Barbara Brown Taylor - Always a Guest: Speaking of Faith Far from Home

Advance Praise for Always a Guest

Barbara Brown Taylor unleashes biblical wisdom like no other preacher Ive ever heard or read. She meets us so hospitably in our messy humanity, and she reminds us of divine grace in her own beautiful, powerful way. Texts Ive heard a thousand times feel new again. Ancient stories take on modern meaning. Love leaps off the page. And I feel Gods tender embrace as if for the first time.

Jeff Chu, author, Does Jesus Really Love Me?,
and cocurator, Evolving Faith

I am incapable of being chill about this book or anything Barbara Brown Taylor writes, so brace yourself. She is one of my favorite writers, and this collection of her sermons will show you why she is also one of our generations greatest preachers. On themes from anxiety to beauty, resurrection to doubt, wisdom, and telling the truth, Taylor does what all great preachers do: she proclaims the gospel. Each sermon is a wide and good feast that will feed us for years to come.

Sarah Bessey, author, Miracles and Other Reasonable Things
and Jesus Feminist

I first met Barbara Brown Taylors breathtaking prose in Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith. I read it when I desperately needed to remember that I was... still held in arms I could not see. Since then, Ive had the honor to share sacred space with Barbara, spaces in which we are both sharing words from our heads and hearts. When I hear her speak, Im mesmerized at the stunning tonic of intellect, breathtaking prose, rigorous research, and humble humor with which she offers wisdom and insight.

To read Barbara is to hear a cascade of words so true that you weep at the recognition. This book of sermons is no different. That she would share them with us means we will all preach more truthfully, write more incisively, and bear our souls to our God and our kin, knowing that this is the only way to create heaven on earth. With daring vulnerability in search of the holy inside each of us and all around us, Barbara leads the way.

Jacqui Lewis, Senior Minister, Middle Collegiate Church,
and coauthor, Ten Essential Strategies for Becoming
a Multiracial Congregation

Esteemed preacher, professor, and writer Barbara Brown Taylor is always a guest as a preacher, but in these pages, she is such a gracious homiletical host. Readers are guests at a gospel feast through her lucid, loving, honest, humble sermons. At this linguistic table, strangers will not only find a home in God but feast on a Word who is both a holy guest and holy host through the Holy Ghost. This book is so delightfully human and a fine example of homiletical hospitality at its best. Taylors words are gifts of God for the people of God. They are verbal icons into the welcoming feast God has prepared for all. Thanks be to God!

Luke Powery, Dean, Duke University Chapel, and coeditor of the
Connections lectionary preaching commentary series

Barbara Brown Taylor is the master craftsperson of preachingelegantly weaving the Bible, the news, humor, and storytelling in a way that leaves the listener both satisfied and changed. In a sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan, she writes, Maybe it is a better idea to let our lives teach us what to believe instead of making our lives conform to our beliefs. The disarming maybe hides a commandment, a truth of the nature of God revealed by the great preacher. This book is a beautiful chronicle of a traveling teacher, from graduation ceremonies to Sunday pulpits, inviting the reader to join her on the way.

Winnie Varghese, Priest and Director, Justice and Reconciliation,
Trinity Church Wall Street

Barbara Brown Taylor never disappoints. As a collection of thirty-one Sunday sermons, delivered by a guest preacher, its like a month of Sundays, perfect for just-before-going-to-sleep or with coffee and quiet time in the morning. Precise words, funny and profound turns of phrase, brilliant illumination of the gospel, and deep respect for those listening in the pews make this classic BBT!!

Bishop Gene Robinson, Vice President of Religion,
Chautauqua Institution

Always a Guest

Always a Guest

Speaking of Faith Far from Home

BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR

2020 Barbara Brown Taylor

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission. Scripture taken from The Message, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture quotations marked NCV are taken from the New Century Version, copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Excerpt from Ernesto Cardenal, The Gospel in Solentiname, vol. 4, trans. Donald D. Walsh (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982), is reprinted by permission of Orbis Books. All rights reserved.

Book design by Sharon Adams

Cover design by Barbara LeVan Fisher, www.levanfisherdesign.com

Cover art: Jutta Kuss / Getty Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Taylor, Barbara Brown, author.

Title: Always a guest : speaking of faith far from home / Barbara Brown Taylor.

Other titles: Sermons. Selections

Description: First edition. | Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, 2020. | Summary: In this new collection of stories and sermons of faith, grace, and hope, Taylor finds that when you are the invited guest speaking of faith to people you dont know, you must seek common ground: exploring the central human experience Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020027859 (print) | LCCN 2020027860 (ebook) | ISBN 9780664261702 (hardback) | ISBN 9781646980093 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Episcopal ChurchSermons. | Sermons, American.

Classification: LCC BX5937.T28 S47 2020 (print) | LCC BX5937.T28 (ebook) | DDC 252/.03dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027859

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027860

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992

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Contents

When I left parish ministry twenty years earlier than expected, my preaching life was born again. This came as a surprise, since there was general agreement among my clergy friends that guest preaching was a lame gig. It was something people with no congregation did, filling in on a random Sunday for a preacher who was ill or away on vacation, or serving as a placeholder while a search committee did its job. It meant working hard on a sermon for people you did not know, but who knew each other well, which explained why it was so easy to make their eyebrows fly up when you said something that did not meet code, or pressed a bruise you did not know was there. Guest preaching was for people who didnt have a real preaching job.