Authors

Marshall A. Jolly

The Reverend Dr. Marshall Jolly is the 19th rector of St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church and president of Mead Hall Episcopal School in Aiken, South Carolina. He holds degrees in theology and other stuff from Transylvania University and Emory University and enjoys running, reading, and golf. He and his wife are looked after by Hambrick, their little nine-pound Himalayan cat with a huge personality.

Sermons and Bible Studies

Nourishment, Pentecost 16 (B) – September 8, 2024

September 08, 2024

[RCL] Isaiah 35:4-7a; Psalm 146; James 2:1-10, [11-13], 14-17; Mark 7:24-37 Note: During the 2024 Season after Pentecost, Sermons That Work will use Track 2 readings for sermons and Bible studies. Please consult our archives for many additional Track 1 resources from prior years. It’s a story so common that it could almost be passed […]

Understanding the Trinity, Trinity Sunday (B) – May 26, 2024

May 26, 2024

[RCL] Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29 or Canticle 13 (or Canticle 2); Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17 It has been said that it is far easier to preach to hundreds crowded into the church on Christmas or Easter than it is to discuss the doctrine of the Holy Trinity for a handful on a sleepy holiday weekend […]

Questions and Answers, Proper 21 (A) – 2023

October 01, 2023

[RCL] Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16; Philippians 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32 Someone with a lot of time on their hands once estimated that during his ministry, Jesus asked 307 questions, was asked 183 questions by others, and gave direct answers to only three questions. John the Baptist asks Jesus early on in his ministry, “Are you […]

Followers, Transfiguration (A) – 2023

August 06, 2023

[RCL] Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99 or 99:5-9; 2 Peter 1:13-21; Luke 9:28-36 Many a faithful summer church attendee might be surprised to arrive to worship today, supposing that the green vestments and paraments must have gotten stuck at the dry cleaner’s, only to realize that the Feast of the Transfiguration, which is fixed on August […]

Apocalypse!, Proper 28 (C) – 2022

November 13, 2022

[RCL] Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19 In just a couple of weeks, we will send the Gospel of Luke to the barn and saddle up the Gospel of Matthew, as we inaugurate Advent and turn the liturgical calendar from Year C to Year A. When we do, there will surely be […]

Walking Toward the Cross, Lent 5 (C) – 2022

April 03, 2022

[RCL] Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8 Despite the run-of-the-mill way that John narrates this dinner party with Jesus, there is a kind of shocking absurdity to it all. Taken together with the preceding chapter, the scene unfolds like this: Word reaches Jesus that his beloved friend Lazarus is gravely ill. He sets […]

Fear, Lent 4 (B) – 2021

March 14, 2021

[RCL] Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21 There is no more familiar passage in all of Scripture than John 3:16. It has been emblazoned on billboards and bumper stickers, sewn into throw pillows and baseball caps, and it has even appeared tattooed into the skin of more than a few actors and […]

Beginnings, Epiphany 1 (B) – 2021

January 10, 2021

[RCL] Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11 Each of the four Gospels begins in their own unique manner. Matthew, for example, embarks from the very first verse on a lengthy genealogy of Jesus, tracing his Jewish lineage all the way back to Abraham. Luke, by contrast, begins with an introduction that reads like […]

Truth and Lies, Proper 28 (A) – 2020

November 15, 2020

[RCL] Zephaniah 1:7,12-18; Psalm 90:1-8, (9-11), 12; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30 It may be that the most important and consequential question ever uttered in the history of humanity was Pilate’s three-word question, asked of Jesus: “What is truth?” In his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell coined the term, “doublethink” to describe the phenomenon […]

Nicodemus, Lent 2 (A) – March 8, 2020

March 08, 2020

[RCL]: Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17 There is a trend among preachers, particularly lectionary preachers, to try and find that elusive “fresh perspective” or “new insight” into the Biblical text. The more familiar the text, the more fever-pitched the effort to say something “new” about it. Enter John chapter three, verse sixteen: […]

Shrewdness, Proper 20 (C) – 2019

September 22, 2019

[RCL]: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1; Psalm 79:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13 Every now and then, we come upon a passage of Scripture that is especially challenging to preach on. Sometimes, the homiletical difficulty comes from the fact that the text is so familiar that just about everything that can be said about it has been said. […]

Suffering and Punishment, Lent 3 (C) – 2019

March 24, 2019

Odds are that a quick scan of the commentaries and preaching resources written on Luke, chapter 13, would produce a common refrain: “Be careful with this passage!” The warning is a good one, as this passage causes the faithful to ask some of the most common and complicated questions in all of Christendom. They are […]

27 records

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