Just Tell the Truth: A Call to Faith, Hope, and Courage

by Richard Lischer

Overview

What does it mean to live the Christian life with conviction?

Richard Lischer insists that Christians have a stake in the political and social conflicts that are dividing our culture. In whatever circumstance, Christians are obligated to tell the truth about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

In Just Tell the Truth, Lischer explores seasons of suffering, hope, and triumph in the light of the gospel. Drawing upon Scripture and the lives of both well-known and anonymous Christians, he helps his readers imagine what truthful living looks like. While remaining biblically and theologically rooted, the sermons eloquently engage the present moment, showing how Christian conviction has a place in the controversial realms of politics, racial justice, and the COVID-19 crisis.

The nourishing meditations in Just Tell the Truth align the rhythm of the gospel with the curvature of human experience, empowering Christians to find the heart of God in what is too often a heartless world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802878847
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	02/23/2021
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Richard Lischer is distinguished professor emeritus of preaching at Duke Divinity School. His fourteen books include the prize-winning The Preacher King, the anthology The Company of Preachers (named a "Best Book" in 2003 by Christianity Today), and two beloved memoirs: Open Secrets and Stations of the Heart.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

A Season of Suffering

1 The Shape of Ashes 3

2 The Gospel of Setting 7

3 Altar or Table? 11

4 Night 16

5 Stripped Bare 21

6 He was Forsaken 25

7 Buried 30

8 Holy Saturday in a Time of Plague 33

Waiting in Hope

9 I Have Seen the Future 39

10 The Dream of Arrival 45

11 What May I Hope? 50

12 The Promise of Pentecost 57

Triumph

13 Empire 65

14 It is Finished! 71

15 Sermon Preached in an Empty Church 75

16 God Has Gone Up with a Shout! 80

17 I Saw Satan Fall 86

The Life of Faith

18 Just Tell the Truth 95

19 Acknowledgment 101

20 Born Again 107

21 Counterstory 112

22 The Straightest Answer 119

23 Crisis Management 123

24 You must Forgive 129

25 The Heart of a Heartless World 135

26 Hunger and Hope 140

27 The Big Picture 146

28 "I am Baptized" 153

For All the Saints

29 God's Faculty 161

30 The Rock and the River 167

31 The View from the Ditch 172

32 Hearts Set Free 178

33 The Widow's Might 184

Public Callings

34 There will be Blood 191

35 Odd Job-An Encouragement 196

36 The Know-Nothing Preacher 200

37 Ordered to the Mark 205

Acknowledgments 210

Editorial Reviews

01/18/2021

This plainspoken, thoughtful collection of sermons from Lutheran preacher and memoirist Lischer (Stations of the Heart) offers encouragement and accountability to serious Christians. Lischer centers each chapter on an address he delivered from the pulpit. He follows the liturgical calendar, providing insight into the many occasions on which a minister must speak, including ordinations, holidays, and public gatherings to grieve. His homilies generally follow the template of exploring biblical roots, bringing in contemporary references and illustrations, and finishing with encouraging calls to betterment: “Just tell the truth. That’s when the trouble starts.” His sermon on preaching to an empty church during the Covid era ends with a poetic admonishment to care for strangers: “Jesus once appeared as the Stranger, veiled from the eyes of those who loved him. He is still here. Disguised. Incognito. I wonder if he is wearing a mask these days. It would be just like him.” Lischer’s theology of suffering and liberating redemption may not appeal to all Christians, but his patience with human ailings and failings should inspire regardless. Agent: John F. Thornton, the Spieler Agency (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly
“This plainspoken, thoughtful collection of sermons from Lutheran preacher and memoirist Lischer (Stations of the Heart) offers encouragement and accountability to serious Christians. . . . [His] theology of suffering and liberating redemption may not appeal to all Christians, but his patience with human ailings and failings should inspire regardless.”

“Richard Lischer is one of the most respected preachers and teachers of preaching I know, whose books have blessed my shelves for years. Now comes his first volume of published sermons, allowing readers to savor words and meanings that listeners may have missed. Whether you have heard him live or are meeting him for the first time in print, prepare to be encouraged, challenged, and emboldened by someone who reminds you why the Gospel matters—and that sermons can be works of literary art.”
— Barbara Brown Taylor
author of Always a Guest: Speaking of Faith Far from Home

“Richard Lischer plumbs both deep traditions and urgent contexts to remind us that it is when the ancestors speak strongest through the preacher that she or he unfurls the most original and creative visions. All that we need, we carry within us; the prophetic preacher confronts the fierce urgency of now with the transfigured power of the tradition of the gospel that is indeed good news to the poor and liberation to the captive and an offer of transformation even to the oppressor.”
— William J. Barber II
president and senior lecturer, Repairers of the Breach
co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign

“Lischer has long been regarded as one of the most eloquent and substantive preachers we have in our strange and confusing times. These sermons, which only tell the truth, confirm that judgment. But not to be missed is what makes Lischer such a profound witness to the Gospel. With searing honesty, Lischer trusts God to show up in the words that give him something to say. God knows we need examples of sermons that avoid the sentimentalities of our culture, and this book does just that.”
— Stanley Hauerwas
author of Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir

“Isn’t it refreshing to encounter an unvarnished message of faith? Lischer provides just that in this nourishing collection of sermons. He knows the current historical moment demands deep stores of wisdom and courage and furnishes both. Each message offers a peculiarly Christian vision of hope—¬¬not tidy optimism. As a result, the sermons equip us to discern the Day of the Lord. This luminous volume erases any doubt about the sermon’s capacity to cheer the heart. With striking immediacy, God’s word emerges as salve, compass, catalyst, and joy.”
— Donyelle McCray
Yale Divinity School

“I was in the congregation when many of these sermons were preached. How vividly I remember, ‘The one great gift the church has to offer the world is the truth.’ Now, in this quite wonderful collection, Richard Lischer’s congregation is expanded. Renowned preacher and teacher of preachers, Lischer is the virtuoso of direct, gripping, unpretentious pulpit eloquence. Rick always preaches as if God matters, as if nothing is more important than telling the truth about the One who is not only the way and the life but also the truth. What a joy, in this time when many friends of truth seem to have lost their voice, to hear Lischer speak the truth of Jesus Christ in a way that’s evocative, creative, demanding, beguiling, and faithful.”
— Will Willimon
author of Accidental Preacher: A Memoir

“Even after years of experience, every preacher faces the same question every week: ‘What will I say next Sunday?’ These sermons from Richard Lischer, one of the finest teachers of preaching, demonstrate there is something more at work when the preacher approaches the pulpit than cranking out another message. There is the high drama between the congregation, the pastor, the context in which they live—and a holy word from God. Like all good teachers, here he is not explaining this drama but revealing it.”
— M. Craig Barnes
president of Princeton Theological Seminary

“We trust Rick Lischer because he tells the truth about humanity. Because he knows who we are, we trust him to tell us who God is. And the God he tells us about transforms the people we’ve only just discovered ourselves to be. In these pages you’ll be found by the truth. But be careful. First ask yourself: do I want the truth to find me?”
— Samuel Wells
author of Walk Humbly: Encouragements for Living, Working, and Being

“This wonderful collection from Richard Lischer reminds us why the sermon is the original and greatest theological genre. There is more packed in this book than in a whole passel of academic monographs—and in much more compelling prose. Press this book into the hands of your local preacher and say, ‘More like these, please!’”
— Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
Tokyo Lutheran Church, Japan
Institute for Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg, France

“Compelled by the gospel of Jesus Christ, Richard Lischer tells the truth and nothing but the truth about suffering, hope, and courage for the living of these days. These sermons are from a trusted sage who will lead readers once again to meet and follow the incarnate Way of truth.”
— Luke A. Powery
Duke Divinity School

From the Publisher