Customer Reviews

The Seeds of Heaven:Â Sermons on the Gospel of Matthew

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She paints mesmerizing pictures from Matthew's Gospel. Bound in the colorful cover outlining two hands around a tender green plant above brown earth, Barbara Brown Taylor is symbolized as the Gardener who brings forth fruit from The Seeds Of Heaven!

"As the world grows smaller and followers of the world religions become our literal next-door neighbors, the question of Christianity's relationship with these neighbors gains new urgency; It may take us awhile to sort out proximity to Hinduism or Taoism, our nearest neighbor is and always has been Judaism."

On hearing from her close friends tell of Barbara Brown's time-off to write her new book, I anxiously awaited my first reading. About the same time my close friend who is a Muslim Chaplain, spoke about her Columbia Seminary class visiting his Dec. Muslim Worship near the season of RAMADAN.

Her first chapter, "Exceeding Righteousness" pictures her unique way of interpreting the Gospel for other religions. Her urgency gains new momentum in the next sermon, "The Marginal Messiah, I wish I could tell you that Jesus death and resurrection changed everything...That once the word got out what God had done with Him everybody saw the Light and turned toward it on the spot."

From her tough CPE experience in a downtown Atlanta Hospital, she takes us into the inner lives of Matthew, Thomas, Peter with her inner thoughts about the Kingdom. After five flashes of the Gospel coming quickly, she says, "Jesus zings us with snapshot-like scenes glimpsed thru windows of a fast-moving train!" Her vivid use of the today's vernacular shows relentless urgency as she pursues her goal of showing us "how the Kingdom of Heaven is like this, and this, and this!"

Although I'm familiar with more of her Sermons as compared to hearing her lecture delivery, it is interesting to see how much more transparent these passages from Matthew's Gospel give an inside perspective of Barbara Brown Taylor! I first notated this in the margin of Chapter 13, when she speaks of not being sure this Parable of the Golden Rule sounds like Jesus. "It becomes necessary to look below the surface!" Her previous books do not move as intensely forward with such interest and energy in their reliving the early miracle teaching of our Master, as "The Seeds Of Heaven!" AMEN! From Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

I purchased the book to be used in an adult church education class. The volume is a collection of sermons based on the Gospel of Matthew. They are scholarly, yet easy to read. Taylor provides some fresh interpretation to this beloved old gospel. Her ideas make for lively in-class discussion. I recommend her work very highly.

Mrs. Taylor's fifteen sermons printed here are not new ones but they are fresh and challenging to adult and young adult students, even if they have heard them before. Recommended highly for study groups.

Excellent! I love the way Barbara Brown makes the scripture relevant to the everyday world. She has an entertaining way of expressing her thoughts.

Barbara Brown Taylor shares her sermons and insight on the typical gospel of Matthew but add so much more. This book is so impressive we have incorporated it into our Lenten program for this year. Thanks Barbara for this wonderful collection.

What an exceptional collection of sermons this is! They are accessible and very well written, also thought provoking and heart/feelings provoking, too. The ideas she puts forth and the questions she asks all caused me to see Matthew's gospel more deeply. What more could I ask of a book of sermons?

This has been a great study book for a small Christian community. The chapters are short enough (since they were meant to be heard rather than read) to work for a group that only has a little bit of time to devote to the study. The chapters are, however, packed with plenty to think about and provide food for great discussions when the group meets. For a study guide to the Gospel according to Matthew, this is the perfect book.

She has a unique perspective on the stories in the book of Matthew that make you feel like you're reading the book for the very first time. There's always something to learn from her.

Dr Barbara Taylor Brown is considered to be one of the top twelve preachers in the USA today. This book contains excellent examples of her creative, scholarly and down to earth approach in communicating the 'seeds' of the Gospel.