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Home›Traditions›Progressive/Social Justice

Progressive/Social Justice Illustrations

Reading scripture through liberation, equality, and advocacy for the marginalized.

Key question: “How does this text speak to issues of justice, equality, and the liberation of the oppressed?”

25,724 sermon illustrations through the Progressive/Social Justice lens

Sermon Illustration

The Farmer Who Lent Seed Without a Ledger

In 1998, outside Americus, Georgia, a peanut farmer named Earl Thibodeaux did something his neighbors thought was foolish. After a brutal drought wiped out half...

Psalm 112:1-10Universal

244 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Handoff That Speaks Louder Than a Dance

Barry Sanders was arguably the greatest running back in NFL history. During his ten seasons with the Detroit Lions, he rushed for 15,269 yards, earned...

Universalhumility

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Farmer Who Planted in February

In 1947, a cotton farmer named Earl Thibodeaux stood at the edge of his sixty acres outside Opelousas, Louisiana, staring at frozen ground. His wife,...

Malachi 3:10Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Firefighter Who Ran Back In

On March 12, 2018, firefighter Chris Hanley of Ladder Company 9 in Worcester, Massachusetts, responded to a three-alarm blaze in a condemned apartment building. The...

Romans 5:5-11Universal

233 words

Sermon Illustration

Florence Nightingale and the Voice She Could Not Explain

On February 7, 1837, a sixteen-year-old English girl sitting in the garden at Embley Park recorded four words in her diary that would alter the...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

240 words

Movie Analogy

Romero: Scripture Read From Below - Liberation (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

As we gather this morning, I invite you to travel with me to the heart of El Salvador during the late 20th century, where the air is thick with tension and the cries of the marginalized echo through the mountains....

2 Timothy 3:16-17Universal

361 words

Sermon Illustration

The True Unlock

When Apple releases a new iPhone, some users immediately try to jailbreak it — a process that bypasses Apple's security restrictions to install unauthorized apps...

Universalfreedom

196 words

Sermon Illustration

The Chapel That Outshone the Cathedral

In 1949, a small congregation of German Christians in Stuttgart gathered for their first worship service after the war. Their Gothic cathedral — with its...

Haggai 2:9Universal

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Roar at the Edge of Niagara

When Sarah Chen stood at the railing of Horseshoe Falls for the first time, she did something no one expected. She wept. It wasn't fear...

Psalm 29Universal

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Day the Sky Went Dark at Noon

On April 8, 2024, thirteen million people gathered along a narrow path stretching from Texas to Maine to watch the total solar eclipse. In Dallas,...

Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 9Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

A Song Rising from the Smoke

On the morning of June 17, 2015, a Bible study group at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, welcomed a stranger into...

Daniel 3:52-55Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Firefighter's Stand on Granite Peak

In August 2003, a wildfire swept through the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California, devouring everything in its path. Veteran firefighter Marco Reyes stood with...

James 4:7Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

The Keystone at Chartres

Marie-Claire was seven years old the first time her grandfather took her inside Chartres Cathedral. She remembers tilting her head back until her neck ached,...

Colossians 1:15-17Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

Augustine's Confession on a Garden Floor

In the summer of 386 AD, a thirty-one-year-old rhetoric professor sat weeping in a Milan garden, crushed under the weight of years he could not...

Psalm 25:1-10Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Book That Fell Open in a Milan Garden

In the summer of 386 AD, a thirty-one-year-old rhetoric professor sat weeping beneath a fig tree in a Milan garden. Augustine of Hippo had spent...

Romans 13:11-14Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hubble's Empty Patch of Sky

In 1995, astronomer Robert Williams made a request that his colleagues thought was wasteful. He asked to point the Hubble Space Telescope at a tiny,...

Ephesians 3:20Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Beacon Fires of the Armada

In the spring of 1588, Queen Elizabeth ordered a chain of hilltop beacons built across England, stretching from Plymouth to London. Each watchman had one...

Mark 13:24-37Universal

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Father Who Never Stopped Writing

During World War II, a British father named Ernest Gordon watched his teenage son walk away from everything the family stood for. The young man...

Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8c-9Universal

252 words

Sermon Illustration

The Deepest Map Ever Made

In 2012, oceanographer Victor Vescovo set out to do what no human had done — visit the deepest point in all five of the world's...

Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19Universal

225 words

Sermon Illustration

The Last Alarm

In fire stations across America, there is a tradition called the "last alarm." When a firefighter retires after decades of service, the crew gathers one...

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18Universal

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bone Marrow Drive on Maple Street

In 2019, a seven-year-old girl named Lily Chen was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Rochester, Minnesota. Her family had moved from Taiwan only two...

1 John 4:7-16Universal

226 words

Sermon Illustration

The Cage That Swallows Lightning

In 1836, English scientist Michael Faraday climbed inside a wire mesh cage and invited his colleagues to blast it with enormous electrical discharges. Sparks crackled...

Proverbs 18:10Universal

235 words

Vivid Retelling

Tax Collector to Disciple: Matthew 9:9-13

Cinematic retelling of Jesus calling Matthew the tax collector

Universal

421 words

Sermon Illustration

The Light No Earthquake Could Topple

When Ptolemy II completed the Pharos of Alexandria around 280 BC, it was the tallest structure in the ancient world after the Great Pyramid. Rising...

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5Universal

246 words