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Preaching Life

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I require my homiletics students to read this book. Not only does the author offer approaches, ideas and stories to nudge their imaginations, but she also models a way of reflecting on ministry that has honestry and integrity. One of my students suggested that this book should be required reading for seminarians BEFORE they begin their studies. I think that the book is so on target that it would appeal to preachers at any stage of experience.

There is little that can be said about Barbara Brown Taylor's The Preaching Life that has not already been said in the 10 years since its publication, except, perhaps, to quote Luke 24:11 as the official church response to her work: " . . . these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them." Like Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James the Younger, and Joanna (and many others) Barbara Brown Taylor's Christian witness hits home. She has been to the cross: "As best I can figure, the Christian era ended during my lifetime." (5). She knows death prefigures life: " . . . it is not a bad thing to lose the lies we have mistaken for truth." (8) And like those first witnesses of the Resurrection, she isn't afraid to speak her hope: " . . . fear of the unknown takes on an element of wonder as the disillusioned turn away from the God who was supposed to be in order to seek the God who is." (9).
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "To believe your own thought, to believe what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men (sic) - that is genius." This is also the genius of Tayor's book: an autobiographical tale, even an old-school confession of how one articulate person was called by God even in the midst of a church in ruins and how she followed that call and lived into her calling as the years went by. The Preaching Life she speaks of is full of a cast of characters that, seven years into the ministry, I know too well, including myself: the lay woman who says "I don't want to be that important" (28) when asked that she understand herself to be God's person in and for the world; the mourner who didn't know what to believe anymore (7); stepping into the pulpit like you are walking on a tightrope (76) and having someone "quote" part of your sermon back to you that you never said (85); even the little girl, who, hearing the cup as "the blood of Christ" says "Yuck!" (73). It is her life, but it could be any preacher's life. The work has a nice progression to it, like she is writing as if she is walking beside herself on this path. The steps are in order and they go somewhere. She traces her pilgrimage from her calling to acceptance of her vocation to the imagination necessary to reveal a church renewed, and then how that vision plays itself out from reading the Bible almost like the Germans must have in the 1500's, into Worship, and through Preaching.
Having then reached the culmination of her preaching life, she proceeds to give us thirteen examples of her preaching. My favorites were I Am Who I Am ("We tried to nail him down once but he got loose"), The One To Watch, where she points out that the widow gave her mite to a corrupt institution just as Jesus gave his life to a corrupt world, and None of Us Is Home Yet for its painful yearning for God. I got the feeling in reading her sermons that she was open to her life during the course of the week for sermon illustrations (the broken down car on Thursday in Do Love, for instance). This made me feel better for no other reason than I often do the same, by chance or choice. I liked her real-life choices and conflicts, her thinking out loud rhetoric, her careful reading of scripture ("Did you notice that?" she asks more than once), her not being afraid to cop to mistakes and "un-Christian" behavior; and in the middle of it all one slippery Jesus.
She writes as a person living as comfortably as one can in the gray areas of life, and that is where a preaching life is often lived as we act as God's midwives, helping God to be born in the world, often pulling people kicking and screaming from darkness to light.

Taylor has a gift for capturing the tiniest detail of life and seeing the infinite God of heaven. Her creativity and freshness was very filling. This book has already helped catalyst the growth of significant fruit in my ministry. Thank you, Barbara, for sharing.

For the pastor in training, this book is invaluable. The first half of this book is a joyous explanation of a life lived in the presence of God. As the author gives us a window into her soul, everyone who reads this book cannot help be moved.
The Second half of this book consists of sermons, which are helpful as exemplary sermons. Some readers may be disappointed by the repetition in some of the sermons.
All in all, an excellent collection.

Barbara Brown Taylor offers a book here that is a wonderful and moving read. The book takes the form of two parts, each of which offers insight and spiritual direction to aspiring clergy, clergy, and laypeople alike. The first half of the book is a journey through the growth of the author's faith. She speaks of her quest for God that developed from childhood that led to a variety of churches and experiences through adolescence and young adulthood. This journey demonstrates the struggle we all have to come to know God, and the imperfect path which we all travel in order to arrive at a relationship with God. In the process, though, she illustrates tools and elements of the journey which are important to all the faithful. This "everyperson" quality of the book shows the average reader that a preacher is as human as those who sit in the pews on a Sunday morning. For the professional or those interested in preaching, it gives insight to the necessities involved in preparing a sermon on Sunday mornings, and the importance of our own faith stories in preparing us to live as preachers. The second half of the book is a collection of sermons from the author. These also have purpose that can offer spiritual direction to readers no matter if they are in the pews or in the pulpit. For the people in the pews, they are an excellent source of understanding the scriptures that they are written on. The author often acknowledges the difficulty in relating to the words of the Bible in these sermons, but the plain-spoken way in which they are offered give them the ability to bring those words alive for the modern audience. For the ones in the pulpit, it demonstrates a style of preaching that can be most effective in presenting the word of God to a wide variety of people at very different stops on the type of journey she details in the first half of the book. I would encourage anyone who is on their own spiritual journey to read this book, and especially those who are preparing to or filling a pulpit in a church. The vision of faith from both sides of the preaching equation is of great benefit to all.

There is never any doubt for ten years since I first heard this lady Teacher-Preacher, this one-of-a-kind, Barbara Brown Taylor has sustained my interest! After hearing her first in Lectionary Homiletics Conference in-between Joanna Adams and Fred Craddock, I recall taking a risk to ask her to autograph one of her books. She proved to be a gracious listener. After exchanging E-mails about our mutual friend John Claypool, she expressed her thanks.

Dr Craddock gives her one of his rare accolades that she has the capacity to "sit on her own shoulder and report on what she sees and hears herself doing and saying." Maybe this is why she has gained her ability to become such a creative story-teller!

To sustain my interest she uses 7 chapters to teach us about her intimate "Life of Faith" from, "a call, her imagination, belief in scripture and seeing herself in the pulpit." My favorite of the second half of 13 Sermons is "Do Love!" She starts with her disclaimer: "All things considered, I am a pretty good thinker if people will be patient with me..." Every time I have heard her preach or lecture, that is definitely one big unnecessary disclaimer! For this early gem of teaching plus Preaching Life, I only comment, it's the unvarnished sincere Holy Truth! retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

Key themes of the book:
The key theme of the book is incorporating some of the essential aspects of the Christian life into the body, soul and spirit of the preacher. The book asks the preacher to reorient his or her life in such a way that he or she may see God in the seemingly insignificant. It challenges the preacher to see that sermon that is embedded in our daily lives, to abstract the message from the mundane and to liberate God from tradition and ritual.

Taylor's answer to "what is preaching?"
Taylor's description of preaching would be, complete immersion in the life of God for the purpose of sharing that life with the body of believers that we call, the church. The preaching moment does not belong to the preacher, but to God. The preacher must be aware of the way in which the sermon converses with the congregation. The preacher must always be concerned with the fact that his/her words are spoken on "God's behalf". The preacher serves as the conduit between God and God's people. He or she serves to seek intimacy with and revelation from God, and to share that experience with the church. While Taylor does talk about the act of studying the Bible, of choosing the right words, of understanding the sacraments... ... She comes back to the fact that preaching is ultimately God's event. The sermon is God's creation, and the preacher's role is simply to deliver it as best he or she can.

3 aspects of the book that I found most helpful:
Three aspects of the book that jumped out at me were vocation, imagination and the Bible. There were other ideas that were powerfully presented, but these three were the most pronounced. One of the first topics that Taylor addressed in the book was the idea of vocation and call. The connection between the things we do everyday and our participation in the life of God makes life worth living. I often describe call as that thing that "if I could not do, I would not want to live". Taylor simplifies this idea. People are often in search of call, but Taylor proposes that they are already doing the work of God in their daily lives. The key is in understanding that we are God's people, doing God's work in the world (pg. 29). Barbara Brown Taylor's discussion of Imagination was fascinating to me. She manages to take a topic that I personally take for granted and give it new life. I am particularly excited by her ability to take the commonplace and reimage it through eyes that have been touched by the spirit of God. I heard a great preacher once say, "There is something new in every hue that Christ-less eyes have never seen." When Taylor describes the common thought of Luke the physician juxtaposed with the thought of "gospel stories with the power to heal", I can see new dimensions in preaching. Taylor's chapter on the Bible presents powerful comparisons between what the Bible says and what culture says. I was moved by her comparison between a "romance" and a "marriage". The intimation is that it takes more to have a marriage. The nitty gritty; the day in and day out; not just the "oow's" and "ah's", but the "oops'" and the "oh no's". Seminary has taught me that the Bible is not all red roses and chocolates, its disagreements and failures as well. The kicker is that God's grace is always ready swoop in on eagle's wings and open up the possibilities for a brighter tomorrow.

How does my preaching tradition disagree with some of Taylor's points:
I do not think that my preaching style disagrees with Taylor's points at all. Her ideas fit in well with the preaching that I may hear on a Sunday in my tradition. I do feel that the depth of her ideas would add breadth to my tradition. Her ideas resonate with the better preaching that I have heard in my tradition, and she encourages me to look for this same depth, to explore new ideas and to go the extra mile in sermon preparation in order to truly reach the people of God. I cannot say that I disagreed with any of Taylor's ideas. I find that her imaginative writing style takes old stale thoughts and ideas and gives them new life. Reading her words makes me focus on my own words. I have found in the last few weeks that time spent looking for the right words before the preaching of the sermon has helped me to have the right words in mind when the actual preaching takes place. Thus, following Taylor's lead in searching for the right words helps me to achieve a depth of intimacy with God that carries over into the sermonic encounter.

What questions have been raised for me in my own homileticcal thinking:
Taylor's book has helped me to ask myself more questions about how the text is heard by people today. She encourages me to challenge myself in my thinking about preaching. As I prepare sermons, I am encouraged to think about the words I use. The best words in the best order may help to clarify the preached message. Taylor also asks me to get back in touch with my imagination. Have I been searching my imagination? Have I challenged myself to go to the borders of my mind, to find images that provoke the people of God to experience the depths of God with me?

Overall impressions with the book:
My initial impression of Barbara Brown Taylor is that she is a preacher. Her words flow eloquently and effortlessly from the pages of her book to the ears and eyes of the reader. She paints vivid images of the world that was, the world that is and the world that could yet be. I am amazed by her ability to both paint pictures and actually paint stories. She has an uncanny ability to draw the reader into the world as she sees it. This is quite obviously a tool and skill that would be useful for any preacher, as what we are tasked to do is take up a world view that places Christ at its center and draw those on the outside (non believers) into that world. If I could paint a glorious picture of a world where the dominion of Christ is exalted over all else, I am truly preaching the gospel message!

The author describes how difficult and outmoded God was during the early 1970s, when she was in college. Everything was tried as a substitute, at the same time some others were embracing Christianity with a vigor not found since far earlier times. The contrast is sharp between the un-churched and individuals who are "Born Again." Rev. Taylor went on to say how others during or since have been so thoroughly discouraged by their belief in God and allegiance to Church that they may never return. Others had their faiths restored, rebuilt by new experiences that showed what God was rather than wasn't.

An important element introduced early on in the book pertains to Rev. Taylor's quoting of Martin Luther's perspective relative to the commonality of vocation as a result of our Christian baptism. What each of does in our lives is our "office" or function, so that there is no higher or lower position of laity to clergy, it is simply a matter of what one does for a living in the context of living out their Christian faith. Also, it was an important distinction to make in explaining how we can discern what God's will for us is personally: "Whatever makes us happy, provided that we continue to belong to God."

She describes that the preaching experience is a three-fold arrangement within a congregation. The congregation grants authority to the minister to address their spiritual needs. The minister listens to God's leanings for the message, and God conveys what message is desirable to be conveyed. The author uses the analogy of Cyrano de Bergerac to illustrate the role of representing the sentiments of one party (the congregation) to God in the balcony, then the minister takes God's message back to the party that he represents. It is a perfect arrangement.

Three of the eleven Sermon examples:
In the sermon "One Step at a Time," her conversion experience in college was very realistic and believable. The description of her experience, "giving herself to Christ," despite her half hearted efforts, was very impressive. The manner in which she described her acceptance of Jesus into her life was simply beautiful. The beauty of her sermons is the straight forward manner in which she expresses truth as she understands it.

Rev. Taylor's sermon on the "Good Samaritan" was told very believably and with an understanding reasoning, not moralizing. When the lawyer in the story asks Jesus "who is my neighbor," Jesus asks the lawyer which one of the three passers-by showed the Samaritan neighborliness? The lawyer answered that the person who showed mercy to the Samaritan was most like a neighbor. Jesus said, then do as the neighbor did. Simply perform mercy or justice to whomever you encounter and this will bring you eternal life. What a simple and direct message she is able to make by reiterating what Jesus taught at the time, and does so once again through her uniquely simple message.

She tells a great story with insight and understanding of the "Rich, Young Man" who asks Jesus how he can gain the Kingdom of Heaven. Rev. Taylor explains that the man had assumed that Jesus would tell what he could do that would make a difference to other people, that was achievable, so that Heaven too could be his due to his great wealth. Jesus causes the man to actually see what gaining Heaven requires, giving up everything that gives him security and the sense of power to affect people's lives. This is what the man could not do when Jesus posed the question. I was disappointed at the conclusion of the sermon. Rev. Taylor said that for us to have done any better than the "rich, young man" is impossible. However, it is not impossible for God to do what is impossible for us. I thought for sure that she would give us something more than a riddle at the end. This presumably meant that God could untie the binds that keep us in bondage - true - but we need to be aware of what binds us so that it can be released by us consciously. It appears difficult to accept that God can take from us what we need to give up so that we can have eternal life. This removes our role in giving it; removes our role in making the transition from one state to a more enlightened one.

I find Barbara Brown Taylor's writing and sermon style to be very refreshing. She offers plenty of study of the scriptural subjects that she tackles. It is with new lenses looking at old scriptural questions that she teaches so refreshingly. No wonder she is so popular a teacher, today.

In this book, Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us that God can use us in our everyday lives.

In the first section, she tells about the sense of call and how she fulfills it. She tells of how she grew up attending different churches, and learned that not only is God's call to each of us something wonderful, but also terrible. Love is wonderful, but living that love can involve painful reactions from people around us.

In the second section, she includes sermons that show how to apply the Word to today's world. It is here where her skill at weaving familiar Bible stories into present-day life is evident. For instance, in the sermon entitled "Do Love," she tells about story of the Good Samaritan. Not only does she retell the familiar parable in a modern setting, but she brings in the unexpected angle of the lawyer who asked the question which prompted Jesus to tell this story in the first place.

This book is a good read for anyone wrestling with how God can use us, even in our imperfections. Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us that God can even use our mistakes as teaching experiences. Then we will not only have new life, being freed from the past, but bring that life to other people we meet each day.

...THE PREACHING LIFE IS POETIC! ENGAGING! A MUST FOR THOSE SERIOUS ABOUT PREACHING! TWO THUMBS UP

The Preaching Life is a breath of fresh air in American religion. Reverend Taylor combines a unique understanding of the biblical world and the rare ability to make the message of the Bible come alive for people today. Biblical scholars call reading between the lines of Scripture "midrash." Reverend Taylor makes midrash look easy. She thoroughly understands the timeless truths of the human condition and transforms vague, difficult and tired text into language that is clear, understandable, and relevant. Reverend Taylor isn't "preaching" in this book about preaching, however (as experts often do). She's sharing herself, good and bad. She's up front with mistakes she's made in her own ministry, like her personal struggle with faith, the story of her conversion, and the time that she inadvertently caused a man to leave her church who was lying on the floor praying for hours when she asked him to move away so they could start the church service. Reverend Taylor does not hang her expertise like a carrot in front of the reader. By sharing her failures along with her insight, the reader walks in her story with her.

Reverend Taylor is REALISTIC - "from what I can figure, the Christian era ended during my lifetime"; HUMAN - "[The Bible] is instead an encyclopedia of human life on earth with a few saints but far ore scoundrels...Hearing their stories I look for family resemblances."; and POETIC - "The living words of God heal our hurts and soften our hearts; they clear our vision and guide our feet...they show us a way through all the storms of culture, nature and history."