Truly, this text for today is one of the Bible’s greatest poems. Its language and cadence are unforgettable, its theological thrust unmatched, its structure a superlative example of ancient Israelite verse.
Conflict is a normal part of life. Our neighborhoods, congregations, and workplaces experience conflict. Conflict can be a generative part of sanctification for individuals and communities who are growing in faithfulness, but at times conflict can spiral into pain. But there is a path forward, this event will focus on how preachers can embrace tools, wisdom, and approaches from the field of conflict transformation to bring peace, new life, and hope to congregations and communities.
Those who claim to speak for God may be believed for a moment, or even for a brief time, but over time their words and things may prove empty and hollow, given what finally comes of their words.
Jonah is the Bible’s best joke book. It is “Saturday Night Live,” “John Oliver,” and Jerry Seinfeld rolled into one. One simply cannot preach from this book with a straight face or without tongue squarely in cheek.
Israel is in need of a new mediator, and the calling of Samuel is proof that such a mediator is at hand. The famous three-times divine call to then boy is couched in ancient storyteller language.
In this episode of Must Reads Classics, Dr. O. Wesley Allen, Jr. interviews Dr. Mary Donovan Turner - Carl Patton Professor of Preaching and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Pacific School of Religion, and Dr. Mary Lin Hudson - Professor Emeritus of Homiletics and Liturgics at Memphis Theological Seminary, about their book “Saved from Silence: Finding Women's Voice in Preaching.”
In Is.60 there are multiple references to “light” out of darkness: “Arise, shine, for your light has come,” he begins and continues by describing earth and its people covered with “thick darkness,” but enlightened by “the Lord,” and the “Lord’s glory.” And this great light will be a beacon for the nations, represented by their kings who will “come to the brightness of your dawn.”
After three weeks with Isaiah, who helped us get clearer about what we can expect on Christmas, the sort of God who will appear and how, we now turn in a rather odd direction, toward a passage from the long and complex tale of Saul, Samuel, and David, found in 1 and 2 Samuel and the first two chapters of 1 Kings.
Welcome to another episode of Must Reads where Dr. Ronald J. Allen, Professor Emeritus of Preaching, and Gospels and Letters at Christian Theological Seminary Indianapolis, discusses a book he edited: “Preaching the Manifold Grace of God.”
We continue our look at the surprising baby for this Advent season. We may have thought we needed a God who “tears the skies” and comes down in ferocious wrath against our enemies, cleansing the world of them and leaving us, the faithful ones, as the true chosen of God. But, surprise, surprise! What we received instead was a peaceful shepherd, carrying silly lambs in divine arms, gently guiding those who are pregnant.
Welcome to another episode of Must Reads where Dr. Lisa Washington Lamb, Visiting Assistant Professor of Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary, discusses her book “Resonate: How to Preach for Deep Connection.”
During the two-generation exile, Israel found itself trapped in a theological cauldron with multiple competing voices trying to explain just what had happened to the chosen people of YHWH, just why land, king, and temple, had been snatched away. YHWH’s very first word to them is “comfort,” spoken “tenderly” (to the heart) to Jerusalem, assuring them that their “time of service,” and their “penalty” has been paid and that it was all too true that YHWH had indeed punished them for all their monstrous deeds (Is.40:1-2). But all that is now past.
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