Sermon Brainwave from Working Preacher

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 ornamented robe through a genderqueer lens. The hosts also unpack Psalm 85's vision of a world transformed by forgiveness and wrestle with Romans 10's most-quoted (and most misused) verses.

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 anguish over Israel. The hosts warn against supersessionist theology and anti-Semitism in the pulpit. This episode delivers sharp insight on compassion, provision, and the character of God.

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 Romans 8. Along the way, they connect that cosmic vision to modern issues like environmental harm and data center water usage, giving preachers rich homiletical angles for July 19, 2026.

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 flour, connecting the parable to Gospel of Thomas variants. The team wrestles with the dragnet's uncomfortable sorting imagery and warns against easy allegorization. They turn to Solomon's request for an understanding mind in 1 Kings 3 and connect it to Psalm 119's themes of memory and discernment. The conversation moves to Jacob, Rachel, and Laban in Genesis 29, addressing marriage, gender, and power in the ancient world. They close with Romans 8:26-39, highlighting its pastoral power for people who have experienced religious condemnation.
Cody shares a story about the MCC Church of San Francisco during the AIDS epidemic. This episode offers preachers fresh angles on parables, wisdom, and grace for July 26.

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 strange, almost anti-strategic logic: why would a sower scatter seed on every kind of ground, including the bad soil? The hosts connect this to Jesus' own approach to ministry and mission.
The conversation moves through Isaiah 55's image of creation itself rejoicing, then into Genesis 25's story of Jacob and Esau, a text the hosts caution can easily be misused to justify xenophobia and tribal hatred if preached without care. From there, they turn to Psalm 65 and its language of a God who answers prayer, before closing with Romans 8 and Paul's teaching on flesh and spirit. Cody offers an important corrective here, naming how "flesh" language has historically been weaponized against bodies, women, and queer people, and pointing preachers toward a healthier way to handle the text.
Whether you're preaching the parable, the psalm, the epistle, or the Genesis narrative this week, this episode offers grounded, honest reflection to help shape your sermon.