When Elizabeth Goodman first arrived at the tiny congregation that would become her home as a pastor–a congregation of about seven people in a town of just under a thousand–the longest-standing member told her that though the congregation was small, her preaching need not be. In this collection of sermons, readers will witness a mind at work amidst a faithful congregation (whose numbers are now around thirty), mutually nurtured, and together having no small amount of fun. Meanwhile, the ramifications of the gospel in the world will sneak up and surprise. Guided always by a spirit of play and by scripture, as it is in conversation with life, Goodman illuminates both the quiet suggestions that undo what we think we know and the startling demands that are to be both feared and desired. This congregation has a tagline: «It's not what you think.» They are probably right.
Оглавление
Liz R. Goodman. Breaking and Entering
Table of Contents
Foreword
Shows What a Preacher Can’t Do
Being Suggestive
Casting Spells—Old Testament
Making Bill Maher Laugh
Obey
Religious but Not Spiritual
What Awe Serves
That Little Light of Yours
Flowers That Are Looked At
This Is Not a Pony
No Redeeming Qualities Whatsoever
Casting Spells—New Testament
Don’t Believe the Bumper Sticker
Where to Start39
Money
Wrong Bird
Gaming for Good
Laugh It Up
Control is Fool’s Gold
Promise and Compromise
Working It Out
What Grows at Gould Farm (Should Also Grow in Church)
An Easy One
Surprise Parties
And Speaking of Power
You Can’t Do That
Cheek
Here’s the Rub
Ruined
Now that “Parent” Is a Verb
What a Shame
Room for One More
Bibliography
Отрывок из книги
Breaking and Entering
Unexpected Sermons for an Unfinished World
.....
And how do I know this? Because of the cross.
Because of the cross, this I know: God is cruciform. God is self-giving, self-emptying. God is wounded and killed that we might have peace. The cross is the standard by which we measure assertions about what God is and what God is not, about what God has done and what God has not done.
