I would like to commend Susan Senechal for her brief but compelling article, “A Light in a World Gone Dark” (December, 2007).
Unlike many of your contributors, Susan began where real life is – often dark and filled with tragedy – then soothingly applied the healing balm of the Gospel. So often your articles strike me like a lot of sermons I hear – academically crafted, theologically sound but totally out of touch with people’s everyday lives and experiences.
I believe it was the late Harry Emerson Fosdick of Riverside Church in New York who noted that many preachers begin on the streets of Jerusalem and slowly work their way to New York, rather than beginning on the streets of New York and working their way to Jerusalem. He derided the preacher “who proceeds still upon the idea that folks come to church desperately anxious to discover what happened to the Jebusites.”
Thank you, Susan, for showing us how it should be done!
Rodger R. Venzke, Pastor Emeritus
St. Louis, MO
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