Reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's WORLDLY PREACHING: LECTURES ON HOMILETICS.

"The Christian religion as a religion is not of God. It is on the contrary another example of a mortal road to God like the Buddhist or any other.... Christ is not the bringer of a new religion, but the bringer of God" (p. 9).

"I have noticed that the most effective sermons were those in which I spoke enticingly of the Gospel, like someone telling children a story of a strange country" (Bonhoeffer, p. 10).

"We can neither understand nor preach the gospel tangibly enough" (Bonhoeffer, p. 13).

"The preacher is not the spokesman of the congregation, but...the spokesman of God before the congregation" (Bonhoeffer, p. 28).

"Scripture requires to be interpreted and preached" (Bonhoeffer, p. 33).

"It is not religion that makes us good in the presence of God, but God alone that makes us good" (Bonhoeffer, p. 61).

"A proper sermon should be like holding out to a child a shining red apple or to a thirsty man a glass of fresh water and asking: Wouldn't you like it?" (Bonhoeffer, p. 88).

"Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic.... Do not defend God's Word but testify to it" (Bonhoeffer, p. 92).

"Preaching has the dual objectives of establishing the Christian congregation and building it up" (Bonhoeffer, p. 99).

"In the sermon the foundation for a new world is laid" (Bonhoeffer, p. 104).

"Our speech is not a spontaneous witness, but commissioned and bound by the biblical witness. It does not spring from our own private interests or initiative" (Bonhoeffer, p. 106).

"The temptation to give up the ministry will pursue us. But that is no measurement of our worthiness" (Bonhoeffer, p. 110).

"The contemporary truth of the church is revealed in that it preaches and lives the Sermon on the Mount and the admonitions of Paul" (p. 113).

"A redeveloped doctrine of inspiration might say that God is revealed in the Bible in spite of all the failures of the human words spoken there" (Bonhoeffer, pp. 114-115).

"The Bible is that book in which God's word is stored until the end of all things. In this it is different from all other books" (Bonhoeffer, pp. 116-117).

"The work on the sermon begins with prayer over the open text" (Bonhoeffer, p. 119).

"It is a good rule to begin the sermon at the latest on Tuesday and to conclude it at the latest on Friday" (Bonhoeffer, p. 121).

"Twelve hours' work on a sermon is a good general rule" (Bonhoeffer, p. 121).

"Without inappropriate anxiety the pastor also prays that more might assemble themselves for worship" (Bonhoeffer, p. 123).

"The worship service begins with the organ prelude" (Bonhoeffer, p. 123).

"The sermon as a speech has as its distinguishing characteristic that it is an exposition of a biblical text" (Bonhoeffer, p. 128).