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.
Vision!
“What could be more full of meaning?—
for the pulpit is ever
this earth’s foremost part;
all the rest comes in its rear;
the pulpit leads the world. …
Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out,
and not a voyage complete;
and the pulpit is its prow.”
So wrote Herman Melville in Moby-Dick a century ago.
I agree. With the pulpit for a prow, humanity is led by preaching into a unique world, an ideal world, God’s world, where it may dwell with him. That makes
Genesis 22:1−19
Fear of God trumps every other allegiance and manifests in self-sacrificial obedience.
The account of Genesis 22 begins with a time-stamp: “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham” (22:1). What “things”?
Throughout the saga of Abraham, he is shown clumsily stumbling along in his faith. In Genesis 12, he leaves his homeland, obeying God’s call, and goes to Canaan. But the next instant he is in Egypt because of a famine. The first sign of trouble,
Ramesh Richard: How I Preach
Ramesh Richard: And this is How I Preach …
[Ramesh is one of my senior colleagues at Dallas Theological Seminary (and was one of my teachers, I might add). A solid thinker and writer on matters of preaching, hermeneutics, and apologetics, he is also the president of Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Health (RREACH), a global proclamation ministry with significant impact among leaders and pastors in many continents—the
Genesis 20:1−21:34
The complications of past sin do not preclude God’s work and his blessing, though sin may incur discipline.
The wife/sister episode with which Genesis 20 begins is similar to the incident in Genesis 12. Abraham seeks recourse in deception—again!—to save his own skin (20:11). Even after the two-fold promise that Isaac would be born to Abraham and Sarah (17:16; 18:10–14), Sarah is given away… into the harem of a local ruler. Abraham’s conduct is reprehensible
Scott Wenig: How I Preach
Scott Wenig: And this is How I Preach …
[Scott, like several of those portrayed in this series, is a fellow Evangelical Homiletics Society (EHS) member, and a fellow teacher of preaching (at Denver Seminary). Thoughtful scholar on all matters homiletical and pastoral, he brings to the pulpit a wealth of experience in leading churches. He has been at Denver for over two decades, and including this stint has been pastoring both in full-time and interim capacities for the
Genesis 18:1−19:38
Failure to keep the way of God results in punishment, but the prayers (and life) of one keeping that way precludes it.
This section is essentially the story of Lot and of Sodom and Gomorrah, with divine justice as a distinct theme.
Abraham’s household is called to be characterized by keeping Yahweh’s way in righteousness and justice, in contrast to the depravity and turpitude characterizing the locale where Lot is situated—described as wicked and evil (19:7, 9). Aligning
Sole Passion!
I was recently interviewed about singleness and celibacy in Dallas Theological Seminary’s quarterly magazine, Kindred Spirit. For the interview see here.
(BTW, the entire issue is focused on “Singles and the Church,” and may be accessed here. Feel free to read, pass on, or otherwise disseminate.)
Also, in conjunction with that issue, another interview of me with my colleague and friend, Dr. Darrell Bock, was posted on Dallas Seminary’s Table Podcast. Darrell
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. 