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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 Priest Who Touched the Untouchable

In 1873, a young Belgian priest named Father Damien de Veuster stepped off a cargo ship onto the shores of Molokai, Hawaii — a place...

Isaiah 42:1-9Universal

230 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Tide That Would Not Be Stopped

In December 2004, a man stood on Marina Beach in Chennai, India, and watched the Indian Ocean pull back hundreds of yards from the shore....

Psalm 2Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

Science Illustration: Truth-Seeking and Integrity in Research

There once was a brilliant, yet humble scientist named Dr. Eliza, who devoted her life to studying the intricacies of the earth’s ecosystems. Each morning, she would walk the trails of a nearby forest, taking in the vibrant hues of...

Psalm 104:24-30Universal

264 words

Sermon Illustration

The Farmer Who Wouldn't Open His Hands

In 2019, a small-town farmer named Earl Hutchins sat on his porch in Decatur, Alabama, watching his soybean crop wither under a brutal August sun....

Psalm 81:1, 10-16Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

Science Illustration: Limits of Human Knowledge

A few years ago, I visited a planetarium, where the vastness of the universe unfurled before me like a rich tapestry. As I sat in that dimly lit dome, the images of swirling galaxies and distant stars filled the screen,...

John 1:1-5Universal

259 words

Sermon Illustration

When a Whole Town Showed Up to Listen

In 2018, the small town of Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, was still reeling from Hurricane Maria. Power lines dangled like broken promises. Rooftops gaped open to...

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10Universal

218 words

Sermon Illustration

The Tramp for the Lord

Corrie ten Boom was fifty-three years old when the Nazis arrested her family for hiding Jews in their Haarlem watchshop. She lost her father. She...

Psalm 40:7-11Universal

229 words

Sermon Illustration

The Phone Call After the Diagnosis

When Marcus Rivera got the call from his oncologist in March 2023, the first thing he did was phone his mother. Not because she could...

Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38Universal

247 words

Sermon Illustration

The Piano Teacher Who Never Gave Up

Margaret Chen taught piano for forty-one years from a small studio on Maple Street in Savannah, Georgia. Her students knew two things about Mrs. Chen:...

Titus 2:11-12Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

Called Before She Knew It

In 2019, a journalism student named Darnella Frazier was walking her nine-year-old cousin to Cup Foods, a corner store in Minneapolis. She had no grand...

Isaiah 49:1-6Universal

236 words

Sermon Illustration

A Million Repairs a Day

In 2015, biochemist Tomas Lindahl received the Nobel Prize for a discovery that should have been discouraging: human DNA is shockingly unstable. Every single day,...

Universalgrace

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bride Who Left Tokyo

In 2019, Yumi Tanaka boarded a one-way flight from Tokyo to a small fishing village in northern Scotland. She was marrying Callum, a boat builder...

Psalm 45:10-12, 16Universal

244 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man Who Moved Into the Slums

In 1909, a twenty-one-year-old Japanese seminary student named Toyohiko Kagawa packed a single bag and moved into a six-foot-by-six-foot shack in the Shinkawa slums of...

Isaiah 42:1-9Universal

221 words

Sermon Illustration

The Cedar of Bristol

In 1836, George Müller opened his first orphanage in Bristol, England, with nothing but prayer and an empty bank account. He never once asked a...

Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15Universal

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Slave Child Nobody Named

In 1864, night riders kidnapped an infant and his mother from Moses Carver's farm in Diamond, Missouri. The mother was never found. The baby, sick...

Psalm 139:1-3, 13-15Universal

234 words

Vivid Retelling

Come and See: John 1:35-51

Cinematic retelling of Jesus calling his first disciples

Universal

779 words

Sermon Illustration

The Goalkeeper Nobody Drafted

In the 2014 World Cup, Tim Howard stood in goal for the United States against Belgium. No major European club had wanted him as a...

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hand Corrie ten Boom Could Not Shake

In 1947, Corrie ten Boom stood in a church basement in Munich, face to face with a man she recognized immediately. He had been a...

Matthew 5:21-37Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

Elizabeth Fry and the Women of Newgate

In 1813, Elizabeth Fry stepped through the iron gates of Newgate Prison in London and found nearly three hundred women and children crammed into two...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

226 words

Sermon Illustration

The Garden Behind the Condemned House

In 2019, a small congregation in Flint, Michigan, had been holding weekly prayer vigils about the water crisis for nearly four years. They fasted. They...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

Dorothy Day and the Bread Line on Mott Street

During the Great Depression, Dorothy Day stood on Mott Street in Lower Manhattan, ladling soup to a line that stretched around the block. She had...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

219 words

Sermon Illustration

The Necessary Dissolution

Inside a monarch butterfly's chrysalis, something almost unthinkable happens. Biologists who have carefully opened chrysalises at different stages discovered that the caterpillar doesn't simply rearrange...

Universaltransformation

249 words

Sermon Illustration

A New Song from the House of Bondage

In 1871, nine young Black students from Fisk University in Nashville set out on a desperate fundraising tour to save their struggling school. They had...

Psalm 98Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Empty Breakfast Table on Ashley Down

In 1861, George Müller stood before three hundred orphan children seated at long wooden tables in his Bristol, England orphanage on Ashley Down. The plates...

Psalm 33:4-6, 9, 18-20, 22Universal

256 words