Tongues of Angels, Tongues of Men : A Book of Sermons

by THORNTON, JOHN F.WASHBURN, KATHERINE

• ISBN13: 9780385488921
• ISBN10: 0385488920
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Doubleday

Summary

Tongues of Angels, Tongues of Men: A Book of Sermonsis a one-volume collection of the world's great sermons from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Resonant with promise, here are the speeches that have echoed down the centuries. From the Sermon on the Mount to Savonarola's attack on Renaissance Florence's excesses, from the anti-Nazi preaching of Bonhoeffer to Merton's awareness of the everyday in spiritual life, there is no issue or dilemma the pulpit has not addressed. This engaging collection combines a myriad of topics, individuals, eras, and controversies to achieve a balance of the human, the moral, and the theological. Jewish readers will be moved by the Hasidic exhortation to faith and joy, and Christian readers will appreciate the pulpits use as a forum for debate. Edited, annotated, and abridged by two experts, here are nearly one hundred famed sermons from preachers as diverse as Paul, Augustine, Benedict, Cure d'Ars, John Donne, Hildegard of Bingen, Girolamo Savonarola, Martin Luther, Meister Eckhart, John Henry Newman, Cotton Mather, Thomas Crammer, Henry Ward Beecher, Desmond Tutu, Martin Niemoller, John Calvin, Rabbi Akiba, John Wesley, Billy Sunday, Bernard of Clairvaux, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many, many more. A full thematic index, an alphabetical list of preachers, and a comprehensive index complete this book filled with timeless riches.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(53)
John F. Thornton
I. ``Are Not My Words as a Fire? Saith the Lord, and as a Hammer That Breaketh the Rock in Pieces?''
The Apostolic Era
Jesus of Nazareth - The Sermon on the Mount	53	(7)
The Pentecost Sermon	60	(3)
St. Peter
At Antioch and Athens	63	(4)
St. Paul
Clement of Rome - Christ and the Church	67	(12)
II. ``And They Went Forth and Preached Everywhere''
The Church Fathers
Origen - Exodus Homily 3	79	(10)
Homily 20	89	(10)
St. John Chrysostom
St. Basil the Great - Homily 7: On the Creation of Crawling Creatures	99	(10)
On the First Day of Creation	109	(7)
St. Ambrose
St. Augustine of Hippo - To the Newly Baptized---on the Eucharist and On Charity	116	(8)
St. Gregory the Great - Homily 25	124	(15)
III. ``Great Was the Company of the Preachers''
The Medieval Pulpit
A Slave in Ireland	139	(5)
St. Patrick
Caesarius of Arles - On the Beginning of Lent	144	(3)
The Venerable Bede - The Meeting of Mercy and Justice	147	(5)
Anonymous - Homily 2: The End of the World	152	(5)
St. Bernard of Clairvaux - Various Meanings of the Kiss	157	(8)
Hildegard of Bingen - Vision Seven: The Devil	165	(14)
St. Francis of Assisi - St. Francis Preaches to the Birds	179	(4)
On the Apostles' Creed	183	(8)
St. Thomas Aquinas
The Feast of the Holy Trinity	191	(6)
Meister Johannes Eckhart
Taking Up the Cross	197	(6)
Thomas a Kempis
On Proverbs	203	(14)
Jacob Anatoli
IV. ``Behold I Will Make My Words in Thy Mouth Fire, and This People Wood, and It Shall Devour Them.''
Rebirth, Reform, and Counter Reform
Balaam's Ass	217	(7)
Fra Girolamo Savonarola
Dependence upon Divine Mercy	224	(3)
St. John Fisher
Sermon on the Raising of Lazarus	227	(7)
Martin Luther
Sermon of the Plow and Duties and Respect of Judges	234	(8)
Hugh Latimer
I Know My Redeemer Lives	242	(13)
John Calvin
``O Lord Our God, Other Lords Besides Thee Have Ruled Us''	255	(10)
John Knox
V. ``When Pulpits Did Like Beacons Flame''
The Seventeenth Century
A Cold Coming	265	(4)
Lancelot Andrewes
Death's Duel	269	(18)
John Donne
The Good Witch Must Also Die	287	(5)
William Perkins
A Wife Mistaken, or a Wife and No Wife	292	(8)
Thomas Grantham
Lust for Revenge	300	(3)
Jeremy Taylor
The Last Words of the Archbishop of Canterbury	303	(6)
William Laud
Mr. Bunyan's Last Sermon	309	(7)
John Bunyan
Of Submission to the Divine Will	316	(14)
Isaac Barrow
Funeral Oration for Louis Bourbon, Prince of Conde	330	(13)
Jacques Benigne Bossuet
Second Farar Eulogy: ``The Tsaddiq Is Lost''	343	(12)
Saul Levi Morteira
VI. ``Errand into the Wilderness''
Colonial America
A Model of Christian Charity	355	(5)
John Winthrop
Thanksgiving	360	(3)
Cotton Mather
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God	363	(12)
Jonathan Edwards
VII. ``Preach Ye upon the Housetops''
Eighteenth-Century England and Europe
Against Evil-Speaking	375	(9)
John Tillotson
Upon Sleeping in Church	384	(8)
Jonathan Swift
The Prodigal Son	392	(8)
Laurence Sterne
All Is Vanity	400	(9)
Samuel Johnson
The Great Assize	409	(13)
John Wesley
Awake, Thou That Sleepest	422	(12)
Charles Wesley
Rabbi Nachman of Bratislava - The Lost Princess	434	(6)
Eulogy for Empress Maria Theresa	440	(19)
Ezekiel Landau
VIII. ``The Bringing of Truth Through Personality''
The Nineteenth Century
Isaac Meir Rothenberg of Ger - On the Eve of the Day of Atonement	459	(2)
Beware If You Have No Temptations	461	(6)
St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney
A Sermon of Slavery	467	(12)
Theodore Parker
Stewardship	479	(12)
Charles Grandison Finney
``Pray Without Ceasing''	491	(10)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry Ward Beecher - Spared!	501	(11)
And Joseph and His Mother Marveled	512	(7)
Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Powers of Nature and Holiness Necessary for Future Blessedness	519	(16)
John Henry Newman
De Sun Do Move	535	(9)
John J. Jasper
The Fire and the Calf	544	(13)
Phillips Brooks
Come	557	(11)
Dwight Lyman Moody
Perseverance	568	(7)
Sabine Baring-Gould
God and Evolution	575	(14)
William Jennings Bryan
IX. ``Woe Is Unto Me If I Preach Not the Gospel''
The Twentieth Century
Heaven	589	(5)
Billy Sunday
The Judas Sermon	594	(5)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Creed in Slow Motion	599	(12)
Ronald Knox
Membership	611	(11)
C. S. Lewis
Loneliness and Solitude	622	(8)
Paul Tillich
Saved by Grace	630	(7)
Karl Barth
The Dimensions of a Complete Life	637	(7)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Church Must Go Beyond Modernism	644	(11)
Harry Emerson Fosdick
The Wheat and the Tares	655	(9)
Reinhold Niebuhr
The Professed Atheist and the Verbal Theist	664	(3)
Harry Austryn Wolfson
This World and the Beyond	667	(10)
Rudolf Bultmann
The Beatitudes	677	(9)
Fulton J. Sheen
The Book of Job	686	(8)
Archibald MacLeish
Dachau Sermon: Maundy Thursday, March 29, 1945	694	(7)
Martin Niemoller
Except I Shall See in His Hands the Print of the Nails and Thrust My Hand into His Side	701	(9)
C. L. Franklin
All Saints and All Souls Day	710	(9)
Karl Rahner
X. ``Who Will Go for Us?''
Living Preachers
The Prodigal Son	719	(13)
Billy Graham
Homily at Lourdes	732	(7)
John Paul II
Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster	739	(4)
Robert Runcie
Alex's Death	743	(6)
William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
The Hungering Dark	749	(10)
Frederick Buechner
The Greatest Saint of Modern Times	759	(8)
Jean-Marie Lustiger
What Jesus Means to Me	767	(9)
Desmond Tutu
The Invisible Reality of Hope	776	(5)
Peter J. Gomes
Acknowledgments and Sources	781	(12)
Bibliography	793	(12)
Index of Preachers	805	(2)
Index of Themes	807

Excerpts

"Are Not My Words as a Fire? Saith the Lord, and as a Hammer That Breaketh the Rock in Pieces?"

The Apostolic Era

Jesus of Nazareth 4 b.c.-ca. a.d. 32

As the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins would put it eighteen centuries later, "Nowhere in literature is there anything to match the Sermon on the Mount: if there is let men bring it forward." Its grandeur and its epitomization of an entire faith are astonishing, yet this Sermon is in some ways an anomalous inspiration for the very sermon form.

In Matthew's version (there is another to be found in Luke 6:17-49) Jesus speaks outdoors, apparently to his disciples, even though multitudes surround them; he is not speaking while conducting any religious ceremony but is rather teaching these twelve men who have given up their former lives and have now become his followers.

That this teaching will lead to the cross is hinted at when he speaks to them directly in the last of the eight Beatitudes: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." (5:11.)

Of the new ways in which they were being taught to stand in relation to God, perhaps none is so startling as the command to "love your enemies," meaning we are no longer to have enemies and indeed are to give love in return for any hatred we may receive. The reaction of his listeners to this radical injunction-and to the rest of his teaching-was astonishment. But it was the astonishment of those whose minds had been opened to a new reality by the uncanny authority (see 7:29) with which he taught.

This sermon of sermons, never after surpassed, remains for men and women of faith a standard by which all religious speech may be measured.

The Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5-8:1 (King James Version)

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca [Fool], shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: but I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

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Excerpted from Tongues of Angels, Tongues of Men: A Book of Sermons by John F. Thornton, Katherine Washburn
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.