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Cleophus J. LaRue

Cleophus J. LaRue teaches homiletics at Princeton Theological Seminary and is author of Rethinking Celebration: From Rhetoric to Praise in African American Preaching.

Sunday’s Coming

A Jesus who can be hard to like (Luke 4:21-30)

What’s up with Luke’s assertive Jesus?
Sunday’s Coming

Grading Jesus’ first sermon (Luke 4:14-21)

As a homiletics professor, I would be inclined to give Jesus a passing grade, and not just because he is Jesus.
In the Lectionary

February 3, Epiphany 4C (Luke 4:21–30)

There’s a lot of urgency in that single word today.
In the Lectionary

January 27, Epiphany 3C (Luke 4:14-21)

How would Norman Rockwell have painted Jesus' homecoming to Nazareth?
Books

American historians on grit, revolutions, and the topsy-turviness of our era

Who I'd invite to my writers' dinner party
Sunday’s Coming

One of the Lord's witnesses (John 1:1–14)

When this woman heard what she thought to be true about the movement of God among us, she testified.
Sunday’s Coming

Joyful and afraid (Luke 2:1–20)

Can we recognize Jesus' coming as good news?
In the Lectionary

December 25, Christmas Day: John 1:1-14

We don't need to explain logos theology; we need to bear witness to Jesus coming into our world.
In the Lectionary

December 24, Christmas Eve: Luke 2:1-20

Our busyness at Christmas hides God's busyness for us—but Luke's Gospel reveals it.
Sunday’s Coming

Too close or too far

As a young minister in my early 20s, I was often admonished by the senior ministers to keep a guarded distance from laypeople. To get too close, they would say, is to become too familiar with a resulting loss of one's ministerial authority. They thought authority was protected by distance and diminished by relationships.

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Sunday’s Coming

Important vs. urgent

Not everything urgent is important. The difficulty is distinguishing between the two. In ministry, people's pressing needs seldom come before us in neat, conveniently timed packages. Instead, the minister is bombarded with legitimate requests and pleas from every side.
In the Lectionary

July 5, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mark 6:1-13

As Jesus prepares to send the Twelve, his experience of failure seems to color his instructions.
In the Lectionary

June 28, 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mark 5:21-43

Two people in great distress do what a third, the Gerasene demoniac, has already done: they interrupt and rearrange Jesus’ day.
Books

Unfamiliar lands

Princeton Theological Seminary can be a lonely place for an African American professor. During a difficult period, I saw Isabel Wilkerson on PBS.

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