Low-Back, Ladder-Back, Cane-Bottom Chair: Biblical Meditations

Biblical texts are the springboards for proclaiming the Good news. For Rev. James S. Lowry, these springboards lead to recollections from life and ministry that make the Gospel come alive in a special way. Memories of two very different créches shed light on Mary's Magnificant; the funeral of dissolute ne'er-do-well Tex Malone provides a surprising context for that most famous of verses, John 3:16; a misspelled word becomes a fountain of grace for an entire congregation; and the low-back, ladder-back, cane-bottom chair with the legs cut off just so to accommodate Lowry's diminutive childhood caregiver, Bessie Grier, calls forth the God who guarded that daughter of slaves and who now guards the adult Lowry as he prepares to face each day.

James S. Lowry is a retired pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA). His last installed pastorate was the Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He lives with his wife, Martha Nichols, on a small farm near Great Falls, South Carolina. His previous books include Biblical Meditations (1999) and Prayers for the Lord's Day: Hope for the Exiles (2002).

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia. He is past President of the Society of Biblical Literature and the author of several books from Cascade Books, including: A Pathway of Interpretation, David and His Theologian, Divine Presence amid Violence, Praying the Psalms (2nd ed.), and The Role of Old Testament Theology in Old Testament Interpretation.(2011), Remember You Are Dust (2012), Embracing the Transformation (2013), and The Practice of Homefulness (2014).