Preaching Justice: A Preaching Workshop

Dr. Cornel West has said that “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Our God of love fills the Scriptures with depictions of what that justice looks like across centuries and in many varied circumstances. And yet, many preachers shy away from preaching this biblical vision of justice, perhaps out of fear of seeming “political” or “controversial.”

Jordan Haynie Ware, Archdeacon for Justice in the Diocese of Edmonton, offers help for such preachers in “Preaching Justice.” This will be a three-session course for preachers who want to tackle these topics in the pulpit. The first session will offer the opportunity to practice exegesis of selected biblical passages that demonstrate God’s vision of justice, as well as passages which complicate that vision. The second session will support preachers preparing a sermon on a justice-related topic. The final session will concentrate on maintaining pastoral relationships “after the pulpit,” and how to provide context to the community when preaching on controversial topics.

Students can expect to encounter lesser-known and non-lectionary Scriptures, and consider what lenses we apply to the text as we read. They will spend time in small groups, workshopping sermon topics both assigned and of their choosing. And they will have the opportunity to role-play responding to those who hear a justice-oriented sermon as a convicting word.