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WINDOWS INTO THE LECTIONARY
Seasonal Anecdotes for Preaching and Teaching
Donald L. Deffner
Paper, $14.95
160 pages, 5½" × 8½"
ISBN 0-89390-393-0
View Table of Contents
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Preachers love a good anecdote, an evocative story or a short illustration:
one that fits the reading, connects to real life, makes a fitting analogy or has
a punchline. Homiletics professor Donald Deffner has made a special effort
to detail short sermon illustrations that work on all levels. Each illustration is
connected to the church year, and there is an index that enables you to
search for stories by season, theme or Scripture verse.
Table of Contents
Index of Themes
Index of Scripture References
Preface
Acknowledgments
Seasons of Advent and Christmas
Advent
Christ the Apple Tree
“I Know I’m Playing with Fire”
“Here He Comes!”
The Greatest Sin on Campus
The Silver Platter
“Talking for 2,000 Years”
“Beans and Jell-O”
The Stealthy Burglar
Christmas
The Angels of Christmas
“Forgive Us Our Christmases”
“Christmas Frees from Chains”
Is There Room in Your Heart?
“No Hell! No Hell!”
What’s in Your Barn?
Epiphany
“Do You Believe That Stuff?”
“Christ Isn’t Here Today”
Real-Life Mission Work
The Ever-Fresh Rosebud
“It Wasn’t Luck at All”
“They Never Caught On”
“You Tell Her, Billy!”
“The Woman at the Well? That’s Me!”
Your Freudian Slip Is Showing
Seasons of Lent and Easter
Lent
“Is Your Name Paco?”
The Three-Year-Old Theologian
Getting Caught
The Guilt-Filled Actor
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
No “Once and for All” Repentance
The Bad Egg
“I Can’t Pull That Out!”
That Screaming Baby
“You’re Blackmailing God!”
Easter
Preparing Your Own Funeral Service
The New “I”
“Tell Me Fifty Times a Day!”
“On the Other Side”
Ordinary Time (Season after Pentecost)
The Smelly Old Bag Lady
The Lazy Lover
A Piece of Dead Wood
“The Touch of Your Hand”
Hell’s Angels in the Church
“You Have No Right to Be Here!”
Garbage!
Shoot the Lepers!
“Did You Hear a Coin Drop?”
“Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear”
“Marriage Is Holy Acrimony”
That Strange Bouquet
“I’m an Atheist”
Eating Sour Grapes
In the Vicelike Grip of Fear
Faith, Not Sight
The Scared Preacher
Quite Another Story
The Password
“This Christianity Stuff Really Works!”
The Eight-Point Buck
“Listen Slowly”
“Where Is Your Brother?”
“We Found a Donor”
Loving the Unlovable
The Auto Accident
The Unity Candle
“I Won the Lottery!”
“Are You Really Ready to Get Married?”
Wants or Needs?
A Dying Daughter
“Walking in Your Steps”
“What’s Most Important?”
The Robes of the Christian
Murphy’s Law
No “Fiascoes” — No Self-Pity
Some Tasty German Pastries
The Big Offering
The Elderly Man on the Floor
The Thirteenth Suicide
“Get Off My Boat!”
A Mother Crying Piteously
“Mommy, I’m Scared”
Her “Professional Worrier”
“Put Your Arms around My Neck”
“God, You Take Over”
Condition: Critical
“The Canoe Is Sinking!”
“Life’s a Battle”
Latter Sundays of Ordinary Time (Season after Pentecost)
“Give Me Tomorrow”
Singing Yourself to Death
The Ship on the Horizon
Facing Death
Just a Visitor
Three Surprises
Christ the King/Last Sunday of Ordinary Time (Season after Pentecost)
The Burning Barn
Hooked Up to Christ
That Striking Face
Two Birds in the Church
The God Who “Shows Through”
“Don’t Let Him Drown!“
Learning How to Plow
Other Feasts and Occasional Services
All Saints Day
Nothing More Beyond?
Thanksgiving
Thankfulness
References
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