Movies for Preaching
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Written and directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Richard Dreyfuss and Francois Truffaut. PG; 137 mins. Rotten Tomatoes 100% (40th Anniversary Edition); Metacritic 90%. What to make of power and splendor, especially of the sort that elicits awe and a powerful devotional attraction? There is hardly a harder question,…
Reading for Preaching
Anatomy of a Murder
Second Opinion: A Doctor’s Dispatches from a British Inner City
This Boy’s Life: A Memoir
The Four Loves
The Four Loves
The Seven Perennial Sins and Their Offspring
The Collected Sermons of William H. Willimon
Thoughts in Solitude
“The Weight of Glory,” in The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses
My Father’s House: A Memoir of Incest and Healing
That Day Alone
The Triumph of Vulgarity: Rock Music in the Mirror of Romanticism
Creative Writing: For People Who Can’t Not Write
The Life of Samuel Johnson
A Married Man
Blue Blood
“There Is No Stopping”
Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction
“Character and Other Details on the Clinton Watch”
Speaking of Sin: the Lost Language of Salvation
Into that Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder
Feathers of the Skylark: Compulsion, Sin, and Our Need for a Messiah
Under the Unpredictable Plant: an Exploration in Vocational Holiness
Before Truth, the Right Fork: A Theological Reflection on Ministry and Manners
“The Good War”
Damage
Distorted Truth: What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Battle for the Mind
My Secret History
The Mark of Cain: Studies in Literature and Theology
The Problem of Pain
The Screwtape Letters
Cannery Row
Confessions
Murder in Little Egypt
Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home
“Preface to the Sermons” in Fifteen Sermons
Chutzpah
The Turquoise Lament
“Sorry Condition”
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, rev. ed.
Help My Unbelief
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963
Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South
Resurrection
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
The Collected Sermons of William H. Willimon
“National Pride Over a Virus in the Philippines”
“Facing Reality,” in The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought
“A Hand for the Head”
The Problem of Pain
“It’s All About Him”
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Boom! Voices of the Sixties
The Song of the Lark
“The Duties of a Bystander”
Crime and Punishment
Roger’s Version
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
“What Evangelicals Can Learn from Karl Barth”
Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of World War II in the Pacific
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
Band of Brothers
Wickedness: A Philosophical Essay
‘Academic Religion: Playground of the Vandals’
In the Beauty of the Lilies
The Empty Copper Sea
“Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor,” in The Stories of John Cheever
East of Eden
Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full
Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full
Fiorello H. LaGuardia and the Making of Modern New York
Stranger in Two Worlds
Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent
Bright Orange for the Shroud
Bleak House
The Screwtape Letters
“A Favorite Fallback for Foulups: ‘Mistakes Were Made'”
“A Meeting in Middle Age” from The Collected Stories
Additional content related to Sin
Psalm 85:1-3, 8-13
This week’s Psalm selection for the Second Sunday in Advent is in some ways very similar to last week’s selection of Psalm 80. In both psalms there are pleas for revival and restoration, for a relenting of divine anger over sin so that restoration could come to both land and people. Insofar as Advent has…
Psalm 95:1-7a
This is another one of those lections that stops just short of the place in the psalm where there is a decisive—yet probably important—shift of tone and theme. Yes, the first seven verses of Psalm 95 are a lovely doxological celebration and a call to worship this Creator and Redeemer God for all God is…
Psalm 90:1-8 (9-11), 12
Psalm 90 is pegged in the superscription to be a psalm of Moses and though Moses’ having written this whole poem may be unlikely, there can be little doubt why this psalm has long been associated with Moses. Like Moses himself and the people he led for 40+ years, this psalm is a little bit…
Psalm 70
At Calvin Seminary for the past two academic years we have been holding a once-weekly Public Reading of Scripture where we gather for 30 minutes to read aloud a couple chapters each of an Old Testament passage, a Gospel passage, and a Psalm. Not long ago Psalm 70 was read by a student and you…
Psalm 1
With only a few weeks left in the Lectionary’s Year A cycle before Advent and Year B arrives, suddenly we arrive at Psalm 1. Along with Psalm 2, this poem is like the gateway into the Hebrew Psalter. As we have noted often in our sermon commentaries here on CEP, the Book of Psalms is…
Matthew 18:15-20
If you have a gut reaction of fear, dread, or hopelessness when you read this message from Jesus, you’re not alone. Let’s be honest at the get-go: this passage has become its own clobber tool and a cover for a lot of sinful practices, structures, and further victimization of some of God’s beloved children. Frankly,…
Psalm 26:1-8
Most Bible scholars have serious doubts about the authorship attributions in the psalms. Certainly we know the superscriptions were added much later and are not considered canonical (like ones that claims a certain psalm stemmed from a time when David was fleeing Saul and such). And even all the psalms that are said to be…
Genesis 29:15-28
“When morning came, there was Leah!” Hands down that is one of the funniest lines in the Bible. Imagine the fun a good Hollywood director would have setting up the scene and the dramatic flair of music to accompany the moment of the big reveal. Jacob wakes up, wipes the sleep out of his eyes,…
Romans 8:12-25
Those who wish to preach on this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson might benefit from spending some time reading the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. As we do so, we might note, among other things, the role that “seeing” plays in those Christian literary titans’ writings. Lewis, for example, sometimes refers to our world as…
Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13
As I write this in July 2023, it feels at times like the world is on fire. Canada certainly has been on fire for a good bit in 2023. Canadian wildfires burning thousands of miles away have been blanketing with smoke cities as far away as Washington D.C. and also in the Midwest, giving us…
Romans 8:1-11
Few things offend 21st century western sensibilities more than what our culture perceives of as closed minds. The mirror image of that is the high value that many of our contemporaries at least claim to attach to open minds. Perhaps especially North Americans and Europeans claim to abhor closemindedness and celebrate open-mindedness. It is, of…
Genesis 25:19-34
Since the fulfilling of God’s covenant with Abraham hinged hugely on Abraham’s having descendants, you would think that in the childbearing department things would have gone more easily. And yet in story after story we deal with some level of infertility that becomes a deep source of concern and that God eventually is said to…
Romans 7:15-25a
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s Paul simply can’t understand what he does. He repeatedly asserts that he knows what’s right and holy. Yet the apostle also just as persistently insists that he doesn’t do what he knows is right and holy. Throughout approximately the first quarter of his letter to the Romans, Paul talks a lot…
Romans 6:12-23
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s preachers might begin their message by saying something like, “Claims of mastery over any human being is despicable – except in one case.” That won’t just, after all, grab our hearers’ attention. Claiming that one form of slavery is beneficial is, in fact, also at the heart of Romans 6:12-23. While…
Genesis 21:8-21
Whatever else a person may think about the Bible and about the Old Testament in particular, you have to say this: it’s honest. The text does not generally shy away from presenting less-than-savory facts about even some of the most important characters in the biblical story. It’s often the proverbial “warts and all” presentation. The…
Romans 8:6-11
Remote controlled vehicles, whether cars, boats or even airplanes, make wonderful toys. So wonderful, in fact, that children sometimes argue and even fight over who will control them. There’s something about completely controlling something’s movements that can prove to be almost irresistible. But you’ve ever watched two children grapple over the same “joystick” you’ve probably…
Exodus 17:1-7
It’s the kind of thing that could become a family inside joke. Perhaps years before, the family had taken a Spring Break trip somewhere. Except that on this particular trip the weather was disastrously bad the whole week. No outdoor activities were possible. Instead the family got stuck inside a hotel room where arguments over…
Psalm 95
Growing up in a tradition that had once upon a time been founded on Psalm singing only in church, I sang lots of psalms in my boyhood church even long, long after my Reformed tradition had added also hymns to our standard Psalter Hymnal songbook. Even as a young boy, though, I was struck by…
Romans 5:12-19
Most of Jesus’ friends have a mental list of God’s attributes. We generally think of God as being loving and just, gracious and holy, patient and forgiving. But I’m not sure many Christians naturally include in their list of God’s attributes the quality of generosity. This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson provides a good antidote to that…
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
It is one of the more important questions you could ever pose. Perhaps that is also why it is one of the most-asked questions in history: Where does evil come from? As Christians, we perhaps think that surely the answer to this vital inquiry must be somewhere in the Bible. But it’s not there. Everywhere…
Isaiah 9:1-4
The Common Lectionary’s choice to cut off this reading at verse 4 feels artificial. It’s like asking someone to break off singing midway through verse 2 of “Joy to the World.” It doesn’t work. You both want to finish the song and anyway you hear the song finish up in your head even if you…
Psalm 32:1-7
Most of his friends had been hanged. But despite his central role in helping to construct Adolf Hitler’s Nazi nightmare, Albert Speer somehow managed to receive from the Nuremberg trials only a 20-year sentence at the Spandau Prison in Berlin. Not long after arriving in Spandau, Speer met with the prison chaplain. To the chaplain’s…
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
“This hurts me more than it hurts you” our parents assured us as they doled out some form of punishment or another. Timeouts, groundings, restrictions: our parents wanted to claim the greater pain was theirs in the issuing of the punishments than ours in the receiving of them. We, none of us, believe this when…
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Silent Spring. Or better written, Silent Spring in italics as befits a book title because that was indeed the title of Rachel Carson’s well-known book that was among the first cries of the modern ecological movement. Years ago, before I knew what that book was about, upon hearing the title I pictured some serene setting:…
Psalm 51:1-10
Every once in a while in a movie or on a TV show—and often used for comedic effect—there will be a character whose self-esteem is so low and so fragile that those who know this person are loathe ever to criticize him. If you point out even one little mistake to Larry, Larry will immediately…
Isaiah 5:1-7
As commentators note, Isaiah 5 begins with what looks like some light-hearted romantic ballad. A kind of troubadour opens this chapter by saying, “Listen up! I’m going to sing you a ballad about my beloved one–a song about the vineyard of our love!” It looks like a love song but quickly changes into a lament….
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
To get the full impact of Isaiah 1:10-20, you need to back up to verse 9 (left out regrettably by the Lectionary) in which the people of Israel say to themselves (in the wake of great desolation in their land) that with at least a few folks still living, they were not quite as bad…
Colossians 3:1-11
Few issues roil the 21st century North American church more than those that revolve around human sexuality. North American Christians spend much time arguing about extra-marital sex, same sex attraction and marriage, as well as gender dysphoria. Churches and denominations are dividing, whether formally or informally, around the appropriateness or inappropriateness of various sexual behaviors….
Hosea 1:2-10
We teach a certain rule-of-thumb to our seminary students. We talk about it as colleagues in ministry. And deep down we intuitively know this truth anyway. We preachers know that it’s at best dicey to use our spouse and children as sermon illustrations, exemplars of behavior good or bad, or just generally as the starting…
Psalm 32
Most of his friends had been hanged. But despite his central role in helping to construct Adolf Hitler’s Nazi nightmare, Albert Speer somehow managed to receive from the Nuremberg trials only a twenty-year sentence at the Spandau Prison in Berlin. Not long after arriving in Spandau, Speer met with the prison chaplain. To the chaplain’s…
Psalm 63:1-8
When a psalm is as relatively brief as Psalm 63 and yet you notice that the Lectionary would have you stop reading—and presumably stop preaching—three verses shy of the actual conclusion of the poem, one might be justified in wondering what’s up. What is in those last few verses? Why the full stop before this…
Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)
It was the year King Uzziah died. Or, it was the year President Kennedy died. Or it was the year 9/11 rattled the world to its core. Or it was the year the COVID pandemic began. It was the year when things fell apart, when foundations were shaken, when the markets crumbled, when all that…
Psalm 36:5-10
One of my Christmas gifts to my wife was a cookbook on making bread written by Paul Hollywood, one of the judges on the much-loved Great British Baking Show. When I put a picture of the book’s cover on Facebook along with a picture of my wife’s first and fantastic looking loaf, a couple people…
Psalm 80:1-7
If you are going to choose a Psalm of Lament for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, you may as well include the most Adventy and hopeful part of the Psalm! But the RCL did not do that, choosing to break off the reading of Psalm 80 already at verse 7. Had they gone on to…
Malachi 3:1-4
Have you ever read a classic book you’d never before read only to run across a line you knew by heart? “Oh,” you might say, “I didn’t know this is where that saying came from!” For instance, John Donne’s works are peppered with lines that have assumed a life of their own. People who don’t…
Luke 1:68-79
Someone once said that visits always bring pleasure because even if the arrival of a certain visitor didn’t make you happy, his departure will! The comedic pianist Victor Borge also touched on this topic when he once noted that the mythic figure of Santa Claus has the right idea: you should visit people just once…
Hebrews 4:12-16
Even adults are, in some ways, masters of hiding. We generally no longer hide in closets or behind furniture as we did when we played “Hide and Seek” as children. Yet we still manage to keep a lot of things hidden from each other – and, sometimes, even ourselves. So those who proclaim Hebrews 4…
Mark 10:2-16
Comments, Questions and Observations Even with the inclusion of verses 13-16 in this week’s selection, there’s no getting around the topic of divorce that dominates verses 2-12. No matter whether or not divorce is considered a “state of sin” in your church, there will be people listening who have been impacted by divorce—their own, or…
Preaching Connection: Sin
Preaching on sin and need illustrations or book quotes related to sin? Browse our collection of preaching connections related to sin including movie illustrations about sin, sin quotes from books, and sermon commentary referencing sin.