Preaching and Professing

by Wood, Ralph C.

• ISBN13: 9780802864468
• ISBN10: 0802864465
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-15
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

Testifies to the presence of God as both our post-earthly hope and our present-world existence. These thought-provoking sermons by Ralph Wood, a layman who has taught religion and literature for many years, seek to till new soil in the fertile field of Christian faith and life. They draw on a wide range of reading not only in Christian theology but also in both classical and contemporary literature and culture. And they also mine Wood¿s own professorial and personal experience in dealing with both the old and the young amid "the chances and changes of life." Wood squarely engages the American "culture of death" by wrestling with such vexing questions as sexuality and marriage, war and peace, abortion, racial injustice, and abuse of the elderly. By grounding his homilies in specific times, places, and quandaries, Wood demonstrates that Christianity remains a vigorous set of doctrines and morals precisely as preaching and ethics give shape to our worship and living in the here and now. Focusing not so much on our "getting to heaven," Wood's Preaching and Professing shows concretely how the gospel "gets heaven into us."

Author Biography

Ralph C. Wood is University Professor of Theology and Literature at Baylor University. His other books include The Gospel according to Tolkien and Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. viii
Preaching and Hearing
Introduction: The Primacy of Preaching in Protestant Worship	p. 3
Be Hearers of the Word and Not Doers Only	p. 13
The Minister as Parson, Preacher, and Pastor	p. 21
Hearing the Voice of God	p. 28
The Church
"Compel Them to Come In": The Gospel as Divine Command, Not Consumer Choice	p. 37
The World's Heroes and the Church's Saints	p. 44
A Call for a Latter-Day Reformation of the Church	p. 54
Wrestling Jacob and Being Named by God	p. 63
Suffering and Service
The No-People Who Have Become God's People	p. 71
The Call of the Crucified	p. 78
The Suffering That Makes for Character	p. 85
Christians as the Little Ones, the Hobbits of the World	p. 92
A Farewell Sermon to a Faithful People	p. 100
The Rock That Springs with the Water of Life	p. 106
Doctrine and the Moral Life
Christians and Jews: Wayfarers through the Wasteland	p. 115
The Scandal of Our Redemption	p. 123
Loud, Dogmatic, and Certain: Three Good Christian Words	p. 132
Thou Shalt Not Slay either Bodies or Souls	p. 144
Hurrying toward Hell	p. 159
Baptism in a Coffin	p. 166
The Christian Year
Waiting, Watching, and Enduring to the End	p. 171
Jesus as Both Savior and Lord	p. 176
Hosanna to the King Who Rides upon a Donkey	p. 184
This Cup	p. 191
The Call of the Cross and the Table	p. 196
Unwearied Hearts Ascend	p. 202
The Vocations of Ministry and Marriage
A Fiery Red-Head Called to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament	p. 211
A Rock Breaker and a Stone Builder	p. 218
The Redeeming Comedy of Marriage	p. 222
A Latter-Day Rachel and Jacob	p. 227
A Marriage Built on the Solid Rock	p. 231
Death and Eternal Life
An Unhaloed Mississippian Saint	p. 237
A Man of Godly Fear and Suffering Obedience	p. 244
Feasting on Manna and Turnip Greens	p. 250
A Grotesque Act of Repentance	p. 255
A Woman Whose Name and Life Sparkled	p. 258
A Teacher Who Demanded Pandemonium	p. 264
A Man Alive While Dying	p. 271
A Woman Who Waited for the Lord God	p. 276
A Fearless and Funny Preacher of the Gospel	p. 283
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