by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Jun 25, 2020 | Crisis, Culture, Identity, Judgment, Nations, Sermon Illustrations
All crises are judgments of history that call into question an existing state of affairs. They sift and sort the character and condition of a nation and its capacity to respond. The deeper the crisis, the more serious the sifting and the deeper the questions it...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Jun 16, 2020 | Being Right, Self-Righteousness, Sermon Illustrations
Why is it so fun to be right? As pleasures go, it is, after all, a second-order one at best. Unlike many of life’s other delights—chocolate, surfing, kissing—it does not enjoy any mainline access to our biochemistry: to our appetites, our adrenal glands, our limbic...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Jun 3, 2020 | Culture, Love, Sacrifice, Sermon Illustrations, Uncategorized
In the old American South (and in many places in the American North) a European American who invited an African American as a guest to an expensive restaurant in a white section of town would subject himself to intense hostility from the community by doing so. In the...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | May 26, 2020 | Sermon Illustrations
A student of mine called me late one evening after worship. He was really excited on the other end, and I had to ask him to slow down. So, he says, “Mother Kim, this strange thing happened to me today. After worship tonight, I was riding the train back to my...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | May 19, 2020 | Patience, Sermon Illustrations, Waiting
This week, we have chosen two illustrations that describe the nature of waiting, and perhaps can inspire each of us to wait well as we long for life to return, at least in part, to normalcy:Â Hope you enjoy, Stu The Forge At least as important as the things we wait...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | May 5, 2020 | Crisis, Sermon Illustrations
On November 28, 1942, a fire broke out and spread rapidly through an overcrowded Boston nightclub called Cocoanut Grove (the owner’s spelling), whose sole exit became blocked. A total of 492 people died, and hundreds of others were injured, by suffocation, smoke...
