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Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions
“I bring you news of a living reality that changes everything. Jesus has come; Jesus will come. Whatever your own personal darkness, it has been and will be overcome.”
Means of Grace is a weekly devotional culled from the sermons of beloved pastor and theologian Fleming Rutledge, organized according to the framework of the liturgical calendar. Each entry, compiled and edited by Rutledge’s friend Laura Bardolph Hubers, begins with a biblical passage and ends with a short prayer.
Those familiar with Rutledge’s work will recognize both her genuine empathy for human experience and her deep reverence for God. Anyone longing for the wise pastoral guidance of an adept veteran preacher—one who views Scripture not as bland life lessons or timeless teaching but as “the living God present and acting in the story of redemption”—will find here a meaningful companion through the seasons of their spiritual journey that they can return to year after year.
Means of Grace is a weekly devotional culled from the sermons of beloved pastor and theologian Fleming Rutledge, organized according to the framework of the liturgical calendar. Each entry, compiled and edited by Rutledge’s friend Laura Bardolph Hubers, begins with a biblical passage and ends with a short prayer.
Those familiar with Rutledge’s work will recognize both her genuine empathy for human experience and her deep reverence for God. Anyone longing for the wise pastoral guidance of an adept veteran preacher—one who views Scripture not as bland life lessons or timeless teaching but as “the living God present and acting in the story of redemption”—will find here a meaningful companion through the seasons of their spiritual journey that they can return to year after year.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 3, 2021
60 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 12, 2024
“Among all the gifts of God to his people, the means of his Word faithfully preached and faithfully heard is surely one of the greatest and most sure.”
November 28, 2022
I spent a small part of every Sunday this year reading a devotional and saying a prayer from this beautifully compiled book of sermons from Fleming Rutledge. I’m not usually one who reads “devotionals” because so many (or most) of them lack content… but Fleming Rutledge can never be accused of being vacuous. Her thoughts and words lift and fill the soul with a glorious, life-giving message that inspires wholehearted worship.
March 4, 2022
On the second Sunday after Epiphany, I opened Fleming Rutledge’s Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions, clueless about the significance of many of the dates on the liturgical calendar, but, nonetheless, jumping with both feet into the sixty entries that will carry me through this year. Each brief chapter serves as a connection to God’s redemptive story, an invitation to pay attention to the big picture of scripture’s narrative arc.
Under the lens of Rutledge’s sanctified imagination, the personal ads become a “comprehensive index of human longing,” and she leads her readers in a poignant meditation on desire, a condition common to humanity and slaked ultimately only in Christ. The message I am gleaning from these excerpts from her published works is this: In every way, God is intimately tied to our everyday life.
I’ve added Means of Grace to my portable pile for another slower read-through in 2022 and am especially eager to spend concentrated attention on the prayers at the end of each entry, lifted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Whether you are new to Fleming Rutledge’s work (like me) or have a long history of being blessed by her wordcraft, the collection will enhance your devotional life with glimmers of sacred fire and a weekly challenge to sink deep roots into the means of grace God has provided. He never intended for us to go it alone.
Many thanks to Eerdmans Publishing for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
Under the lens of Rutledge’s sanctified imagination, the personal ads become a “comprehensive index of human longing,” and she leads her readers in a poignant meditation on desire, a condition common to humanity and slaked ultimately only in Christ. The message I am gleaning from these excerpts from her published works is this: In every way, God is intimately tied to our everyday life.
I’ve added Means of Grace to my portable pile for another slower read-through in 2022 and am especially eager to spend concentrated attention on the prayers at the end of each entry, lifted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Whether you are new to Fleming Rutledge’s work (like me) or have a long history of being blessed by her wordcraft, the collection will enhance your devotional life with glimmers of sacred fire and a weekly challenge to sink deep roots into the means of grace God has provided. He never intended for us to go it alone.
Many thanks to Eerdmans Publishing for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
November 22, 2022
Some really great insights! I wish Fleming Rutledge were my pastor, but this collection of edited sermons is the next best thing! Honestly I wanted to read the whole sermons, not the abbreviated ones, but I guess I should just buy more of her sermon collections then. This was a good format for people who want a shorter but still in depth read (entries are 2 double sided pages) and it is really nice to have something to follow along with throughout the whole year.
Read
November 20, 20223-4 page sermon extracts for each Sunday of the church year from a wonderful writer and preacher were an excellent way to start each Lord's Day. I am only sorry I have come to Rutledge so late in my pastoral career.
October 29, 2021
Down through the centuries devotional guides have been produced, and more will be contributed in the future. This year is no different. Some devotions take us through the month, others, take us week by week or day by day through the year. In Means of Grace Fleming Rutledge offers us a path through the liturgical year, with fifty-two weekly devotions. The title is suggestive of its orientation within the Anglican tradition.
Rutledge is a well-known preacher and author. An Episcopal priest, she has published a number of sermon collections, which have been well-received. She is theologically traditional Episcopalian, with perhaps a Barthian orientation. This collection of devotions was edited by Laura Bardolph Hubers, who was at the time Director of Marketing and Publicity at Eerdmans. It was Huber who devised the idea of a weekly devotional utilizing Rutledges' sermons.
For those who follow the Christian Year, the format will be recognizable. We start with the First Sunday of Advent and move through the year, stopping at all the main stops along the way. This includes Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday, which means that a few weeks of Ordinary Time will be omitted to fit everything into fifty-two weeks. Huber took sermons preached for these days in the liturgical year and formatted them in a way that they are of the same length. Each is approximately four pages in length. This includes an opening excerpt from the scripture for the day and a prayer at the end, which is taken from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
Both the Editor, Hubers, and the author, Rutledge, provide prefaces to the collection. Hubers shares that the book is a product of her own admiration for Rutledge's work. Since Eerdmans has published most of Rutledge's sermon collections, including the award-winning The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, she had much to work with. She writes that reading the sermons, "over and over again i was struck by her unique gift for placing God's majesty and power and mercy in direct conversation with a real, empathetic understanding of human experience --- all in a way that makes it clear she cherishes the power and beauty of language." (p. xi). She adds that her summary of Rutledge's preaching is that "God is God and we are not; he does not always act in the way we expect." (xi-xii).
As for Rutledge, she notes that this is likely her final collection of sermons. As such, she has chosen to say something about how she envisions preaching. Having taught preaching informally, and once formally (at Wycliffe College, Toronto in 2008), she notes that for her preaching isn't about persuasion as there is little persuasion in Scripture. Thus, "the sermon, when it is working, is neither a collection of spiritual reflections nor a program for sociopolitical action, but most essentially an event of the irresistible Word of God." (p. xvii). That is what you will find here, a very direct word drawn from scripture.
Rutledge's sermons won't be for everyone, but for those who are open to a direct word, this collection will be a great guide for the spiritual journey. Just one reflection per week to mull over and consider what God is saying to us.
Rutledge is a well-known preacher and author. An Episcopal priest, she has published a number of sermon collections, which have been well-received. She is theologically traditional Episcopalian, with perhaps a Barthian orientation. This collection of devotions was edited by Laura Bardolph Hubers, who was at the time Director of Marketing and Publicity at Eerdmans. It was Huber who devised the idea of a weekly devotional utilizing Rutledges' sermons.
For those who follow the Christian Year, the format will be recognizable. We start with the First Sunday of Advent and move through the year, stopping at all the main stops along the way. This includes Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday, which means that a few weeks of Ordinary Time will be omitted to fit everything into fifty-two weeks. Huber took sermons preached for these days in the liturgical year and formatted them in a way that they are of the same length. Each is approximately four pages in length. This includes an opening excerpt from the scripture for the day and a prayer at the end, which is taken from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
Both the Editor, Hubers, and the author, Rutledge, provide prefaces to the collection. Hubers shares that the book is a product of her own admiration for Rutledge's work. Since Eerdmans has published most of Rutledge's sermon collections, including the award-winning The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, she had much to work with. She writes that reading the sermons, "over and over again i was struck by her unique gift for placing God's majesty and power and mercy in direct conversation with a real, empathetic understanding of human experience --- all in a way that makes it clear she cherishes the power and beauty of language." (p. xi). She adds that her summary of Rutledge's preaching is that "God is God and we are not; he does not always act in the way we expect." (xi-xii).
As for Rutledge, she notes that this is likely her final collection of sermons. As such, she has chosen to say something about how she envisions preaching. Having taught preaching informally, and once formally (at Wycliffe College, Toronto in 2008), she notes that for her preaching isn't about persuasion as there is little persuasion in Scripture. Thus, "the sermon, when it is working, is neither a collection of spiritual reflections nor a program for sociopolitical action, but most essentially an event of the irresistible Word of God." (p. xvii). That is what you will find here, a very direct word drawn from scripture.
Rutledge's sermons won't be for everyone, but for those who are open to a direct word, this collection will be a great guide for the spiritual journey. Just one reflection per week to mull over and consider what God is saying to us.
September 12, 2025
Sermons turned into devotions. Skilful, thoughtful, reflective sermons (more aimed for the urban than the rural reader I suspect, as Rutledge is a New Yorker through and through) skillfully edited and presented as 52 devotions.
Rich, encouraging, serious, warm. Recommended.
Rich, encouraging, serious, warm. Recommended.
July 29, 2022
Fleming Rutledge is wonderful. I only wish the prayers closing each devotion were written in modern English.
November 26, 2022
A full year of reading a weekly devotional by Rutledge was a gift. Many of them I had read before in other books but always appreciate her homiletics and insights.
Want to read
February 29, 2024I still need to read it!
December 4, 2023
Although I’ve completed this book of weekly sermons, I will not stop reading it. Rutledge’s sermons will continue to be a weekly read for me throughout the upcoming years.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews