‘The bad news is that if you stay in the rat race, even if you win, you’re still a rat. The good news, dear brothers and sisters, is that we are made in the image of God and are not rats.’ Such is the perceptive and incisive style of Water Brueggemann’s preaching. Since first discovering him in 2006, he has become the single greatest influence on my preaching. Here, in this book of 67 sermons the earliest of which dates from 1972, we have access to a wonderful collection that reveals the full extent of Brueggemann’s quite breathtaking oratorical and exegetical skills. The uniqueness of Brueggemann is his ability to cut through the fog of exegesis and communicate powerful scriptural truths with a clarity that at times has reduced me to tears. Constantly faithful to the text, Brueggemann is simultaneously constantly faithful to his context and it is this pairing of the relevance of scripture to current events that makes him one of today’s most effective preachers. Brueggemann has written scores of books, primarily on the Old Testament, and not all of them are readily accessible to non-academics. Readers familiar with Brueggemann may therefore find their perspective on him broadened and deepened by the joyously accessible style of his preaching. His context, of course, is America, and at times this can be slightly frustrating to a UK reader for whom not all his references and anecdotes make sense. That aside, this book is hugely rewarding, particularly for anyone who has the weekly task of putting a sermon together. If there is anyone who can revive the art of preaching – or the joy of sermon reading – it is Walter Brueggemann. A must read for all preachers.