What Makes This Day Different?

In the early pages of this insightful book, David Schlafer meditates on the image of ‘sun-catchers,’ those little glass prisms that take sunlight coming through a window and separate it into the colors of the spectrum. The function of an ‘occasional’ sermon, he suggests, is similarly to select and focus the colors ‘from the spectrum of God’s grace both through and for the particular special occasion,’ to be a ‘grace-catcher’ (19-20). . . . “Schlafer’s analyses and suggestions focus on aspects of sermon preparation that are well within our control, offering approaches to letting those connections happen as well as hints for avoiding pitfalls. He helpfully distinguishes between different types of ‘special’ days: those that focus on the life of the individual (such as weddings, baptisms, or the life of a saint), those that focus on the day itself (such as Palm Sunday or Thanksgiving), and those that focus on circumstances (such as social crises or the particular situation of a congregation). Within those larger categories, he offers further distinctions between events that are, for instance, primarily theological in nature and those that carry a secular burden as well. The reader will probably get the point of the distinctions rapidly, but the categories are useful for bringing those resonances and shadings up into our consciousness so that we can get hold of them and use them as tools. “. . . when he reaches the chapters on the church’s great holy days, Schlafer really hits his stride. The chunks of sermons he quotes in this section (including a gem of his own for the Great Vigil of Easter) are particularly evocative, and his commentaries on what is needed at these focal points in the Christian year are rich and readable theological reflections. This section could well serve as an overview for a preacher looking ahead to a specific holy day or planning a preaching series for a whole season. “A beginning preacher will do well to read this book from beginning to end, heeding the advice and using the ‘inclu -- Linda L. Clader, Professor of homiletics at the Church Divinity School in the Pacific