Grawemeyer Lecture: Doing Justice by Remembering Injustice

Rev. Dr. Donald W. Shriver, Jr.

March 4, 2009

Dr. Shriver asks how and why we should remember the negative past. He suggests that this remembering is required to change our relationship to history, and to publicly repent for the sins committed by a country and its people. Dr. Sue Garrett introduces Dr. Shriver. His lecture begins at 6:45 on the recording. Listen to the lecture.

A Wilderness of Imagination

Scott C. Williamson
Robert H. Walkup Professor of Theological Ethics

February 27, 2009
Mark 1:9-15

Sometimes along the straight and narrow way that Mark describes, we get lost in the wilderness. At times we find ourselves meandering in the wilderness, unable to find our bearings, or get any forward momentum along the way. At times we find ourselves at a crossroads, unable to resolve which path to take. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

Dealing with Life’s Report Cards

Dean K. Thompson
President and Professor of Ministry

Philippians 4:10-13 (NRSV)
Hebrews 11:1-16; 32-40; 12:1-2 (KJV)

This sermon was preached during the season of Lent and on World Day of Prayer. Indeed, the heart of the sermon is a prayer - the so-called “Serenity Prayer.”

O God, give us
Serenity to accept what cannot be changed,
Courage to change what should be changed,
And wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Amen.

Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.

What’s Pastoral About Pastoral Counseling?

Loren L. Townsend

Henry Morris Edmonds Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling

February 5, 2009

Dr. Townsend’s address for the Convocation of the spring semester looks at how pastoral counselors and pastoral counseling have changed since 1990; what pastoral counselors “look like now; what continues to be pastoral about pastoral counselors; and theological questions that arise as a result of changes in pastoral counselors and their identity. Read the address in PDF.

The Measure of our Happiness

Cláudio Carvalhaes
Assistant Professor of Worship and Preaching

February 6, 2009
Luke 8: 34-9:1
Mark 8:34-9:1

What has happened to the idea of happiness and to the better history of this country? What does it mean now to still say that we all deserve a chance to pursue the full measure of their happiness? Read the sermon in PDF. Also included in the text are the Call to Worship, Call to Confession, Assurance of Pardon, and the Eucharistic Prayer . (We regret that technical problems prevented the recording of the sermon.)

Render unto God the things that belong to God

Clifton Kirkpatrick
Visiting Professor of Ecumenical Studies and Global Missions

December 3, 2008
Isaiah 2: 1-4
Luke 20: 19-26

A sermon offered on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Louiville Seminary celebrates Human Rights day through worship and through the commissioning of students and faculty who will be traveling to two parts of the world where human rights are fragile, South Africa and Israel/Palestine. Two of the lectionary texts for Dec. 3 call for turning swords into ploughshares and rendering unto God the things that are God’s. These texts inspired Christians sixty years ago to call for a universal declaration of human rights – and should do so for us as well in the 21st century. Listen to the sermon.

Relationalism and Relativism in Interfaith Conversation

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

November 21, 2008
Acts 4: 1-13

Reacting to an advertisement in which “Evangelicals” offer respect to Jews but insist that they still must proselytize, I went to the full text of their “proof text” to see the context. I discovered there a Christological Kerygma which set up a contrast between the power of the Saduccees to enforce the status quo, and the power of the name of Jesus to bring healing and wholeness to even the most marginal. The message of resurrection represents discontinuous change and was thus threatening to the party in power in Jerusalem. The message of the passage is not about a mental assent to doctrine, but a healing, transforming relationship with God that is not exclusive. An ongoing relationship with a group of Muslim scholars who visit the seminary frequently illustrates the point of a holistic salvation. 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.

Restless for Righteousness: How to Cleanse Your Life of Idols and Worship God the Right Way

Christopher Elwood
Professor of Historical Theology

2 Kings 22:8-23:23
October 31, 2008

When Hilkiah accidentally turned up a long-lost book of the Law in the temple, Josiah, the king, was so upset to learn how far the nation had departed from what God ordained that he tore his clothes. Then he set about a vigorous campaign of worship reform. This seems a good passage to reflect on as we mark Reformation Day. The Reformation was about many things, but—at least for those who helped build the traditions that would become Reformed Protestantism—“getting our worship right” was always a central task, though always fraught with difficulty. How do we get worship right today, in a time and in places marked by enormous cultural differences? Listen to the sermon.

The Miracle without End

Dean K. Thompson
President and Professor of Ministry

October 3, 2008
Mark 16:1-8

Ever since the resurrection, the Spirit of Jesus Christ is everywhere, unlimited by time and space. This is Mark’s almost unbelievable confession about this miracle without end. Not bound or confined or limited by anything, Jesus is going ahead of you. Listen to the sermon. Read the sermon in PDF.