Helmut Thielicke had lived on the borderline between life and death enduring a life-threatening illness in his youth and confronting the perpetually present carnage of World War Two. He ministered to a skeptical generation that teetered on the borderline between faith and unbelief.

Long does not see the parables as riddles to be explained, but truth of God’s Kingdom to be proclaimed.

This is an excerpt from “Confession and Absolution” by John T. Pless in Common Places in Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly, edited by Mark Mattes, (1517 Publishing 2023).

There are some commentaries preachers ought not be without. One of those is Mark Seifrid's commentary on 2 Corinthians!

As Christians, we are given another future. It is not a posthuman epic, but a future given us in the resurrection of the One who is both God and man from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Using Easter means the peace of Christ is to be preached into the conscience of those held captive by sin and death.

Behind the preacher stands Christ Jesus. Preachers listen to Jesus so that, in turn, they may preach Him, and their congregations may hear the voice of the Good Shepherd from the mouths of their pastors.

God did not rend the heavens and come down to collect the righteous for Himself. He came from a lineage of sinners to be their Savior.

All Christian preaching is done in view of the eschatological horizon as we proclaim the Lord who will return as the Judge of all in glory who can no longer be contradicted or denied.

Those who have gone before us in the faith have no more need of absolution, for their baptisms have been brought to completion and they are eternally free from sin and done with death.

If we take the article of justification out of the center, very soon we will not know why we are evangelical Christians or should remain so.-Hans J. Iwand

The church year anchors preaching in God’s historical acts of salvation guarding both the preacher and the hearers from arid rationalism and egocentric flights inward.