aBeLOG
Welcome to the aBeLOG, a series of (hopefully!) fortnightly posts on all matters homiletical. I intend to touch on whatever grabs my attention regarding preaching—issues contemporary and ancient, ideas hermeneutical and rhetorical, personalities conservative and liberal, publications antiquarian and avant-garde. Essentially, I’m going to follow my own homiletical olfactory instincts up rabbit trails and after red herrings. Comments are always invited and appreciated.
New Book: A Manual for Preaching!
Folks, my latest opus on preaching is out: A Manual for Preaching: The Journey from Text to Sermon (Baker, 2019).
This is intended to be a companion volume to A Vision for Preaching: Understanding the Heart of Pastoral Ministry (Baker, 2015). The latter was a big-picture view of preaching; the former, current work, explains the nitty-gritty of crafting a sermon.
And since my “vision for preaching” is fairly broad, you don’t have to be a senior pastor somewhere,
Genesis 44:1–45:28
Self-sacrificial solidarity with the suffering, recognizing God’s overriding sovereignty, promotes divine blessing.
This section describes the remainder of the events on that fateful second trip to Egypt made by Joseph and his brothers. Benjamin had been brought along. Joseph, still incognito to his brothers, invites them to a grand feast and everything appears to be fine and dandy, at least till they get ready to return to Canaan.
Then comes the test that will reveal
Preaching @ Stonebriar Community Church
Quick note …
I am preaching at Stonebriar Community Church, north of Dallas, in Frisco, on August 11 and 18 (9:00 am and 10:45 am).
[For other speaking events, see here.]
Preaching @ EK Bailey Conference
Quick note …
I am speaking at the 24th annual E. K. Bailey Preaching Conference on July 8, 9, and 11, at the Fairmont Hotel, in downtown Dallas:
Preaching Opening Session (Mon, Jul 8 @ 7:00–8:00 pm)
Workshop Session (Tue, Jul 9 @ 3:00 pm–4:15 pm)
Pastors’ Roundtable (Thur, Jul 11 @ 10:30 am–11:30 am)
Program: here.
Registration: here.
[For other speaking events, see here.]
Genesis 42:1–43:34
God’s discipline and their selflessness and submission to God, lead agents of divine blessings to resolve past sin.
This section begins with the famine of 41:57 being assumed as the background. So the brothers (without Benjamin, Jacob’s favorite) are dispatched to Egypt for food.
When the brothers arrive in Egypt, one cannot but wonder how their path intersected with that of Joseph. That a tiny group of people, among the many hungry foreigners and natives in Egypt looking
Hermeneutics & Celibacy
A couple of months ago, I was at Beeson Divinity School (of Samford University) in Birmingham, AL, to deliver their William E. Conger, Jr., Lectures in Preaching.
Part of my engagements at Beeson also included an interview with the Dean of the School, Dr. Timothy George, for a podcast that he hosts.
Here is a snippet of our conversation:
Timothy George: This word, you use this word, we use it all the time here at Benson, hermeneutic, which
Genesis 40:1–41:57
Trusting in God’s working even when it is indiscernible results in divine blessing.
Joseph is in jail, falsely accused of rape. But God is always at work, even if one cannot see him working. Though God is not mentioned in this section, the literary absence of God is not a literal absence of God.
Joseph has with him in prison, the Pharaoh’s baker and butler, in detention for unknown crimes. These two fellow prisoners have a pair of dreams (40:8–19). Joseph interprets
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.