Reading for Preaching
Mere Christianity, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
“Literature and Moral Purpose”
The Problem of Pain
“The Good War”
The Diary of a Yuppie
The Winter of Our Discontent
Additional content related to Morality
Matthew 5:21-37
This is our last week with the Sermon on the Mount, but it is important to remember that context. Jesus started this sermon with blessings for the struggling, encouragement for the blessed, and is describing the high calling of kingdom citizenship. We are still in that spirit. Living the way that Jesus is describing will…
Psalm 34:9-14
It is not at all clear to me precisely the thinking behind dedicating three August Sundays to a single psalm. Preachers are challenged enough this month on the Gospel side of things with five weeks’ worth of sermons from John 6, all pretty much on the same theme. But now we are getting a triplet…
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
What a massive text for one sermon! I’ve preached ten-part series on these verses, spending much time on each word of the successive commandments. No wonder the RCL tried to help us by leaving out the crucial theological material connected to the second and fourth commandments, which is unfortunate given how important those verses are….
Romans 13:8-14
“Nothing good happens after midnight” the old bromide says, and you sense it’s a sentiment with which the Apostle Paul would agree. As Paul continues in what is sometimes called the “application section” of Romans, he addresses yet again the question of how we now need to behave and live given our having become all…
1 Peter 1:17-23
Years ago I read a book by the celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. And it became clear in reading it that he is someone whom I can describe only as a thoroughly secular person. This particular book was a kind of memoir in which Bourdain narrated his story. Of course, I read books all the time…
Psalm 119:1-8
Whenever I read Psalm 119, alarm bells go off in my head. For one thing, it feels like a literary monstrosity, 176 verses of boring, repetitious monotony. The great Old Testament scholar Artur Weiser wrote that Psalm 119 is “a particularly artificial product of religious poetry. The formal external character of the Psalm stifles its…
Psalm 15
Psalm 15 opens with a question that will trouble a lot of people in many congregations. It’s a question put to God. Now, questioning God is not a problem for most Christians these days. In fact, it’s much in vogue. Folks like David Dark speak eloquently about the necessity of asking questions if our faith…
Amos 7:7-17
Amos is tough and blunt. He says things no one wishes to hear today any more than they did almost 3,000 years ago. He’s enough to make even the boldest 21st century preachers and teachers shy away from both his message and him. In the text the Lectionary appoints for this particular Sunday, God shows…
Preaching Connection: Morality