith. Certainty is just one more thing to give up for Lent.

February 18, 2021 | Miller Chapel Lenten Series on the Road to Emmaus Scripture: Luke 24:13-21 But we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel 24:21 Cleopas and another disciple are on the road out of Jerusalem after the crucifixion of Jesus. They’re trying to walk away from their disappointments. Along the way “a stranger” joins them on the journey. We can’t really walk away from Jesus even when he disappoints us.

February 4, 2021 | Miller Chapel Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:23-30 All things are lawful, but not all things build up. 10:23 We are created to live with both desire and discontent. There is nothing unholy about either one. In fact, nothing good is accomplished without them. But they are powerful drives within us, and the challenge is not be consumed by them, which hurts us and the community around us. We worship in order to get desire and discontent tuned.

January 19, 2021 | Miller Chapel Scripture: Philippians 4:4-7 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. 4:5 At a time of transition into the new semester, and transition into new national leadership, it is good to consider again what kind of people we want to be. Among the last words of the Apostle Paul to the church was the call to be known for its gentleness. Is that the reputation of the church or our seminary? Is it how people would describe you?

November 16, 2020 | Zoom Speaker: Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own; James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies, Princeton University Moderator: Keri Day, associate professor of constructive theology and African American religion, Princeton Theological Seminary

December 3, 2020 | Miller Chapel Scripture: Luke 1:39-45 Elizabeth was too old to be a mother. Mary was too young. But the Holy Spirit interrupted the socially conditioned expectations for their lives. And the first person each wanted to find was the other. This may be the first Christian community — two women whose lives were changed by hope when it came too late and too soon. John leaped up in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary approach with the Christ child already forming in her womb. Whenever we come together as the interrupted community, something still leaps up as Christ approaches.

November 19, 2020 | Miller Chapel Scripture: Mark 8:22-26 This is the only account in the four gospels when Jesus has to touch someone twice in order to provide healing. Why was this second touch necessary? Clearly not because Jesus, who raised the dead, had to try harder. All of the healings in the gospels were not about the healings, but they were signs. This healing of the blind man is a sign that we need more grace than we have already received in order to see clearly. It doesn’t matter how much you have learned or experienced, there is more to the grace of Jesus than you have yet received.

November 5, 2020 | Miller Chapel Scripture: Ruth 4:13-17 According to the text, Naomi, who we met as so bitter, takes the child Obed to her breast. This child was the grandfather of King David. So she was, in the end, able to embrace hope. It is significant that the same women who earlier absorbed Naomi’s bitterness now name the child who they call her redeemer. Obed means worshiper, which is how we find redemption. The story begins with Naomi’s despair and ends with her hope, which was found by embracing worship.

October 29, 2020 | Miller Chapel Scripture: Ruth 4:7-12 In ancient Hebrew society a pledge was made by the exchanging of sandals in front of witnesses. It was as binding as our signatures on contracts. Covenant community is not just a resource that we use to construct our lives. It is a collection of pledges to be shaped by our life together. Out of these commitments something new is born, like Boaz and Ruth’s child — the hope for redemption. But we have to give ourselves to the community to find this redemption.

October 8, 2020 | Miller Chapel Scripture: Ruth 3:6-13 Just as Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz all had plans for how to find redemption, so do we cooperate with the grace of God. Receiving grace is not a passive process, but it involves a lot of searching. Along the way, God redeems our flawed or questionable plans. Naomi and Ruth’s plan was to appeal to Boaz as their next of kin, which can also be translated as redeemer. Ruth appeals to his cloak to be the wings of God under which she will find shelter. This is not an act of submission, but of taking control of their situation. God uses this plan. So, we need to get beyond the notion that planning is not spiritual.

October 1, 2020 | Miller Chapel Scripture: Ruth 2:8-13 The community God builds always has room for those who think of themselves as outsiders, which ironically accounts for those who only appear to be insiders. Like Ruth the hungry Moabite, we all come in a desperate search for grace. Boaz presents his community as a shelter under God’s wings. We are thinking a lot about shelter these days, but one of the things from which we most need to be sheltered is our loneliness.