Movies for Preaching
Wide Awake (1998) – 1
Wide Awake (1998). Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starring Joseph Cross, Rosie O’Donnell, and Robert Loggia. Rated PG. 88 mins. Rotten Tomatoes 67%. The question of what actual love looks like has plagued humankind since, well, the beginning, whether that be Adam and Eve left to themselves in a garden or some humanoid…
Grand Canyon (1991) – 2
Grand Canyon (1991). Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Co-written by Meg Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan. Starring Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, and Mary Louise Parker. Rated R; 134 minutes. So when do we know it’s the real “real thing”? If we can know that for sure, that is. That, to be…
Grand Canyon (1991) – 1
Grand Canyon (1991). Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Co-written by Meg Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan. Starring Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, and Mary Louise Parker. Rated R; 134 minutes. Grand Canyon (1991) is one of those films that every clergy and parishioner, and everyone else too, for that matter, ought to…
Reading for Preaching
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11
Mere Christianity, in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
The Bonfire of the Vanities
War and Remembrance
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
“The Virtue of Hate”
The Brothers K
The Search for God at Harvard
“Christianity and Literature” in Christian Reflections
Additional content related to Religion
Psalm 50:7-15
In an episode of the original Star Trek series titled “The Apple,” the crew of the USS Enterprise visits a planet that is ruled by a god by the name of Vaal. One inhabitant of this planet named Akuta has what looks like a small antenna attached to his neck and it is through this…
Acts 17:22-31
Well, you win some and you lose some. Paul had some experience with the truth of that old adage, and some of the relevant experiences can be seen in Acts 17 and Paul’s famous conversation with the Athenians at the Areopagus. The day was not without its spiritual victories. The chapter concludes by telling us…
Luke 12:49-56
It seems to me that this passage is hitting many of us hard this summer. Denominations of every size, evangelical or mainline, are at crossroads, as synodical and convention decisions will force many of their members to leave the only faith homes that they have ever known. Is this the work of Christ’s fire baptism…
Psalm 33:12-22
Suppose you are a person who is leery of civil religion, of the possible idolatry that can come when people equate a given nation with God’s kingdom. Well, in that case, Psalm 33:12a might give you pause, or it might flat out trouble you a bit. “Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh.” That…
Psalm 150
Whether it’s a Broadway play like Les Miserables or a classic movie like The Sound of Music, most people enjoy a good musical. But have you ever wondered what it is about such productions that appeals to us? After all, musicals are decidedly unlike real life. In The Sound of Music people burst into song…
Acts 10:34-43
Comments, Observations, and Questions When you are a devout person who wants nothing more than to serve God, then there are few shocks to the system quite as great as spiritual shocks. Just ask the apostle Peter. He knows all about this kind of thing. Because unlike some of our religious customs and taboos today—the…
1 Kings 8:(1-6, 10-11), 22-30, 41-43
The last few verses of this lection strike me as much as anything. So much of the Old Testament is all-Israel all-the-time. There is warfare and defeat of other nations, dark warnings about inter-marriage with Canaanites, the threat of foreign religious practices wheedling their way into the faith of Israel. It’s easy at times to…
1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20)
On this Second Sunday after Epiphany, the parallels between this Old Testament reading and the Gospel reading (John 1:43-51) are obvious and instructive. Both are about calling, of Samuel and of the first disciples. Both are about God revealing himself, through his spoken word and through the Word made flesh. Both calls evoke a life…
Psalm 33:12-22
Suppose you are a person who is very leery of civil religion, of the possible idolatry that can come when people equate a given nation with God’s kingdom. Well, in that case, Psalm 33:12a might give you pause, or it might flat out trouble you a bit. “Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh.” …
Preaching Connection: Religion