Foreword
LIKE THOSE WHO DREAM

As James C. Longacre observes in a sermon connecting the lives of Israelites in Babylong with those of North Americans today,

The wisdom of the day may well have been that this is it. Get used to it. Make a buck where you can. Live for the next vacation. What’s on TV? Are you having regular or decaf?

So the prophet who would arouse these people out of their unimaginative conversation needed to speak with unusual power. Exceptional, imaginative, poetic language and musical cadence were needed. Thus, in the prophetic poetry again and again the words awake, listen, hear, see occur. "Sing, O barren one. . . . " "Ho, everyone who thirsts. . . . "

Showing us what it means to become Like Those Who Dream, Longacre himself practices arousing us out of our unimaginative conversations. Not often do oral sermons ring true in written form . . . but these do!

Not often do old sermons come clear with fresh contemporeneity . . . but these do!

Not often do preachers take up controversial issues and walk us into new freedom and new courage beyond our predilections . . . but this one does!

Not often is obedience cast in preaching as the good news of joy . . . but it happens here!

These sermons do all of that . . . and much more. It is no wonder that Longacre is a star preacher without calling attention to himself. These sermons will "do" very well for readers who care about good news and new life. They are gifts that keep on giving.

—Walter Brueggeman
Columbia Theological Seminary
September 24, 2008