City Preaching

You may wonder if there was any grand design to the selection of texts or sermonic themes. If there is, it might be a theological bent toward resurrection. But you will see lots of death in these sermons. Lots. I hope you will also see glimpses of seriously imaginable resurrection. What does it mean to preach resurrection in a society where death seems as if it is the only game in town? "Preaching resurrection is not just for Easter anymore," writes Brian Blount. "We must find a way to image [resurrection], to affirm our expectation for it, and to find ways to recast it in contemporary symbolism that connects with our contemporary age. Probably without realizing it in a deliberate way, I have sought to tap into the resurrection imagination as a form of living defiance, joyfully existing and testifying in the space of death dealing powers. I preach poetically, but I also aim to "clothe" our experience of resurrection with recognizable garments from our social, emotional, and political lives. Look for the ordinary bush -- and almost commonplace people -- alight with holy fire.

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