Reading for Preaching
Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York
Among the first things the word corruption brings to mind for most people is municipal politics–the Tammany system, for instance, that Mayor Fiorello La Guardia inherited from Jimmy Walker in the city of New York in the 1930s. Walker’s municipal authority rigged bids for city construction projects, hired lifeguards who could not swim, invented positions...
Resurrection
Prince Dimitri Nekhlyudov (neck-lee-YOO-dov) visits in prison with the maid (Máslova) he had impregnated and corrupted. She had become a prostitute, and then a prisoner. So deep is her corruption that she rationalizes her profession as a key contribution to the well-being of society: according to her conception, “the highest good for all men—old, young,...
Resurrection
Prince Dimitri Nekhlyudov (neck-lee-YOO-dov) seduces a beautiful housemaid, Katerína Máslova, impregnates her by the seduction, and spoils her life. She becomes a prostitute to support herself. She is sentenced to Siberia for crimes she apparently had not committed. Nekhlyadov, having served ineffectually on the jury that convicted Máslova, visits her. He discovers the depths of...
“Good Lottery Luck Can Go Bad Fast”
“Eight workers at a Nebraska meatpacking plant who won the $365 million Powerball jackpot last week may want to take heed of the downside of such good fortune. Not that anyone would turn down such a windfall, but other heavenly jackpots did not lead to paradise. Some big winners have filed for bankruptcy within a...
“What Can the Righteous Do?”
Nelson comments on Psalm 11:3 “When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” He writes this: “It is impossible to know just what crisis was confronting this unknown poet. Perhaps in Jerusalem it was one of those sordid times when everything had gone rotten. The men in power were men who could play...
Additional content related to Corruption
1 Samuel 1:4-20
As we inch ever closer to Advent and another new church year, the Lectionary introduces us to yet another woman who loomed large in the history of redemption. In the contemporary climate of concern about women’s rights and the abuse of women, it is uncanny that the writers of the Lectionary should have long ago…
2 Samuel 13:1-22
Comments and Observations: I love the TV show The Brady Bunch. In almost every episode there is a problem that can be neatly wrapped up in 30 minutes or less. Whether it’s a broken vase, a bruised nose, an injured ankle, or a changing voice; the problem is never insurmountable. There is no crisis that…
Preaching Connection: Corruption