Mixed Blessings [Paperback]

Barbara Brown Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 1998

In this new edition of her earliest collection of sermons Barbara Brown Taylor brings her down-to-earth wisdom and keen perspective to the Bible readings of the lectionary cycle. Originally preached for the congregation of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta, the topics of these sermons range from conversations with Abraham and Moses in the texts of the Hebrew scriptures to our awareness of the communion of saints and how to recognize a miracle when one comes our way.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is a new edition of the author’s earlier sermons, well worth republishing. Taylor has a gift, not only for the right words, but also for putting together the biblical passages with appropriate examples from the people and culture in which we live. As she leads us through the lectionary texts, explaining and applying them in helpful ways, we follow, nodding our heads ‘yes’ as we go. (Episcopal Life )

Sermons wonderfully intelligent, moving, and direct. (Annie Dillard )

With no ax to grind except the Gospel, Barbara Brown Taylor has done what good preachers should do. She has preached the Word. (Will D. Campbell )

A poet with a sense of humor. Her imagination enlivens Biblical texts. (Verna J. Dozier )

Barbara Brown Taylor has a rare constellation of gifts—intellectual carefulness and depth, coupled with an artistic sensibility for image-making. (John Claypool )

Taylor lets the listeners in on the preparation and the thought and the delivery of her sermons. She invites them to bear some responsibility for the message she preaches. (Fred B. Craddock )

About the Author

Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest. She holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in northeastern Georgia and serves as adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. Recognized as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English language by Baylor University in 1995, Taylor has published numerous collections of her sermons and theological reflections, including The Preaching Life, Home By Another Way, The Luminous Web, Speaking of Sin, Bread of Angels, and Gospel Medicine.

Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest. She holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in northeastern Georgia and serves as adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. Recognized as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English language by Baylor University in 1995, Taylor has published numerous collections of her sermons and theological reflections, including The Preaching Life, Home By Another Way, The Luminous Web, Speaking of Sin, Bread of Angels, and Gospel Medicine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 129 pages
• Publisher: Cowley Publications; 2 edition (January 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561011622
• ISBN-13: 978-1561011629
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barbara Brown Taylor's first trade book, Leaving Church, was met with widespread critical acclaim by popular media, including the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly and NPR's Fresh Air. Her subsequent book, An Altar in the World, is now reaching an even wider audience. An Episcopal priest since 1984, Taylor served urban and rural parishes before leaving parish ministry to become a teacher in 1998. While she still preaches and teaches at churches and universities across the country, she writes more and more for the "spiritual but not religious" crowd
among whom she counts many of her own college students as well as a growing number of clergy colleagues. An editor-at-large for The Christian Century and a contributing editor for Sojourners, Taylor lives on a working farm in rural Habersham County, Georgia, with her husband Ed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poet--Preacher--Teacher Par Excellence, February 9, 2001

By 

Fred W Hood "barbara377" (Fayetteville, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mixed Blessings (Paperback)

What would it be like...to hear Barbara Brown Taylor preaching her first sermons at All Saints Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta? To be able to hear and see these simple yet profound illuminations of Gospel stories and parables? How often in reading her sermons, do I see and hear in my imagination the first time I heard her in the Lectionary Homiletics Preaching conference of 1995? More than a few times! Here are a few of them in "Mixed Blessings."

She is the epitome of one who can spin a new parable out of her rich creative imagination. She proves one of the demands of a good sermon coming from the overflow of days of prepararion. One of Thomas Long prescriptions of a good sermon - "the exegesis of the Text determines everything about the sermon!"

We approach our choice of Text, Parable, Translation, Outline, Flow, Income, Outcome to draw the listener into the Sermon. Professor Taylor does all of this from her shortest sermon, "The Familiar Stranger" to the longest, "After Words" taking us from Romans 8 to the roof-top of an ancient mansion, "at the end of my rope I prayed and sang to God 'point me to what You would have me do.'" It was her Calling! - All of them are WOW!

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One Horrible Contemporary Application, July 11, 2010

By 

happy solitude (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mixed Blessings (Paperback)

My burning criticism is based on only one sermon in what may be an otherwise fine book. But it was so horrible! If the rest of the sermons are excellent, this one should be retracted from future additions of the book. The sermon is titled "Courage to See." The New Testament text is the story of Bartimaeus. Taylor Brown's contemporary analogy is taken from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, the story of the cataract reversal operations that failed, actually a fine story in the hands of Annie Dillard. But in Taylor Brown's hands it goes terribly wrong. In short, there were blind people who got their vision back through operations, but did not like it. Taylor Brown pictures one of these patients saying: 'I think I will go lie down.' To which she replies: 'Lie down? Take heart! Get up..." She repeats the scene twice and makes it the climax of the whole sermon.

She is like a gym coach trying to get a student to press on through pain, to fight through injury. There are three ways in which this life-application is a problem. 1) It is insensitive to the plight of the patients who were displeased with their eye operations. 2) As sermon, it suggests a dysfunctional pastor/congregation relationship with a pastor telling people in her congregation: "Stop complaining and get to work." 3) It utterly obscures the story of Bartimaeus.

In the biblical story, Bartimaeus models of an act of faith out of spiritual poverty asking, "Have mercy on me." Jesus in the story is a model of spiritual gifting, and of a true servant, replying, "What do you want me to do for you?" Taylor Brown's sermon obscures the inspiring models both of faithful acting out of spiritual poverty, ("Have mercy on me.") and of faithful acting out of spiritual gifting ("What do you want me to do for you?").

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sermons for living, May 3, 2010

By 

Ellen Gtaz "jegtaz" (cincinnati, ohio United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mixed Blessings (Paperback)

This is a wonderful little book, full of elegance and grace while addressing important life issues. Very readable. I have purchased several copies as gifts.