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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

Poetry

Sonnet 108: What's in the brain, that ink may character

What's in the brain, that ink may character, Which hath not figur'd to thee my true spirit? What's new to speak, what now to register, That may express my love, or thy dear merit?

Universal

William Shakespeare

106 words

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Poetry

Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom

snatched away in beauty's bloom, On thee shall press no ponderous tomb; But on thy turf shall roses rear Their leaves, the earliest of the year; And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom: And oft by yon blue gushing...

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

125 words

Poetry

From the Arabic: An Imitation

My faint spirit was sitting in the light Of thy looks, my love; It panted for thee like the hind at noon For the brooks, my love.

128. The Farewell

FAREWELL, old Scotia’s bleak domains, Far dearer than the torrid plains, Where rich ananas blow! Farewell, a mother’s blessing dear! A borther’s sigh! a sister’s tear! My Jean’s heart-rending throe! Farewell, my Bess! tho’ thou’rt bereft Of my paternal care.

Whispers of Heavenly Death.

WHISPERS of heavenly death, murmur’d I hear; Labial gossip of night—sibilant chorals; Footsteps gently ascending—mystical breezes, wafted soft and low; Ripples of unseen rivers—tides of a current, flowing, forever flowing; (Or is it the plashing of tears?

Human Life's Mystery (excerpt)

We sow the glebe, we reap the corn, We build the house where we may rest, And then, at moments, suddenly, We look up to the great wide sky, Inquiring wherefore we were born... For earnest or for jest?

Universal

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

151 words

Poetry

St. Irvyne's Tower

How swiftly through Heaven's wide expanse Bright day's resplendent colours fade! How sweetly does the moonbeam's glance With silver tint St. Irvyne's glade! No cloud along the spangled air, Is borne upon the evening breeze; How solemn is the scene!

Sonnet 105: Let not my love be call'd idolatry

Let not my love be call'd idolatry, Nor my beloved as an idol show, Since all alike my songs and praises be To one, of one, still such, and ever so.

Praise for Faith

Of all the gifts Thine hand bestows, Thou Giver of all good! Not heaven itself a richer knows Than my Redeemer's blood. Faith too, the blood-receiving grace, From the same hand we gain; Else, sweetly as it suits our case,...

The Canterbury Tales. The Parson's Tale.

THE PROLOGUE. By that the Manciple his tale had ended, The sunne from the south line was descended So lowe, that it was not to my sight Degrees nine-and-twenty as in height.

Sonnet 125: Were't aught to me I bore the canopy

Were't aught to me I bore the canopy, With my extern the outward honouring, Or laid great bases for eternity, Which proves more short than waste or ruining?

Envoy For "A Child's Garden Of Verses"

WHETHER upon the garden seat You lounge with your uplifted feet Under the May's whole Heaven of blue; Or whether on the sofa you, No grown up person being by, Do some soft corner occupy; Take you this volume in...

Universal

Robert Louis Stevenson

231 words

Poetry

The Pipes At Lucknow

Pipes of the misty moorlands, Voice of the glens and hills; The droning of the torrents, The treble of the rills! Not the braes of bloom and heather, Nor the mountains dark with rain, Nor maiden bower, nor border tower, Have heard your sweetest strain!

Universal

John Greenleaf Whittier

369 words

Poetry

A Farewell to Agassiz

How the mountains talked together, Looking down upon the weather, When they heard our friend had planned his Little trip among the Andes How they'll bare their snowy scalps To the climber of the Alps When the cry goes through...

Universal

Oliver Wendell Holmes

421 words

Poetry

Lines: 'We Meet Not As We Parted'

We meet not as we parted, We feel more than all may see; My bosom is heavy-hearted, And thine full of doubt for me:-- One moment has bound the free.

Sonnet to the Prince Regent. on the Repeal of Lord Edward Fitzgerald's Forfeiture

To be the father of the fatherless, To stretch the hand from the throne's height, and raise _His_ offspring, who expired in other days To make thy Sire's sway by a kingdom less,-- _This_ is to be a monarch, and repress Envy into unutterable praise.

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

109 words

Poetry

Song (Go And Catch A Falling Star)

Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the Devil's foot, Teach me to hear mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy's stinging, And find What...

Sonnet 8: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?

Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy: Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly, Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?

Sonnet 110: Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there

'tis true, I have gone here and there, And made my self a motley to the view, Gor'd mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear, Made old offences of affections new; Most true it is, that I have...

Sonnet 114: Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you

Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you, Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?

Sonnet 10: For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any

Grant, if thou wilt, thou art belov'd of many, But that thou none lov'st is most evident: For thou art so possess'd with murderous hate, That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire, Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate...

The Flower

How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean Are thy returns! ev'n as the flowers in spring; To which, besides their own demean, The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring. Grief melts away Like snows in May, As if there were no such cold thing.

A Version of Ossian's Address to the Sun. From the Poem "Carthon."

who rollest in yon azure field, Round as the orb of my forefather's shield, Whence are thy beams? From what eternal store Dost thou, O Sun! thy vast effulgence pour?

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

295 words

Poetry

To M. S. G

When I dream that you love me, you'll surely forgive; Extend not your anger to sleep; For in visions alone your affection can live,-- I rise, and it leaves me to weep. Then, Morpheus!

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

152 words