by Guy Sayles | Jul 22, 2010 |
I recently read Martin Laird’s Into the Silent Land: An Introduction to the Christian Practice of Contemplation. Laird teaches at Villanova University, and he draws, in this book, on his academic specialty, patristics (the early centuries of the church,...
by Guy Sayles | Jul 15, 2010 |
I am slowly working my way through Sara Maitland’s intriguing memoir of her exploration of solitude and silence, A Book of Silence. Maitland is an accomplished writer, known primarily for her novels, who writes with a kind of musical grace. In in A Book of...
by Guy Sayles | Jul 12, 2010 |
Yesterday’s sermon explored Jesus’ familiar Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus told the story as part of a conversation with a “lawyer” (a teacher of Torah, the Law of Moses). Early in that conversation, Jesus and the teacher agreed with each...
by Guy Sayles | Jul 2, 2010 |
James Dixon is a friend who lives in metropolitan Washington, D.C. and serves as pastor of a very vibrant African-American church. When I worked as pastor of a church in the same area, our two congregations would, from time to time, worship together and share in...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 23, 2010 |
One of the finest examples of what I mean by “eschatological preaching” is the address Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. That address concerned, of course, very real problems which confronted the nation...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 17, 2010 |
Whenever I have stopped to ponder my practice of preaching, as I have lately been prompted to do, I have returned, almost always, and again just now, to a late-19th century classic, Phillips Brooks’ Lectures on Preaching, in particular to his well-known description of...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 3, 2010 |
The environmental crisis gushing up from the Gulf of Mexico, threatening marine life and the delicate, vital, and beautiful ecosystems of marshlands and shorelines is, among many other things, a cause for grief, a call to prayer, and a summons for thoughtful...
by Guy Sayles | May 25, 2010 |
This past Sunday, First Baptist Church of Asheville had a service of dedication for our new hymnals, a significant event for us, because it reaffirmed the centrality of God-focused, joyful and reverent worship for our community of faith. Our music ministry led us to...
by Guy Sayles | May 17, 2010 |
Montezuma, GA, the little town where I once lived and worked, is only a few miles from Andersonville, site of the dreadful Confederate prison-camp where Union soldiers were kept in horrific conditions. The air is thick with the ghosts of suffering and hostility, but...
by Guy Sayles | May 10, 2010 |
From years and years now of conversation and counseling and from my own experience as a son and a parent, I am convinced that very few of us live with any active regret about material things our parents could not or would not provide for us. Hardly anyone grieves the...
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