Pastor Sue Ericsson, right, with The Rev. Adele Stiles Resmer, director of the Academy of Preachers.  Resmer teaches homiletics at the Seminary.

Pastor Susan Ericsson challenged a room full of preachers to put to their listeners "all that they have heard in the Gospel." She reminded her audience that "if we are being transformed ourselves" in encounters with the Gospel, then "we will tell our stories so that people we preach to encounter the stories as well."

Ericsson, assistant to the Bishop for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was one of three keynoters addressing "Preaching Days" audiences in an annual event sponsored by the Academy of Preachers at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Her address was entitled "Standing in the Need of Prayer: When Justice is Allowed into the Pulpit." Other keynoters were the Rev. Jon Walton, a Presbyterian pastor from Wilmington, DE, and the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

Specializing in congregational redevelopment and urban ministry issues, Ericsson told her audience of her first meeting with a couple belonging to a church in Detroit, when she became a pastor there. She recounted that the couple advised her, "We just want to hear about Jesus." They wanted nothing from the pulpit concerning, social, political or economic justice issues, she said.

"I replied to them, 'And exactly what kind of Jesus would that be?'" Ericsson quipped. The story suggests a "queasy scandal which touches our own lives," she said. Preaching effectively on social justice requires "more heart than art" about the issues preachers give voice to. "The question is how ready are our hearts to find God in the least of these…."

In preaching with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, Ericsson said it helps to remind oneself and others of who is in charge. "If our sermons reflect another culture than the one we see around us, we need to ask, Why we are doing this? God called me to this. To be intolerant of hardship reflects great ingratitude to a God who deserves more of me."

She encouraged her audience to "love the questions….There are no easy answers. To sum up with easy solutions discourages people from thinking in such a way that may transform their lifestyles." And the "rub" (challenge) of society can be found in many places – issues regarding salaries and pensions, wealthy suburban churches vs. urban congregations lacking resources, tenured faculty in higher education or failed objectives in attracting more persons of color to congregations.

Ericsson quoted Martin Luther in challenging preachers to allow themselves to be "plagued by everybody….What kind of plaguing can you endure? You may find yourself in a mess, but you are not alone. You may be moved beyond guilt because in the presence of Christ you are a new creation. You just have to act like it. Live out what God has created in you. This is God’s world. Even the most challenging sermon can end with a celebration."