Sermon by Angela Cowser

Rev. Angela Cowser
Associate Pastor of Multi-Cultural Ministries

Eastminster Presbyterian Church, Nashville, TN

Katie Geneva Cannon Lecture Worship Service

Isaiah 1:11-17

Amos 5:18-24

March 26, 2007

Our Worship Leader today:

Rev. Angela Cowser holds degrees from Brown University (BA, political science), University of Chicago (MA international relations), and Louisville Seminary (MDiv ’05). She currently serves as and is a PhD student in ethics,
homiletics, and practical theology at Vanderbilt University.

Our Liturgist:

Clemette Haskins is a first-year MDiv student from Bowling Green, Ky. Prior to following God’s call to ministry, Haskins was a Division I women’s basketball coach at two universities. In recent years, she has led Bible studies and served as interim pastor for a church in Bowling Green.

This worship service was part of the Katie Geneva Cannon Lecture sponsored by the Women's Center at LPTS. Listen to the sermon.

Reading and Writing Against the Odds: Daughter Disciples of a Sister-Scribe Leaving a Mark in the Scriptures of Israel

Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney
Associate Professor, Old Testament and Homiletics
The Lutheran Thelogical Seminary at Philadelphia

Katie Geneva Cannon Lecture
March 25, 2007

Dr. Gafney is a member of the historic African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, Pa. Established in 1792, it is the first Episcopal church in the U.S. founded by and for African Americans. She is also a member of the Dorshei Derekh Reconstructionist Minyan of the Germantown Jewish Center in Philadelphia. Dr. Gafney is particularly interested in how Jews and Christians interpret the texts they hold in common. Among her other interests are feminist biblical studies, rabbinic studies, and issues in translation. Listen to the lecture.

The Katie Geneva Cannon lecture is sponsored by the Women's Center at LPTS.

Life After Death: Getting Through Grief

Rev. Dr. Lynn Gant March
Pastoral Counselor in Private Practice

Psalm 22:1-5
Psalm 22:25-31
Romans 8:31-39
March 14, 2007

“Grief is biblical,” says Dr. Gant March as she walks listeners through the stages of grief and identifies the ways in which God walks alongside.
Listen to the sermon.

Living with Grief

Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff
Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture,

University of Virginia
Noah Porter Professor (Emeritus) of Philosophical Theology,

Yale University

Caldwell Lecture
March 12, 2007

Dr. Wolterstorff guides pastoral caregivers in ways to help individuals own, not disown, their grief and learn to live with grief as a part of their life story. Listen to the lecture.

Forgiveness and Beyond

Rev. Dr. Joretta L. Marshall
Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care
Eden Theological Seminary

Greenhoe Lecture
March 13, 2007

It is the Christian’s vocation to seek healing and reconciliation with individuals and within communities. Dr. Marshall describes what forgiveness is and what it is not and outlines a process of forgiveness for those who incorporate it into pastoral care. Listen to the lecture.

Asleep with Grief

Rev. Dr. Dale P. Andrews
Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology
Boston University School of Theology

Luke 22:39-46
March 13, 2007

What do you pray in the face of death? Do not succumb to the temptation to believe that death is the end. Pray for a death as the beginning of a life in peace with Jesus. Listen to the sermon.

Understanding Grief

Dr. Nicholas Wolterstorff
Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia
Noah Porter Professor (Emeritus) of Philosophical Theology, Yale University

Caldwell Lecture
March 12, 2007

From personal experience, the author of Lament for a Son provides an understanding of grief—an irrational longing for that which one rationally knows cannot be returned. Listen to the lecture.

Finitude and Unfinished Business

Rev. Dr. Joretta L. Marshall
Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care
Eden Theological Seminary

Greenhoe Lecture
March12, 2007

Much of the unfinished business of living, dying, and death is related to unresolved pain and hurt and the need for forgiveness that may never be completed. Listen to the lecture.

Unbind the Dead

Rev. Dr. Dale P. Andrews
Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology
Boston University School of Theology

John 11:28-44

March 11, 2007

Like Mary and Martha who mourned the death of their brother Lazarus, we believe that death must be removed in order to have Emmanuel – God with us. Instead, the overwhelmed Jesus overwhelms death by moving the stone to stand in the middle of death. Listen to the sermon.

The Woman Behind the Wardrobe

Johanna W. H. Bos,
Dora Pierce Professor of Bible and Professor of Old Testament

2 Kings 22:8-17
March 9, 2007

Huldah is a mostly forgotten prophet but a crucial one who authenticates a written document as God's word. She is in the text introduced by her profession, her husband's name and the names of his immediate forefathers as well as her husband's profession, "keeper of the wardrobe." She speaks a word of strong judgment of God against God's people because they have not been faithful to God.

Being faithful to God in ancient Israel, also according to Deuteronomy meant taking care of the stranger, poor women, people without a voice and representation. Today, our communities are trying to change their mentality and practices of inclusion, even as the people of ancient Israel were called to do. We too have fallen short, not just in the past but also in the present. Women have come out from behind the wardrobe, together with Huldah.

Yet, in the light of International Women's Day, celebrated on March 8, we call to mind the fact that more than 400 million women in the world are counted among the unemployed or underemployed and that a great deal still needs to be done to bring down the house of patriarchy and to usher in an age of equality and dignity for women. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Is God Waiting on Us?

Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty

Psalm 27
Matthew 23:1-12
March 2, 2007

The sermon for the Community Service of Word and Sacrament during Exploratory Weekend was given by the Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty. She received her M.Div. from LPTS in 1995 and her Ph.D in theological ethics from Union-PSCE in 2002. Elizabeth teaches theology at Bellermine University and also serves on the Advisory Board of the Women's Center at LPTS. Listen to the sermon.