Wisdom's Winsome Way

Dr. David R. Sawyer
Director of Lifelong Learning and Advanced Degrees
Professor of Ministry

April 27, 2007
1 Samuel 25 (selected verses)

We work together, play together, worship together, and care for each other. And sometimes, we get angry at each other. We get in each other’s ways. We get on each other’s nerves. We react sometimes foolishly. This is especially true when things are changing, and wow, are things ever changing in the world, in the church, and in the seminary. The old ways of doing church no longer work, and we find ourselves in the wilderness trying to find a better way.
Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

What’s Your Dream?

Dr. Frances S. Adeney
William A. Benfield, Jr. Professor of Evangelism and Global Mission

April 20, 2007
Genesis 31:55-32:12

This sermon tells the story of Jacob’s struggles as he returns from his father-in-law Laban’s home, where he had sojourned for twenty years, to the land of his birth. The story shows how God fulfills the dream he gave to Jacob many years before. The idea presented is that although we often put aside the dream God gives us, God renews it in our lives and it is always much bigger than we’d imagined. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in pdf.

Some Sympathy for King Herod

Dr. Timothy B. Tyson
Winner, Grawemeyer Award--Religion (2007)
Author of Blood Done Sign My Name

April 19, 2007
Matthew 2:1-23

Timothy B. Tyson, winner of the 2007 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, reflects on how King Herod's strategy for dealing with the threat to his kingship posed by the birth of the messiah parallels the "measured military responses" favored by U.S. leaders today. But, such "rational" strategies are not permissible within a Christian framework because they are not undergirded by love. Through the course of the sermon, Dr. Tyson moves steadily from his starting position of "sympathy for King Herod," to a crescendo of criticism of the present war in Iraq and a stirring call to all Christians to make their voices heard. Listen to the sermon.

Tilling and Tending

Dr. Douglas L. Gragg
Associate Professor of Bibliography and Research
Director of Library and Information Technology Services

April 13, 2007
Genesis 2:4b-15.

In this text the human vocation is identified poetically as a responsibility “to till and to tend” the garden that sustains life. While this has obvious implications for human attitudes and responsibilities toward the natural environment, it can also be applied more broadly. What if we were to think of all of our important activities as forms of gardening? Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in pdf.

Drawing Life

Dr. Bradley J. Wigger
Second Presbyterian Church Professor of Christian Education

John 11:17-44
March 30, 2007

With the help of students in the Practical Theology class Dr. Wigger explores the story of the raising of Lazarus. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon.