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The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann (WJK)
It’s unusual to encounter a top-tier academic theologian who can also preach. Brueggemann is one of these strange creatures. In this volume, gathering sermons from 1972-2009, we encounter the world where the text lives. In these pages, we find a mind keenly attuned to the actual narrative of Scripture (an increasingly rare thing in our world) coupled with a heart richly infused with the belief that God speaks now.
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Cross-Shattered Christ, Stanley Hauerwas (Brazos Press)
As we conclude Lent and Holy Week, Hauerwas’s meditations on Jesus’ final seven words serve to ground us in the crushing reality of the Cross. Hauerwas says that he found “writing these meditations hard and difficult, [and] I hope that those who read them will find reading them hard and difficult.” I plan to soak in these during Holy Week. Perhaps you will join me.
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The Grey, Starring Liam Neeson
Based on a short story, The Grey is an adventure thriller set in the Alaska wilderness. After their plane goes down in the frozen wild, the few survivors attempt to find their way out while being stalked by wolves. This is no feel-good flick, but it narrates the story of a man stretched to his limits. There is one scene, near the end, where Neeson rants at the sky and demands God to show up. It’s certain to provide fodder for conversation.
Winn Collier is pastor of All Souls, a Baptist congregation in Charlottesville, Va., the author of three books and a columnist. (www.winncollier.com)