Mennonite Weekly Review

On my desk is Like Those Who Dream: Sermons for Salford Mennonite Church and Beyond by James C. Longacre, published by Cascadia, 2009, 197 pages, $18.95.

Lapp

This collection of 32 sermons preached between 1992 and 2006 is so good that one wishes for more.

James Longacre has been in the pulpit since the late 1960s in three Franconia Conference congregations. He succeeded his father, Paul Sr., at Bally, then served the Blooming Glen congregation before moving to Salford, where he retired at the end of 2006.

The sermons’ quality flows from Longacre’s high view of worship, his warm regard for the audience, and his sense of vocation, where “the preacher is privileged to present some part of a remarkable drama.” These are intensely biblical presentations. Each strives to let the Scripture speak.

Many of the sermons have colorful titles: “Hosanna from the Fifth Row” (Palm Sunday), “Somewhere Near Woxall” (an obscure Montgomery County village imagined to be like the un-named place where Mary and Elizabeth got together in northern Judea while both were pregnant with history-making progeny), “An Uncommon People” (the Anabaptist church); “Vegetables with Love or Beef with Strife” (making choices between good and better); “Family Feuds and God’s Providence”; “No Pre-Washed Jeans” (Book of Acts saints who live faithfully in the rough and tumble of life).

These titles suggest the hard work and imagination that went into constructing these sermons. Longacre read but is not dependent on commentaries. The illustrations and allusions are current and frequently have a touch of humor.

One of the most remarkable sermons, “To Prophesy or to Keep Silent,” is on women in ministry. Longacre was preparing the Salford congregation to consider a woman for their pulpit. One of his recurring techniques is to ask a series of questions. So he asks: “If women are to keep silent, why are these words of women included in Holy Writ? If women are not to teach, why have we been taught by the songs and speeches of women in the Holy Scripture? If in God’s order women are not to lead, why do we have the example of Deborah as a judge in the Old Testament?

Later he asks: “What are we to do with clear texts prohibiting women to teach, on the one hand, and on the other examples of women speaking, teaching, prophesying, leading — fully recorded as part of the whole biblical record? If you were the preacher this morning, how would you solve this apparent dilemma?”

Longacre concludes “that where God’s movement is pressing in, the status of women is higher than in the surrounding culture. If that is the movement of the whole of Scripture, we may well conclude that the church has the privilege and responsibility to continue in that development.”

This sermon’s style is typical of the other 31. Each is fresh, biblical, clear, modest, carefully developed.

One of the sermons, based on Psalm 26 and Isaiah 61 for the third Sunday of Advent, is “Like Those Who Dream.” The Christmas story, Longacre says, is a counter-story, not conventional wisdom from the top but a liberating gospel from the bottom.

This book preserves an example of the best of contemporary Mennonite preaching. These sermons should have wide-ranging appeal. They are for more than Mennonites. Every follower of Jesus will be inspired by the imaginative, life-giving insights. Other preachers will be stimulated by these sermons. In a time that does not always value good preaching, this book of sermons models the best.

John A. Lapp, of Akron, Pa., is a former executive director of Mennonite Central Committee.