What does it mean to love Scripture throughout the church year--even when God's Word seems strange to us? How can we meet Scripture, again and again, until its strangeness becomes a home?In The Entangled Word, acclaimed author Lauren F. Winner invites readers to join her as she preaches through the church year. In unexpected, gracious, and wise sermons, Winner· helps those seeking more intimacy with Scripture find fresh ways into familiar texts,· shows that staying with difficult texts is its own form of devotion, and· kindles our affection for God's Word.Winner covers highlights of the church year, such as Advent, Lent, Easter Vigil, and Pentecost, but she also marks moments that require communal prayer: a child's birth, a cancer diagnosis, a sudden death, a prayer answered. In deft and distinctive prose, she reads Scripture together with flora and fauna, history and current events, theology and tradition, beauty and bodies. Winner envisions swallows nesting in church eaves as a picture of baptism, ivy growing like doubting Thomas, and marriage as both a swamp and a river. These sermons spark curiosity and wonder in those who have grown bored with Scripture and help those wounded by it to find healing.
Lauren F. Winner, an Episcopal priest and seminary professor, is the author of multiple books, including Girl Meets God, Wearing God, The Dangers of Christian Practice, and A Word to Live By.
ContentsOn Reading a Book of SermonsKeeping Time with the Church CalendarAdventAt the Art MuseumFurrowsChristmasThe Snow Lay on the Ground: On Christmas EveEpiphanytideWe Three Kings, and the Baptism of IsaacOn Becoming Porous, and the Funeral of WalterSwallows, and the Baptism of Coll: On the Feast of CandlemasLentThe IPCC Report: On Ash WednesdayEyes' Fall: On the First Sunday of LentWarFigsThe Narrow Place: On the Feast of the AnnunciationHoly WeekFeet: On Maundy ThursdayBees, and the Baptism of Izzy: At the Easter VigilGardens: On Easter Sunday MorningMary Magdalene and the Seven Demons: On Easter Sunday AfternoonEastertideIvyThe Georgic ShepherdAnchorhold: On the Feast of Julian of NorwichSinging the EarthquakeThe Lover: On Ascension DayKissing: On PentecostOrdinary Time After PentecostThe Hemorrhaging WomanThe Blind and the BlindFruitBlood IBlood IIRivers and Swamps, and the Marriage of Brandy and EdieAbide: On the Feast of Edith CavellAll Things in Common, and the Marriage of Allison and TimDivorceKeeping Company with the Dead: On All Hallows' EveThe Lady of the Lake: On Christ the KingAdventFullers' Soap, and the Renaming of Carter JudeJazz Epilogue: Attentive for the Next Word