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In this incisive commentary, Nancy Bedford explores Paul's Letter to the Galatians as it addresses pressing issues in the earliest Christian churches. Paul argues that it is not necessary for Gentiles to become full- fledged Jews in order to follow Jesus. In Jesus Christ, differences among people will continue. Bedford sees that equality in Christ (Galatians 3:28) does not erase differences but instead breaks down hierarchical relationships among many different people and groups. She...

Journeying with Matthew

Reflections on the Gospel

Journeying with Matthew offers a brief and accessible guide to the Gospel of Matthew. Like the previous volumes in this series, Journeying with Matthew follows the Revised Common Lectionary. Each chapter corresponds to a season of the liturgical year and the Gospel passages read during that season. Inside readers will find an introduction to the biblical text that looks at historical and literary themes; imaginative new ways to encounter Matthew in preaching and study, including po...

A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series

Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C

Preachers get the best of lectionary and topical series preaching with this comprehensive manual of sermon series ideas based on the Revised Common Lectionary. Designed to frame consecutive weeks of lectionary texts into seasonal and short-term series, a diverse group of twelve preachers outline multiple thematic series plans for each lectionary year. Each series plan provides a series overview, chart that outlines each segment of the series, tips and ideas, scriptural references, ...

1 & 2 Timothy and Titus

A Theological Commentary on the Bible

Thomas G. Long's insightful commentary on the Pastoral Epistles argues that these often-neglected letters are urgently important for readers today. Some of the issues faced by New Testament churches are ours as well: the lure and peril of "spirituality" for Christians, the character of authentic worship, the qualities needed for sound leadership, and the relationship between family life and the church. Long's interpretations of these books consider contemporary exegetical and theol...

Journeying with John

Reflections on the Gospel

Journeying with John offers a brief and accessible guide to the Gospel of John for learning and reflection. Following the Revised Common Lectionary, each chapter corresponds to a season of the liturgical year and the Gospel passages read during that season. The reader will find an introduction to the biblical text that looks at historical and literary themes; imaginative new ways to encounter John in preaching and study, including poetry; and reflections on the text's meaning for co...

Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World

Finding Hope in an Age of Despair

"Can preaching recover a Blues sensibility and dare speak with authority in the midst of tragedy? America is living stormy Monday, but the pulpit is preaching happy Sunday. The world is experiencing the Blues, and pulpiteers are dispensing excessive doses of non-prescribed prosaic sermons with severe ecclesiastical and theological side effects." —from chapter 1Uniquely gifted preacher Otis Moss III helps preachers effectively communicate hope in a desperate and difficult w...

Romans

A Theological Commentary on the Bible

"Christians may not have shared the details of the particular situation of the Roman followers of Jesus, but they have shared for centuries the concern about what faith means for life, and they have turned to Paul to understand what it means to be faithful to our faithful God." —from the introductionFor centuries, the apostle Paul's reflections in the book of Romans have shaped Christian thinking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can be faithful to the gospel. Key ...

How Odd of God

Chosen for the Curious Vocation of Preaching

Election is a strange word when used in theology. It brings to mind old debates about what God might or might not have done before the foundation of the world. But viewed apart from that historical baggage, the word 'election' is about a central gospel idea: that in Jesus not only does God choose to be God for us but chooses us to be for God. The calling of the disciples in the Gospels is a story of election, of how God chooses to transform the world by choosing us to be messenger...

Journeying with Luke

Reflections on the Gospel

Journeying with Luke is the first of four volumes that offer brief and accessible guides to the Gospels for learning and reflection. Following the Revised Common Lectionary, each chapter corresponds to a season of the liturgical year and the Gospel passages read during that season. The reader will find an introduction to the biblical text that looks at historical and literary themes; imaginative new ways to encounter the text in preaching and study, including poetry; and reflections...

Feasting on the Word Children’s Sermons for Year C

Many pastors are confused about what to say during children's time in churches. Feasting on the Word Children's Sermons for Year C offers practical suggestions for preparing and delivering the children's sermon. After explaining the purpose of the children's sermon, noted Christian educator Carol Wehrheim provides a retelling of each Sunday's Bible story—based on the Revised Common Lectionary—for the entire church year. In addition, a few stories are provided for spec...

1 & 2 Samuel

A Theological Commentary on the Bible

"The episodes in 1 and 2 Samuel are striking in their depiction of human characters—priests, soldiers, kings, prophets, and royal advisers—but also significant in how they narrate the central character of this history, the God of Israel. History, in these books, is not simply an accounting of royal intrigue, military battles, and socio-economic struggle but the stage upon which God reveals God's very self. First and Second Samuel relay some of the most memorable vignett...

Feasting on the Gospels Complete Seven-Volume Set

Feasting on the Gospels is an all-new, seven-volume preaching series that focuses on the most prominent and preached-on New Testament books, the four Gospels. Featuring never- before-published essays from a diverse and respected group of scholars and pastors, Feasting on the Gospels covers every single passage in the Gospels, making it a valuable resource for developing sermons. For each Gospel text, preachers will find four essays on the exegetical, theological, pastoral, and homile...

Feasting on the Gospels–John, Volume 2

A Feasting on the Word Commentary

Feasti ng on the Gospels is an all-new, seven-volume preaching series that focuses on the most prominent and preached-on New Testament books, the four Gospels. Featuring never-before-published essays from a diverse and respected group of scholars and pastors, Feasting on the Gospels covers every single passage in the Gospels, making it a valuable resource for developing sermons. For each Gospel text, preachers will find four essays on the exegetical, theological, pastoral, and hom...

Preaching the Gospels without Blaming the Jews

A Lectionary Commentary

Ronald Allen and Clark Williamson provide a commentary on the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel readings, demonstrating how the lections are continuous with the theology, values, and practices of Judaism and also identifying and reflecting on points at which the lections caricature Jewish people, practices, and institutions.

Preaching the Old Testament

A Lectionary Commentary

In this third and concluding volume of their lectionary commentary collection (Preaching the Gospels without Blaming the Jews and Preaching the Letters without Dismissing the Law), Ronald Allen and Clark Williamson encourage the church and its preachers to rediscover the Old Testament as a vibrant wellspring of Christian faith and life. Preachers often neglect the Old Testament, misrepresent it, or regard its theological content as superseded by Jesus and the New Testament, Allen ...

Preaching the Letters without Dismissing the Law

A Lectionary Commentary

This unique commentary helps preachers see how knowledge of first-century Judaism can help them avoid incorporating misunderstandings and stereotypes into their sermons on the letters. Ronald Allen and Clark Williamson explore insights from recent Christian-Jewish dialogue, continuities between Judaism and the theology of Paul, and the Roman occupation to help preachers understand the Jewish context of the letters. As in their previous book, Preaching the Gospels without Blaming...

The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann, Volume 2

"These sermons are themselves versions of that dangerous but longed-for doxology, and they move from ruthlessly honest cultural analysis to confident praise with such linguistic power that one can easily overlook the superb detail, the impressive craft, and the fine tooling employed by Brueggemann, the master preacher. The impact of these sermons comes not simply from the finished artwork but also from the artist's technique—the preparation of the homiletic canvas, the mix of pigme...

Feasting on the Gospels–John, Volume 1

A Feasting on the Word Commentary

Feasting on the Word Guide to Children’s Sermons

Feasting on the Word Guide to Children's Sermons equips church leaders and children's ministry volunteers to deliver children's sermons that are free of gimmicks and simplistic conclusions, that welcome children into the family of faith, and that give a foundation in God's good news for all people. This volume will address the common questions pastors have about the children's sermon, steps on avoiding common pitfalls, suggestions on how to use the children's time in a church foll...

Feasting on the Gospels–Luke, Volume 2

A Feasting on the Word Commentary

Feasting on the Gospels–Luke, Volume 1

A Feasting on the Word Commentary

Feasting on the Word Advent Companion

A Thematic Resource for Preaching and Worship

This new volume in the Feasting on the Word series provides an alternative to strict lectionary use for Advent, with six thematically-designed services for the four Sunday in Advent, as well as, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Four midweek services provide a supplemental study of John the Baptist to enhance the congregation's Advent experience. The resources in this companion are a combination of material from existing Feasting on the Word volumes as well as newly written material...

Reading the Parables

Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church

Parables make up one-third of Jesus' speech in the New Testament. In this volume, Richard Lischer provides an expert guide to these parables and proposes an important distinction between reading and interpreting the parables.Emphasizing the importance of reading the parables versus interpreting them, Lischer asserts that reading offers a kind of breathing space to explore historical, literary, theological, and socio-political dimensions of the parables and their various meanings, ...

Philippians and Philemon

A Theological Commentary on the Bible

In this latest volume in the Belief series, Daniel L. Migliore plumbs the depth of Paul's letters to the Philippians and to Philemon. With splendid theological reflection, Migliore explores central themes of these remarkable lettersùthemes that include the practice of prayer, righteousness from God, and the work of reconciliation and transformation through Jesus Christ.Migliore shows how Philippians continues to speak to churches that, like the church at Philippi, struggle to be f...

Invasion of the Dead

Preaching Resurrection

Our world and our churches are neither sinful nor lost, they are dead. This dead world is the one that God engages and into which Jesus invaded with a radically different vision of life.In this groundbreaking work, based on his 2011 Yale Beecher lectures, Brian K. Blount helps preachers effectively proclaim resurrection in a world consumed by death. Recognizing that both popular culture and popular Christianity are mesmerized by death and dying, Blount offers an alternative apocalyptic vision fo...