Home By Another Way

Home By Another Way is a series of sermons by Barbara Brown Taylor, organized around the seasons of the liturgical year. For my money, Taylor is the most insightful, empathetic and humane preacher around today. Her sermons lead us down paths where we travel inside our souls to discover the power and challenges of life move to percolate and be resolved. She brings the power of God into play in our daily lives. When I first started this book, I read a number of sermons together. I decided that this was not appropriate. This book should be savored, reading maybe one sermon a day. This allows time for meditation and contemplation.

If you enjoy Barbara Brown Taylor's style of down-home wisdom and exposition on biblical texts, this is another worthy volume to add to your personal library. This book is a compilation of sermons that takes one through the various seasons unique to the Church. It is refreshing to reflect upon the texts that she has chosen-to hear anew the good news.

Not long ago I confessed to a dear friend. I reminded Milly that I review some sermon books without reading every sermon! After she had gasped, uttering words of disbelief, I explained that few books of even short sermons contain equally good sermons. On first hearing Barbara Brown, attending the Lectionary Homiletics Conference I remember how I was stirred emotionally, mentally, and spiritually with her dramatic imagination. I was seized by her creative images from the stories in whatever passage of scripture she had chosen. On hearing her lectures about Job, I definitely looked forward to reading "Home By Another Way." Here I found one earlier excerpts, entitled, "Out of the Whirlwind." This is one of a few sermons in which she quotes from two sources, in those early lectures. I was impressed by friend, John Claypool's tributes to her "rare constellation of gifts: intellectual carefulness and depth," all coupled with an artistic sense of image-making. That alone speaks volumes! With my usual skipping over a few sermons, I was most attracted to: "God's Beloved Thief, Home by Another Way, God's Ferris Wheel, Lenten Disciples, A Tale of Two Heretics, Life Giving Fear(from time in CPE) "It Is Finished, Out of Whirlwind, Bothering God." Most were notable for looking up-close at her perspective with intimate viewpoints by using tough disclaimers! They often appeared in beginings, mid-way or near her ending. There is one unique hitch in her re-telling the basic story: she often adds a touch of creative imagination to develop the problem with clever resolution relating to basic forgivness of weakness, judgement, or justice, Placed within all ten books, I designate this one in being near the top of her Lectures and Sermons. From a semi-retired admirer and retired Chaplain, Fred W Hood

My infant son died two days after he was born. Where was God in all of this? I went to God for both comfort and hope, but I found myself also feeling angry at Him. I wanted to know Him better. The lectures in this book opened my eyes to a God that is full of love and compassion. I found this book to be helpful in my healing and helpful in reconnecting me with my God. Many times I refer to this book to find hope. In particular, there is one sermon titled "Life Giving Fear" that talked about suffering and pain, and where is God in all that. Through this sermon and the scriptures shared, I've come to realize there is no connection between sin and suffering. This book is wonderful. I continue to read it to help me in my relationship with God and my spiritual healing.