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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 Race He Never Finished Alone

On August 3, 1992, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semifinal at the Barcelona Olympics. He had trained for years, overcome five...

Universalredemption

241 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Quarterback Nobody Wanted

In 1994, Kurt Warner went undrafted. Not a single NFL team wanted him. He returned to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and took a job stocking shelves...

Universaltransformation

248 words

Sermon Illustration

Dancing on the Rubble

On May 22, 2011, a mile-wide tornado carved through Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and leveling entire neighborhoods in minutes. Among the wreckage stood what...

Habakkuk 3:17-19Universal

236 words

Sermon Illustration

A Sharp Sword Sheathed in Burma

For six long years in Rangoon, Adoniram Judson preached, translated, and pleaded — and won almost no one. By 1818, he had exactly zero Burmese...

Isaiah 49:1-6Universal

222 words

Sermon Illustration

The Play He Didn't Want to Run

In August 1945, Branch Rickey sat across from Jackie Robinson in the Dodgers' front office and made a request that cut against every instinct Robinson...

Universalobedience

242 words

Show Don't Tell

Show Don't Tell: Genesis 44:1-34

As dawn breaks over the dusty roads of Canaan, imagine the tension in the air as Joseph’s brothers set out, eager to return home with grain, blissfully unaware of the trap that awaits them. The sun casts long shadows as...

Universal

335 words

Sermon Illustration

Guts Enough Not to Fight Back

In August 1945, Branch Rickey sat across from Jackie Robinson and laid out an impossible assignment. Rickey wanted Robinson to break baseball's color barrier with...

Universalobedience

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Volunteer of Cell 18

In July 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz. As punishment, the SS selected ten men from Block 14 to die by starvation. When Sergeant Karl...

Matthew 26:14-27:66Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

The Light Makers of the Deep

In the deepest waters of the ocean, below a thousand meters, sunlight cannot reach. The pressure is immense. The cold is unrelenting. By every reasonable...

Universalcourage

239 words

Sermon Illustration

Four Years on His Back

When Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in 1508, the artist resisted. He considered himself a sculptor, not...

Universalobedience

245 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Marrow Must Die First

In a bone marrow transplant, the most terrifying step comes before the healing begins. Oncologists call it conditioning — rounds of chemotherapy or total body...

Universaltrust

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Race That Nobody Won and Everybody Remembers

In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British sprinter Derek Redmond lined up for the 400-meter semifinal. He had trained for years, surviving five surgeries just to...

Universalperseverance

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Gold Medal He Never Chased

In 1924, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell arrived at the Paris Olympics as Britain's fastest man. He was the heavy favorite in the 100 meters —...

Universalsacrifice

237 words

Sermon Illustration

Healing That Walks with a Limp

In February 1949, golfer Ben Hogan's car collided head-on with a Greyhound bus on a foggy Texas highway. His pelvis was fractured in two places....

Universalhealing

242 words

Show Don't Tell

Show Don't Tell: Psalm 119:1-8 (Aleph)

Vivid sensory description for preaching Psalm 119:1-8

Universalhomileticspreaching technique

adults

165 words

Sermon Illustration

The Man in Black's Second Song

In 1994, Johnny Cash was a forgotten man. Decades of addiction had ravaged his body. Nashville had moved on. The country music industry considered him...

Universalrestoration

254 words

Sermon Illustration

Hearts That Beat Together

In cardiac research laboratories, scientists have observed something remarkable about individual heart muscle cells called cardiomyocytes. When isolated in a petri dish, a single heart...

Universalcommunity

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Longest Flight on Earth

In 2007, wildlife biologist Robert Gill and his team at the U.S. Geological Survey fitted a female bar-tailed godwit — a modest shorebird tagged simply...

Universalobedience

230 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Ground Opened and Light Poured In

On October 13, 2010, shift foreman Luis Urzúa sat 2,300 feet below the Atacama Desert in Chile, where he and thirty-two other miners had been...

Acts 12:1-11Universal

253 words

Sermon Illustration

The Song That Almost Never Was

In 1779, John Newton published the hymn we know as *Amazing Grace*, but the story behind it reveals something profound about humility. Newton had spent...

Universalhumility

240 words

Show Don't Tell

Show Don't Tell: Genesis 20:1-18

Imagine the sun setting over the arid hills of Gerar, casting long shadows across the shifting sands. Abraham, weary from years of wandering, arrives in this foreign land, clutching the hand of his beloved wife, Sarah. She is no longer...

Universal

351 words

Sermon Illustration

From Slave Ship to Sacred Hymn

In 1748, a young sailor named John Newton found himself aboard a ship caught in a violent storm off the coast of Ireland. The vessel...

Universalredemption

244 words

Sermon Illustration

From Last Place to Gold: The Transformation of Eric the Eel

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Equatorial Guinea's Eric Moussambani stood on the starting block for the 100-meter freestyle. He had learned to swim only eight...

Universaltransformation

250 words

Sermon Illustration

Running Toward Who You Were Made to Be

In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell faced a crisis that would define him forever. Liddell was favored to win the 100 meters,...

Universalidentity

235 words