This collection of
sermons is rich and engaging, Mark Oakley ranges widely in the themes
and occasions on which he preaches.
He shows that a
“liberal” expression of Christianity can be serious and
full-bodied, and it is very welcome to have his mix of pastoral care
and scholarship deployed.
There are a few
places where he uses familiar image in ways that make you stop and
think again. In particular he says a one point that “The bread of
the Eucharist… is the food that makes us hungrier, making us long
all the more for communion with God.” More often Jesus saying that
those that eat “this” bread will hunger not more is used – and
it is well worn and risks being glib – but the “food that makes
us hungrier” speaks of the journey of faith, that way gaining
insights can often be a new revelation of how little you know.
One of the phrases
he uses repeatedly is “God loves you the way you are, but love you
too much to leave you that way” - and even when spoken within this
liberal context it rings the same bell as “love the sinner hate the
sin” - and it left me feeling awkward.
The collection ends
with sermon remembering Matthew Shepard, a young gay America who was
brutally murdered. There was a particular tenderness to this sermon,
the care and love expressed in the face of violence, we defeat the
forces of hate with love, and the forces of shame with courage, and
we will prevail.
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