Preaching Connection: Spirituality

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Reading for Preaching

“The Fog Horn”

In this  famous story (“The Fog Horn”) two men shiver in a lighthouse on a cold November evening with mist heavy enough that they have set the fog horn to blow every fifteen seconds.  They are discussing the mysteries of the sea, and the voice of the foghorn calling to the sea—the foghorn which makes...
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“The Magnificent Defeat” in Thomas G. Long and Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., eds. A Chorus of Witnesses

“The Magnificent Defeat” is a sermon from Genesis 32 about Jacob at the ford of the Jabbok River.  Jacob is on the threshold of a meeting with his brother Esau after years of estrangement.  Because he caused the estrangement, Jacob isn’t sleeping well the night before the reunion, and especially because he has to wrestle...
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Additional content related to Spirituality

John 3:1-17

The fact that perhaps the most well-known bible verse, John 3.16, is part of this philosophical and ontological mind-bending conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus never ceases to fascinate me. Nicodemus is a leader of his faith community and he comes to speak with Jesus in the quiet and solitude of the night. I’m not sure…

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Joel 2:23-32

This is the “happy” section of Joel but it probably needs to be seen in context.  More on that at the end of this sermon commentary. For now we can see a connection to last week’s Old Testament Common Lectionary text from Jeremiah 31, which pointed to the promise of God’s giving his people a…

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Psalm 84:1-7

In the Calvin Seminary Chapel above and behind the pulpit area is a large clear-glass window with a cross in the center.  A few years ago during a May Term preaching class in the chapel, we all noticed that a large Horned Owl had made a nest in the uppermost window pane near the top…

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Luke 10:38-42

Whether it was sharing a bedroom with one of my siblings for most of my childhood, or having housemates as an adult, I can sure relate to Martha’s frustration with Mary. There always seems to be that one member who doesn’t pull their weight, plays the role of helpless, or gets so easily—and conveniently—focused on…

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