Sermon Brainwave from Working Preacher is a weekly conversation on upcoming Revised Common Lectionary readings. The conversations (featuring Luther Seminary faculty) are fun, informative, and creative—and just may give you the spark that ignites your own sermon brainwave!
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What does it really mean to take up your cross and follow me? On this episode of Sermon Brainwave, Karoline Lewis, Cody Sanders, and Matt Skinner dig into Matthew 16:21-28 for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost. They unpack Peter's stinging rebuke, get behind me Satan, and wrestle with how self-denial can be twisted into self-obliteration when it's ripped from Christian community. The hosts also…
Matt Skinner, Karoline Lewis, and Cody Sanders unpack Peter's confession and explore what testimony means for the pulpit. The hosts debate the ambiguous "rock" in Jesus's response and connect it to public confession. They turn to Exodus 1 and celebrate the disobedient women who save Moses' life. Shiphrah and Puah's story sparks a conversation about how theologians across history have judged their…
Cody Sanders, Karoline Lewis, and Matt Skinner dig into Jesus and the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28. They explore her bold persistence and how she challenges Jesus to expand his mission. The hosts unpack what her story teaches about faith, humility, and changing your mind. They also cover Isaiah 56's promise of salvation for all nations, Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers in Genesis…
Matt Skinner, Cody Sanders, and Karoline Lewis dig into the texts for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost (August 9, 2026). The team explores Peter's attempt to walk on water in Matthew 14:22-33 and discusses Jesus's compassionate rebuke, "you of little faith." They turn to Elijah's encounter with God in the sound of sheer silence in 1 Kings 19:9-18, and consider Genesis 37's story of Joseph's…
Jesus feeds a massive crowd in Matthew 14, and the hosts show how this act challenges imperial power. They unpack splagchnizomai, the Greek word for gut-level compassion. They trace Isaiah 55's invitation to abundant life and link it to food insecurity today. Jacob wrestles God at the Jabbok in Genesis 32 and walks away blessed and limping. Romans 9 launches a three-week reckoning with Paul's…
Matt Skinner, Karoline Lewis, and Cody Sanders tackle Matthew's parable of the wheat and the weeds and its unsettling questions about judgment and impostors in the community of faith. They turn to Isaiah 44's witness against idols, Jacob's dream at Bethel and God's promise to migrants, Psalm 86's memorable use of the word "ruffians," and Paul's rare focus on creation's groaning for redemption in…
Cody Sanders, Karoline Lewis, and Matt Skinner unpack the lectionary texts for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. They dig into the parables of the mustard seed, the yeast, the hidden treasure, the pearl, and the dragnet from Matthew 13. The hosts explore why Jesus chose strange, subversive images to describe the kingdom of heaven. They discuss the woman who hides yeast in an enormous amount of…
Titles matter. So does the soil. On this episode of Sermon Brainwave, Matt Skinner, Caroline Lewis, and Cody Sanders dig into the texts for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (July 12, 2026). The team wrestles with Matthew's Parable of the Sower and asks what it really means to "bear fruit." Is it congregational growth? Spiritual maturity? Something else entirely? Cody points out the parable's…
What does it mean to come to Jesus weary and burdened? In this episode of the Sermon Brainwave podcast, Karoline Lewis, Cody Sanders, and Matt Skinner dig into a rich set of texts for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A. The conversation centers on Matthew 11:28–30 and the promise of rest — but not the kind that soothes middle-class stress. These are beatitude people, crushed under systemic…
What does it mean to take up the cross in a world that rewards safety and silence? Matt Skinner, Karoline Lewis, and Cody Sanders dig into the lectionary texts for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (June 22, 2026), exploring the missionary discourse in Matthew 10, the prophet Jeremiah's anguished vocation, the casting out of Hagar and Ishmael in Genesis 21, Psalm 69's theology of complaint, and…
