With the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) appearing as a potential reading in the lectionary last Sunday and again this coming Sunday and with the Annunciation to Mary (Luke 1:26-38) standing as the Gospel reading for the fourth Sunday of Advent, it seems timely to share an excerpt from a sermon entitled, “Let Heav’n and Nature Sing!” from my book Leaps of Faith: Continue reading The Song of the Son
“Judgement”: A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent
The following is the text of a sermon I preached at Fallingbrook Presbyterian Church in Scarborough on the first Sunday of Advent. The Scripture readings were Psalm 98 and Revelation 19:1-9.
Advent is my favourite season of the Christian year, but it seems like the observation of the season of Advent is becoming an increasingly counter-cultural activity. While Starbucks has been serving its Christmas blend in its signature Christmas cups for over a month and Swiss Chalet has been offering its festive meal for almost as long, Advent tells us we are still waiting. While the music blaring in malls and on radios announces that it is the most wonderful time of the year, Advent says to us “Not yet.” Continue reading “Judgement”: A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent
Review of “For the Life of the World”
Daniel W. Rempel has published a review of my book For the Life of the World: Jesus Christ and the Church in the Theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the Conrad Grebel Review. Towards the end of the review, he writes:
“For the Life of the World will benefit multiple readerships. For theologians, critical engagement with the work of Bonhoeffer and Hauerwas will provide a greater understanding of both theologians’ greater projects, with a reminder that theology should be rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ for the benefit of his body, the church. Continue reading Review of “For the Life of the World”
A Quote from Ellen Davis for the Feast of Christ the King
The following is quotation from Ellen Davis’s rich collection of sermons, Preaching the Luminous Word, that seems especially appropriate for the Feast of Christ the King: Continue reading A Quote from Ellen Davis for the Feast of Christ the King
“On the Mountain with Jesus”: A Sermon from Wycliffe College
On November 2, I had the privilege of preaching at Morning Prayer at Wycliffe College in the faculty preaching series, entitled “The Word is Near You: Seeds of Reformation.” It was a privilege to join the distinguished faculty of Wycliffe College in this Reformation-themed preaching series and to preach from a pulpit that has, over the years, welcomed an impressive collection of archbishops, leading preachers, and distinguished theologians. My assigned text was Matthew 28: 16-20. You can listen to a recording of the sermon here. For those not familiar with Wycliffe, in the first few sentences of the sermon I am riffing on the titles of books written by members of the Wycliffe faculty.
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
In 1994, the historian Mark Noll published his now famous work, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. In the very first sentence of the opening chapter, Noll goes right for the jugular: “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.”1 Noll’s thesis seems to have been anticipated in some ways by the Anglican cleric and evangelical leader John Stott, who wrote the following in his 1982 book on preaching (although it should be noted that Stott’s purview seems to be much broader than evangelicalism, extending to Western Christendom as a whole): Continue reading The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
- Mark A. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 1. ↩