Toward a Relational Approach to Social Justice

Ashley Hicks White

Assistant Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy

Fall Convocation
September 7, 2017
Mark 12:28-34


If we do justice without love are we doing justice to God?  Listen to the address.

Custom Made Headphones

Amos Disasa

Trustee, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Organizing Pastor, Downtown Church, Columbia, SC

October 23, 2015
Deuteronomy 6:4-6

Listen to the sermon.

Opposite Day

Gerald Liu
Visiting Professor of Worship

November 1, 2013
Luke 6:20-31

The message suggests that grasping the blessings and woes in Luke and "Doing unto others as we would have them do unto us" means playing a game of opposites. Followers of Jesus must learn to love their enemies and live lives oriented toward the promises of God instead of human judgment.  Listen to the sermon.

This Kind of Love!

Kilen Grey
Dean of Students

November 9, 2012
1 John 4:7-11 

America is not the same place it used to be. How can we the people, in all our diversity, share this country and the church? Listen to the sermon.

A Sermon on Genesis 4:2b-9

Steve Cook
Visiting Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible

September 23, 2011

Genesis 4:2b-9

The Friday service of Word and Sacrament featured a sermon on Genesis 4:2b-9.  Listen to the sermon.  Read the sermon in PDF.

Fencing the Table, Dealing with Differences

David R. Sawyer

Director of Lifelong Learning and Advanced Degrees, and Professor of Ministry

November, 19, 2010

Luke 11:5-10

People who are different, such as those with challenging sexualities or even those who differ from us socially or theologically can be thought of as inconvenient visitors, which is a theme of the parable of the “Neighbor at Midnight” from Luke 11:5-13. The parable can be interpreted as a clash of cultural or moral codes and it could be seen as a story of God’s never-failing love for all people, even those who knock on our doors at midnight. The parable could be seen as a critique of “fencing the table,” a practice of insuring that those who participate in the Eucharist are doing so worthily, is used as a metaphor for the community’s approach to inconvenient visitors. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Be Perfect! Really?!? How perfect?

Karin Wright, Presbyterian, preached this Senior Sermon during the Spring 2009 term.

Matthew 5:38-48

How perfect do I have to be? That's the question that every kid in confirmation always wants to know. If we're honest, we want to know too. Isn't it hard enough just to try our best? Why do we have to be perfect? Read the sermon in PDF.

Becoming

Debra J. Mumford

Frank H. Caldwell Assistant Professor of Homiletics

May 8, 2009

1 John 3:1-2

Love is not truly love without action, but love is hard to do and takes time, work, and the honoring of those who critique our acts of love. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Welcome! Taking a Chance on Love

Elizabeth Johnson Walker
Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling

November 7, 2008
John 3:16 - 17, 21
Welcome! Taking a Chance on Love is a sermon that was preached in a worship service designed to introduce a project sponsored by the Cultural Diversity Committee at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on November 7, 2008. The name of the project is “The Power of Difference and the Experience of Difference”. The title of the project and the title of the sermon express the tie-in to our new seminary “brand,” and invite a theological understanding of all sorts of difference and the promise of welcome.
Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Focus. Relinquish. Love

Susan R. Garrett
Professor of New Testament

September 12, 2008
Proverbs 8:22-36
Philippians 2:5-11

Paul’s letter reminds us to put aside discord and work together to focus on the mission of the church. Read the sermon in PDF. (We are sorry to not have the audio version available for this sermon. There was an equipment malfunction that prevented the recording.)

Total Praise: A Vision for Holistic and Interconnected Christian Lives

Debra J. Mumford,
Frank H. Caldwell Assistant Professor of Homiletics

Fall Convocation
September 4, 2008
Romans 12:1-8

The twelfth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans puts us on the path to living lives of total praise by challenging us to think communally. Paul and other first century followers of Christ would be extremely curious about our twenty-first century individualistic culture wherein we espouse rugged individualism and a pull-ourselves-up-by the-bootstraps mentality. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in .pdf.

Servant Leadership

James A. Hyde
Professor & Director of Marriage and Family Therapy Program

Andrew Black
Master of Divinity student-LPTS and Juris Doctor student-University of Louisville

Vanessa Sharp
Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Church Music student-Johnson C. Smith Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta

Matthew 25:40
Ezekiel 2:9-3:3; 3:10,11;3:14,15
John 1:14
November 30, 2007

In commemoration of World AIDS Day, the LPTS community gathered in Caldwell Chapel to remember those who are HIV positive, those who live with AIDS around the world, and those active in the struggle against AIDS. We are invited to sit where our brothers and sisters with AIDS sit in their daily life, and are reminded that we know God through our knowledge of the poor, the sick, and the oppressed. Listen to the service. Read Professor Hyde’s remarks in PDF. Read Andrew Black’s remarks in PDF.

God’s Widening Circles

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

Ephesians 1:1-10
September 28, 2007

The sermon starts with a reading from Ephesians by student Asamoah Apenteng in his native language, Akan.

Despite scientific predictions, and despite various scenarios described in the bible, humans are blessed, in a way, by our inability to unravel and articulate the mysteries of what will happen to the universe in the future. But we keep trying. The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church at Ephesus, wends his way does not describe what will happen in the future. But he does describe God’s intentions for the future—the “dimensions of God’s eternal purpose and grace.” Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon

“Angelification”

Susan R. Garrett
Professor of New Testament

Ezekiel 1:26-28
Daniel 12:1-2
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
Originally preached on November 4, 2005

Jesus shows forth the glory of God. We reflect that glory when we allow ourselves to be remade in the image of Jesus' self-giving love. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF format.

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.

“God's Politics of Love”

Johnny B. Hill, Assistant Professor of Theology

“God's Politics of Love”

1 John 4:16-21
November 3, 2006

"...the Apostle John offers us a refreshing and radical vision of God's way of ordering human relationships, community, and public life. By grounding love of God in the creative space of relationships with others John provides enormous insight to what it means to live faithfully, courageously, and prophetically today-not just for interpersonal relations but ordering social life as well." Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF format.