Preaching from the Borders: The Impossibility of Hospitality

Cláudio Carvalhaes
Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching

Greenhoe Lecture
March 4, 2008

Sermons have a strange force. They can change the history of people’s lives and entire communities. What we preach feeds the thread of the cultural values in our society. Preachers have changed and keep on changing the lives of many people around the world. Preachers can and do make history happen. And yet, in spite of this powerful force, to preach is as fragile as a candle in the wind. In order to become a good preacher one has to be, first, a good worshiper. One has to learn to pray and talk to God first, before one is able to talk about God to others. Listen to the lecture. Read the lecture in PDF.

Speak Louder Please, I Can’t Hear You

Cláudio Carvalhaes
Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching

Genesis 11: 1-9
Acts 2: 1-13
March 5, 2008

This is where we live: between Babel and Pentecost, at, around and within many borders. We all live between Babel and Pentecost. But how are we to construct the city of God within the city of humankind? What shall we do to speak and to hear God’s language? How can we move from Babel from Pentecost? Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Singing the Lord’s Song in a Capitalistic Society

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

Luke 12:13-21
March 2, 2008

Jesus warns the disciples and us to beware of greed in all its forms. This is contrasted with the movie character Gordon Gekko of the movie Wall Street who proclaimed that Greed is good. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

This Child Here

Robert Gamble, Director of the non-profit This Child Here
Minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

John 1:9-14
February 21, 2008

Robert Gamble of This Child Here spoke to students, faculty, and guests about the situation of children who live on and under the streets of Odessa, Ukraine, and his mission in working with these steet kids. He challenged the audience members to find their true calling. This visit to LPTS was sponsored by the Women's Center. You can visit their blog for more information. Listen to the presentation.

Reading for Freedom

Susan R. Garrett

Professor of New Testament

Exodus 32:1-4
Galatians 5:1
February 22, 2008

This service in celebration of African American History Month includes readings and songs exploring the relationship between the Bible, religion, and slavery. The sermon, beginning at minute 22 of the recording, contrasts the hermeneutic of slaveholders with that of the slaves who sang the spirituals, and argues that when our ways of interpreting scripture do not move God’s people forward on the way to freedom, they are moving us backward toward the idols we once served. We are then “submitting again to a yoke of slavery”—the very thing Paul warned us not to do (Gal. 5:1). Hearers are exhorted to preach as one who is free and who, like Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her people, leads others out of bondage and into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Listen to the service. Read the sermon in PDF.

The Summons to God’s Hospitality

Walker, Elizabeth Johnson
Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling

John 3:4-16
February 15, 2008

The parallels between the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the summoning of God’s people to experience God’s hospitality are drawn in this sermon given the second week of Lent. Our faith begins with the God of Abraham and the promise of God to create a free home in Heaven. God loves and values each of us regardless of color or status. We are assured that all of us are participants in God’s mercy and grace. Listen to the sermon.

Staying on Track through the Desert

Sheldon W. Sorge
Associate Director, The Louisville Institute

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
February 8, 2008

The opening Chapel of a new semester coincided this year with the beginning of Lent. The Gospel reading assigned for the beginning of Lent is the story of Jesus’ wilderness temptation. In his sermon, Dr. Sorge draws parallels between Jesus’ time of preparation for ministry in the wilderness, and our own practices of preparation for ministry. He suggests that the ministry Jesus inaugurated by his resistance to the devil in the wilderness is one of reconciliation, reversing the reign of human separation from God and each other that constitutes the story of the Fall. This is the Gospel ministry into which we too are called, and for which we too are being prepared. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

The Liturgical Space as a Territory

Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes
Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching

John 4: 1-30
February 7, 2008

As part of the 155th Spring Convocation Service at LPTS, Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes delivered the convocation address in which he presented an understanding of worship and worship space as intricately connected to the surrounding world. To demonstrate his theme, and with the assistance of members of the student body and several of his international colleagues, Carvalhaes created a liturgical experience that included dramatic readings and music from South America, East Europe, Africa, Asia, and his home country, Brazil. Listen to the address. Read the address in PDF.

A short holiday hiatus

Exams are over, papers are done, and the campus is quiet. Chapel services will resume on February 8 after our January Interterm. The "J-term", as we call it, is when our students take short, intensive classes or travel on LPTS-sponsored trips of discovery to other places and cultures. Students from other seminaries, LPTS alums, and church leaders are welcome to travel with us.

Please return after February 8, 2008 for a new sermon. Feel free to visit the other sermons and lectures on this page, the sermons from this academic year, or the sermon archive for other words of comfort, challenge, and compassion that have been spoken in Caldwell Chapel.

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.