In order to celebrate 20 years of publication, Word and Witness presents this collection of 160 of its best sermons chosen from over 1400 Sundays and feasts. These short sermons represent some of the finest preaching available from preachers and professors from several denominations and include contributions from Ernest Campbell, William Willimon and Jana Childers. The collection is indexed according to the church year and Scripture lesson and will assist the creativity of today's preachers as they seek to faithfully proclaim God's Word.
"Most preachers lament their lack of opportunity to hear good biblical preaching--other than their own! In a preaching class in seminary or in continuing education, we learn from hearing colleagues render God's Word in a faithful manner, even as we are sustained by that Word. One additional advantage of hearing others preach is stimulation of our own imagination. While we cannot have others prepare sermons for us, we nonetheless gather insights to biblical texts, theology, and a wide range of human experience and expression. One purpose of this anthology is to provide preachers the opportunity of hearing many sermons and homilies based on the lectionary and linked to seasons of the church year.
"Not all readers will be preachers serving churches, however. Students in preaching classes will find here a large number of sermon samples. Other readers will be lay people and study groups, and they will find this to be a strong biblical and theological resource. It provides understanding of the church year and offers challenging insight to many personal, regional, and world issues.
"Word and Witness is a lectionary-based journal that began publication in September 1976, the first major ecumenical journal of its kind. The sermons represent only one quarter of the publication. For each Sunday and holy day of the year there is: biblical commentary; suggestions for the worship service; a section on images and ideas; and a short sermon. The journal is a unique contemporary offering and over the years has become a resource for practical homiletical research. In celebration of twenty years of publication, we have selected these sermons from over 1,100 fine possibilities.
"This collection is designed for use by the preacher, student, and lay person, and has several strengths:
"The lectionary has evolved during the life of our journal. Its roots lie in the Roman Lectionary for Mass that appeared in 1969. An ecumenical version appeared first as the COCU Lectionary (Consultation on Church Union, 1974), then later as the Common Lectionary (1983), that later became The Revised Common Lectionary (1992).
"Word & Witness is in a unique position to offer a strong collection of lectionary-based sermons. Yet the lectionary revisions also point to limitations here. Sermons in all sections, for example, the Seasons of Advent or Lent, are arranged chronologically through the 20 years of Word and Witness from 1976. The Sundays of the church year for which sermons were originally written are provided, but in some cases prior to 1992 and the current lectionary, they may no longer correspond to current readings. Use of the biblical index will help to facilitate finding specific texts.
"There was merit in reproducing the sermons essentially as they originally appeared, with three exceptions: in the interest of uniformity, the sermons that had titles have had them dropped. In the interest of simplicity, only the biblical text(s) upon which the sermon is based is listed. In the interest of inclusivity, exclusive language has been altered.
"Thanks are due to a number of people: Professor Charles L. Rice, who teaches homiletics at Drew University was the gracious editor of Word and Witness from 1977-1991, and first edited many of the pieces included here. We are grateful also to Professor Donald Macleod of Princeton Seminary, who was the founding editor in 1976. Vicki Kingsbury Flanagan and her staff at Liturgical Publications Inc., in New Berlin, Wisconsin, publish Word and Witness and were enthusiastic about this project from the start. They made smooth its path. Gratitude is owing to the many writers who have contributed to Word and Witness over the years, including those whose sermons could not be included here for reasons of space. We have lost touch with some contributors and others have now died, thus we have identified authors simply by their designations at the time of initial writing.
"Finally we wish to thank the journal's subscribers around the world. The girls of many people support the best labors we each bring to the privilege of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ through the seasons of the years." (from the Preface)
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