David Schnasa Jacobsen > Quotes

“True repentance, though, ultimately includes belief (i.e., trust) in God’s sovereign way as we turn from our old ways to point ourselves in God’s direction—i.e., the Lord’s purpose in creating and redeeming the world, which is symbolized as the eschatological vision of God’s reign. Until God’s reign comes in all its fullness, we can only experience it in part in fragmentary ways. With”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“This also leads Bonhoeffer to assert that the efficacy of preaching occurs only because it pleases God, who in the ministry of word and sacrament bestows the Spirit and allows it to grow and bear fruit. Preaching should be seen as a duty, a calling, and as a ministry of the word, the power of the word that is the Spirit who moves hearts when human words do not. In addition, preaching is an office; its purpose is to give the Spirit, active in the word, to establish the church.”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“The church is not a religious organization or association, nor is the founding of Christianity a new religion among other religions; it is the renewal of humanity as a divine realty in the humanity of Christ. Its life principle, therefore, is the gratuitous, self-giving love of Christ; being with others and being for others in the same manner of Christ’s freely being in the world. To”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“the human attempt to establish security in the face of fear of insecurity. That is why people go to war and exploit others. Life is not essentially optimistic but tragic. The effects of sin are expressed not on only as the suffering of individuals but also through social systems.242 Niebuhr”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“The theo-rhetorical concern is chiefly one of clarity: how to speak gospel and not to say something else,”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“society. The task of theology was not to mirror the norms of culture, but when necessary to confront and even contradict them, since it was a free to pursue its own dogmatic and ecclesial tasks. However, what was necessary was the word of God and faith awakened by God.”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“Because the nature of all our God talk is inherently metaphoric and rhetorical, preaching will be a form of poetic rhetorical theology276 structured with a communication strategy required for public discourse in that culture so that people can hear the gospel and come to know the Holy One.”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“way.” It is an unfinished eschatological conversation; initiated by God,”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“due a gracious, yet ever-mysterious God that is the beginning of wisdom. The second is the acknowledgement of human limitations and an accompanying respect for differing interpretations. The third is the listening heart, a lifelong alertness to patterns of God at work in our experience, that of others, the human sciences, and the world around us. The fourth is the subversive voice, the willingness to challenge and undermine dominant perspectives perceived as unjust. Doing”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“People come to church seeking a living word from the living Lord, not a commentary on life from another Garrison Keillor”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“measures of truth fall short. God’s Way doesn’t always make sense; it is incoherent by rationalistic standards. Like Jesus, God’s truth is sometimes inappropriate by human social standards. And the truth of the cross bears pragmatic problems. But underneath all our judgments regarding the characteristics of truth and the norms we determine it by (i.e., appropriateness, coherence, pragmatism), there is a deeper Truth that preaching bears witness to, a Presence279 that all words ultimately fail to do justice, a Presence that suddenly lights up our fragmented sermons’ testimonies so that the gift of God’s grace overtakes us with the glory of redemption.”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“What reconciliation and redemption mean; what rebirth and Holy Spirit, love for one’s enemies, cross and resurrection mean; what it means to live in Christ and follow Christ—all that is so difficult and remote that we hardly dare to speak of it anymore. In these words and actions handed down to us, we sense something totally new and revolutionary, but we cannot yet grasp it and express it. This is our own fault. Our church has been fighting during these years only for its self-preservation, as if that were an end in itself. It has become incapable of bringing the word of reconciliation and redemption to humankind and to the world.186 Bonhoeffer’s”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“Knowing that the purpose of a sermon is to move people one step deeper into God’s kingdom territory on this journey they’re all on toward the New Jerusalem, she starts with where they are by naming the magic and discomfort of trying to get all these different cultures to cohere on this sacred night, admitting that it’s been a little “zoo-ey” tonight.”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“The sapiential hermeneutic is a hermeneutic with a high tolerance for complexity and ambiguity. Sermons that grow out of the kind of inductive sapiential hermeneutic we have been describing honor the complexity and ambiguity of life. It”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“reign. Until God’s reign comes in all its fullness, we can only experience it in part in fragmentary ways. With”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“just as the New Testament portrays the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the shape of God’s activity in history, thus opening a direct and clear language for prayer and praise. For this reason, language about God has integrity to the extent that is directed toward God. In other words, it is in prayer, in giving ourselves to God, that who we are and what we do and say are one.219 Williams’s”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology

“From where I sit, all homiletical theological perspectives are interpretations with certain strengths and weaknesses. They have a provisional character. We cannot have full and uninterested access to God until we see God face-to-face. Until that day, everything we say about God should be draped in humility and spoken in love.”
― David Schnasa Jacobsen, Homiletical Theology: Preaching as Doing Theology