The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann

by Walter Brueggemann

Overview

In addition to being one of the world's leading interpreters of the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann is a skilled and beloved preacher. This collection of sermons demonstrates Brueggemann's fidelity to biblical texts, which come alive with meaning in our contemporary world. Throughout, Brueggemann also reflects on his preaching.

The book features a biblical index as well as a foreword by Samuel Wells of Duke University who writes: "Enjoy this volume from a master exegete, a master theologian, and a master preacher. They really are neat sermons. And they're for you."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611641233
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	09/26/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	679 KB

About the Author

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of dozens of books, including Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now, Interrupting Silence: God's Command to Speak Out, and Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Age.

Read an Excerpt

All these texts bear witness to the power of God for new life. That is why we are here. God is at work giving new life. The question is how to receive it. We can receive it fearfully like the Sadducees and hold on to the old rules which give us petty assurance. Or we can turn loose of our life in praise and thanksgiving and doxology, knowing that the power for life and the gift of life overwhelms our fear and our despair.

God's power for life rightly leaves us speechless. We can be speechless, like the Sadducees and go back to plot how to stay in control one more day. Or we can be speechless in amazement, like David, able only to say "thou, thou, thine," because we find no words for the new reality.

The power of life is not a religious fantasy. It is a fresh lease on keeping our baptism in the face of injustice and poverty and alienation. It affirms to us that God has not yet quit and God will have God's way. We are on our way with God, rejoicing, praising, surrendering, and obeying. We will then address this age with care and compassion, knowing that the age to come is quite safe in God's mercy.

—from "The Threat of Life: Permitting Its Intrusion"