Witness Of Preaching Grace Thomas Long Analysis

707 Words3 Pages
Presbyterian minister Thomas Long offers in his sermon “Where You Never Expected to Be” a rebuttal to the oft-misunderstood notion of Christian calling. He paints a theistic worldview and affirms the priesthood of all believers in order to remind listeners that “no one is uncalled for.” Because God actively calls for the good to come out of each person, every listener can be listening for and responding to God's call on their life. Long opens with a general anecdote about getting into trouble with his mother and his mother's response of, “Son, that was uncalled for.” Long asserts that in addition to the actual expression, which dealt with something bad, the opposite must also be true – good behavior only comes forth when it is called for or summoned. This sets up one of the overall forms of his sermon, which in his own book, The Witness of Preaching, is identified as the rebuttal form: “Here is a prevailing view … but here is the claim of the gospel.” He refutes the common assumption by laity that…show more content…
Unlike Barbara Brown Taylor who is referenced prior, Grace Thomas was a laywoman from First Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia who went from being a full-time wife to a full-time employee to a full-time student to ultimately running for governor. The historical context included the state elections of 1954, the recently decided Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Supreme Court case, and the volatility of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Emotional tension grew as listeners wonder how the story will end, and ultimately Long surprises (and possibly frustrates) the listener by not resolving so much the narrative about Grace Thomas' ultimate political fate. Instead, he used Thomas' example to hearken back to his earlier claim that God calls everyone and that responding to that call may propel an individual to previously inconceivable

    More about Witness Of Preaching Grace Thomas Long Analysis

      Open Document