I Am: Teaching Sermons on the Incarnation (Teaching Sermons Series)

Rating:
Summary: inspired and illuminating
Review: A collection of 20 sermons, this slim volume has much content, and is exquisitely written. There were passages where I marveled at the beauty of the language.
Author, poet, and playwright, Reverend Penelope Duckworth is the Episcopal Chaplain to Stanford University, and gives us an insightful and satisfying view on Christianity and its place in our daily life. The thoughts are clearly and simply expressed, and at times very moving. Chapter 9, "Lord,...How Often...?", which is on forgiveness, and the final chapter, "Salt and Light", affected me deeply.

I love this passage in Chapter 6, "Requisite Virtue"...speaking of charity, humility, and justice, Rev. Duckworth writes: "In Jesus we see the perfection of these virtues, but not in a remote, otherworldly way. Jesus lived in the hurly-burly of life: the dusty roads, the pressing crowds, the surly challenges, and the endless demands. He does not tell us how to live from the serenity of a mountaintop; he shows us in a life replete with blood, sweat, and tears. As the prophets were the voice of God, so Jesus is the life of God seen under human conditions" (pg. 46).
This is a book that made me think, and search my soul, and I'm all the better for it.