Elisha and Na`aman: Crossing Boundaries and Healing Strangers

David C. Hester
Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Pastoral Theology
Professor of Christian Education
Director, Doctor of Ministry and Continuing Education

April 15, 2015
2 Kings 5:1-19

Na`aman wants to be healed of his bodily illness.  He ends up being healed in body and soul through the boundary-busting grace of God for reasons only God knows. What sort of healing do we need?  Listen to the sermon.

Commanded to Love

David Hester
Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Pastoral Theology, Professor of Christian Education, and Director, Doctor of Ministry and Continuing Education

November 2, 2012
Leviticus 19:9-18
Mark 12:28-34

Is it odd to be commanded to love?  How does this relate to political campaigns and our relationship to those less fortunate?  Listen to the sermon.

A Pedagogy of Redemption

In honor of David Hester's retirement from the office of Dean of the Seminary and the resumption of his teaching at LPTS we are republishing his sermon originally preached at Convocation on February 17, 2006.

Happy David Hester Day at LPTS!

David C. Hester
Dean of the Seminary
VP for Academic Affairs
Professor of Christian Education

Romans 8: 18-25
Micah 4:1-4
Originally preached at Convocation on February 17, 2006

Louisville Seminary is at a kairos moment in its life, as we commit ourselves to becoming an anti-racist and multicultural community and begin in the fall a new curriculum. Our vocation and identity as a seminary of the Presbyterian Church (USA), with the mission of preparing men and women to participate in the continuing redemptive ministry of Jesus Christ for the world, requires us to have a "pedagogy of redemption" that equips our students to be practical theologians who can, in turn, teach those they serve to live redemptively in the world God loves. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Psalm 25 - Our Hope and God’s Memory

David  C. Hester

Dean of the Seminary

Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Pastoral Theology

March 24, 2012

Psalm 25:1-12

Worry about sin, appeals for help, and hope for forgiveness and restoration—these themes are found in Psalm 25.  Listen to the sermon.  Read the sermon in PDF.

A Prayer to Begin With--Psalm 51

David C. Hester

Dean of the Seminary, Vice President for Academic Affairs

Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Pastoral Theology

September 9, 2011
Psalm 51:1-19

There are snakes in every Garden of Eden. Things don’t always go well; people don’t always get along; words are not always kind and nurturing; and differences in color, culture, sexual orientation, church traditions, beliefs and world views are not always so warmly embraced by we who don’t always see eye to eye. Listen to the sermon.  Read the sermon in PDF.

Texts in Tension and the D2D

David C. Hester

Dean of the Seminary, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Ministry

September 10, 2010

Matthew 10: 5-15

Matthew 28:16-20

As the Seminary embraces a wider vision of a ministry that attends particularly to the religious pluralism that hallmarks our national landscape and neighborhoods where the churches we serve live out their calling in Christ, difficult and troubling texts emerge from the New Testament’s expression of Gospel. When the neighbors Jesus commands us to love, as a tangible expression of God’s love, are Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and people of many faiths different than ours, what are we to do and say about Scripture like Matthew 28: 16-20, which we’ve come to call “the Great Commission”? Is it possible to read this text honestly and faithfully and hear in it something other than a divine directive to convert those who are not Christian, requiring them to abandon their own rich traditions and ways of practicing faith and insisting that “there is no salvation outside the church,” the long standing claim of the historical church? Is it possible to hear this text and others like it as genuine good news that embraces all people? Is it possible to follow Jesus’ commission with a generosity that recognizes God’s love and life giving intentions for all people and celebrates, as God does, the tapestry of faith that is expressed in the religious pluralism amidst which we live? This sermon tries to answer questions like these by considering carefully both the context in which we and Matthew’s text now live and the context of Matthew’s church in late first century and the needs the Great Commission addressed to that first community of faith. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Read more about D2D

Holiness, Neighbors, and Strangers

David Hester
Dean of the Seminary, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Ministry

September 5, 2008
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Luke 10: 25-37


The “welcoming” community at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary is challenged to live fully into that welcome that all may feel loved, honored, and respected as we being the academic year together. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in .pdf.

On Sheep, Wolves, Serpents and Doves

David C. Hester Dean of the Seminary Vice President for Academic Affairs Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Ministry

Matthew 10:1, 5-23
October 26, 2007

Matthew’s account of Jesus sending out “the Twelve” on a mission to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” on which journey they are to take only the essentials and no extra baggage, prompts us to think about our own call to participate in God’s mission through the church for the transformation of the world. Matthew warns that the disciples who agree to “go public” with Jesus’ call to a new vision of the future may not always be welcome. The opponents of Jesus’ good news vision are consuming and destructive of self and of others—they are like wolves. How shall those in mission live in the midst of such threats? Jesus urges they become “wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” living a sanctified life, guided by practical wisdom that recognizes openings for the Gospel’s good word. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

A Pedagogy of Redemption

David C. Hester
Dean of the Seminary
VP for Academic Affairs
Professor of Christian Education

Romans 8: 18-25
Micah 4:1-4
Originally preached at Convocation on February 17, 2006

Louisville Seminary is at a kairos moment in its life, as we commit ourselves to becoming an anti-racist and multicultural community and begin in the fall a new curriculum. Our vocation and identity as a seminary of the Presbyterian Church (USA), with the mission of preparing men and women to participate in the continuing redemptive ministry of Jesus Christ for the world, requires us to have a "pedagogy of redemption" that equips our students to be practical theologians who can, in turn, teach those they serve to live redemptively in the world God loves. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Living with Diversity: A Lesson From Peter

David C. Hester
Dean of the Seminary
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Harrison Ray Anderson Professor of Ministry

May 4, 2007
Acts 11: 1-18
John 13: 1-35

How are we to live into the diversity that we want in our community? Dean Hester addresses this emotionally charged issue as we move from the easy beginning of good intentions to the hard road of loving the "inconvenient differences" among us. Listen to the sermon.