Washington National Cathedral stands in an unparalleled position at the intersection of religious faith and public life in America, and has been called the “spiritual home for the nation.” Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III occupied its massive Canterbury pulpit as dean during an often- turbulent period in the nation and rapid changes in American religious life.
In Sermons from the National Cathedral, Dean Lloyd provides a compelling vision of an intellectually alive, publicly engaged Christian faith, a vision of the Christian life rooted in ancient teaching. Readers will find the sermonsse engaging and appreciate that Dean Lloyd takes seriously the experiences of doubt and searching that are so much a part of the modern religious experience of our time. He successfully demonstrates the positive role faith can play in public life and addresses the questions and challenges faith must face in the twenty-first century.
These soundings, as Lloyd calls them, illumine the full spectrum of Christian belief while also addressing such issues as the difficulty of faith, the relationship between science and faith, the mystery of suffering, the necessity of forgiveness, the meaning of the cross, the urgency of reconciliation, and the call to care for the earth. These reflections will appeal to traditional Christians seeking spiritual enrichment and are accessible to those seeking answers to how their faith fits into our modern world.
Samuel T. Lloyd III is a priest of the Episcopal Church in the United States who served as the ninth Dean of the Washington National Cathedral, having been installed there on April 23, 2005, and serving until September 18, 2011. Before his tenure as Dean, Samuel Lloyd previously served as rector of historic Trinity Church, Copley Square in Boston, Massachusetts, one of the largest Episcopal congregations in the United States. He returned to Trinity after leaving the National Cathedral. Lloyd has taught in seminaries and has frequently spoken at conferences and conventions. He has preached on the “Protestant Hour” on radio and offered courses in the area of Christianity and literature, including Flannery O’Connor, Dante, contemporary fiction, C. S. Lewis, and the parables. He served as a regent of the University of the South. His writing and reviews have been published by the Sewanee Theological Review, Forward Movement, Anglican Digest, and Journal of Religion, among others.
Foreword Preface Introduction Book One – Reflections on Faith God We Can Trust Follow Me The Calling of Holiness Costly Discipleship Will You Dance? Commanded to Love When God Throws a Brick Following an Elusive Lord Haggling Prayer Does God Care? The Silence of God God, Science, and the Life of Faith The Night Visitor The Miracle of Forgiveness Holy Laughter Trusting Against the Evidence Grace Book Two -Events and Issues Cathedral Life A Voice, A Place, A People An Unfinished Cathedral Presidential Inauguration A New Community Anniversary of 9/11 Doubts and Loves Place of Reconciliation The Far Side of Revenge Religious Diversity The Spirit of Understanding A Big Enough House Race and Poverty In Thanksgiving for Dorothy Height An Extremist for Love Black and White on the Road to Emmaus Mind the Gap Earth Day To Save This Fragile Earth Independence day A Humble Patriotism
Thanksgiving A Thankful Heart Giving Thanks in All Things Book Three - Church Year Advent Waiting Making Room for God Mary Said Yes Christmas God Comes In The Birth of the Messiah The Plunge Epiphany The Magi and Us Beloved Lent The Truth of Ash Wednesday The Joy of Ash Wednesday Going for Broke Palm Sunday Love So Amazing Strange Fruit Good Friday What A Way to Run A Universe Staring Into the Dark Easter Death Be Not Proud Nevertheless Ascension Christ Has Gone Up Pentecost The Spirit of Life Ordinary Time The Trinity and the Nearness of God Who Do You Say That I Am? All Saints The Real Thing The Communion of Saints
This collection of Samuel T. Lloyd III’s sermons from the National Cathedral provide a clear voice of a “generous-spirited Christianity” (immediate and accessible) which is deeply needed in this new century. He sees the heart of the gospel as the gift and call to be fully human and he preaches not only with grace, but with a canny sense of the struggles of the age. His is a stealth radicalism of compassion, which comes in under the radar, often catching the reader unawares with its clarity and challenge, with its bite and risk. These sermons are the product of a literary and generous imagination combining intellectual rigor with simple charity in assuring his readers of the abiding goodness at the heart of things. It’s as if he’s saying over and over again, “Don’t lose heart!” Good news in a time when the heart seems to have been knocked out of things. And what is at the heart of these sermons? A sense of the sacred, and affirmation of the holy, an affirmation of hope in a time when many fear, with the poet Philip Larkin, that, in the end, there is “no sight, no sound,?/No touch or taste or smell, /nothing to think with,?/Nothing to love or link with.” Lloyd preaches Good news.
