Means of Grace

“This brilliant collection from Rutledge’s sermons leads us into the beauty of the church calendar, in which time itself forms us in the truth of the gospel. That the themes of Rutledge’s sermons naturally lend themselves to the pattern of the liturgical year is a testimony to the depth and range of her theological insight and her profound care for the church. Rutledge is not only a gifted theologian and homilist, but a profoundly gifted wordsmith as well, and her luminous prose gives insight on each page. I will be using this book for my own devotions, and I commend Rutledge’s wisdom to the whole church.”
— Tish Harrison Warren
author of Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night

“A church year’s worth of biblical meditations by the great Fleming Rutledge? Yes, please! Rutledge is one of the best preachers of our time because of her relentless focus on the boundless grace made available to us in Jesus Christ. With a preacher’s heart, an incisive mind, and a lively theological imagination, she opens the gospel to us week by week. What a gift.”
— Alan Jacobs
author of How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds

“I cannot think of a more reliable guide to escort us through the church calendar with weekly devotions than Fleming Rutledge. Her love of holy Scripture and the sacred calendar combined with her half century of preaching expertise make Means of Grace a precious gift. From Advent through Ordinary Time, the words of Fleming Rutledge are indeed a means of grace to help us behold the glory of Christ.”
— Brian Zahnd
author of Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God

“Fleming Rutledge’s preaching and writing ministry has impacted me profoundly over the years. With immense theological rigor, pastoral sensitivity, and adept cultural attentiveness, she reminds us that God has spoken clearly and definitively in Jesus Christ. Means of Grace is a resource I know I will frequent every year.”
— Rich Villodas
author of The Deeply Formed Life

“Fleming Rutledge picks you up, dusts you down, gives you a good talking to—but in such a way that leaves you more alive, more excited to be a Christian, more thrilled with God. Her fearless writing communicates to the reader that if you leave the kid gloves aside, you’ll meet the real God—not the one lazy or complacent sermons have shown you before. Tolle lege as Augustine did—pick up and read—and you’ll be invigorated by these injections of grace.”
— Samuel Wells
vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London

“Means of Grace is exquisite. Fleming Rutledge’s offerings here, curated and edited by Laura Bardolph Hubers, plumb the depth of human experience and electrify the Christian imagination. They re-enchant us, turn our gaze toward God, and anchor us in the good, the true, and the beautiful. Through them, grace reorients us. Rutledge is among the best preachers and teachers of our time—a wise soul. I can think of few others who can expertly guide us through the liturgical Christian year in such a robust and nurturing fashion. I need faithful and trustworthy leaders of depth, wise ones to look up to; Fleming Rutledge is such a person. Contemplate the words within these pages for your own good—and the good of others.”
— Marlena Graves
author of The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself

“Everyone who reads or hears Fleming Rutledge knows of her extraordinary way with the English language. She has clarity, deftness, wit, and grace. But what also shines through is her masterly command of Scripture, which, under her sure hand, becomes a powerful magnet for our attention.”
— Cornelius Plantinga
author of Reading for Preaching

“Perhaps Fleming Rutledge’s greatest contribution to the moribund mainline church is her unflagging, exhilarating insistence that the entire structure of Christianity stands or falls on the foundation of three little words, ‘And God said . . .’ Fleming trusts deeply in the power of the word to have its way with preachers, hearers, and readers alike. For that reason, I can think of no better friend than Fleming to follow into the strange, new world of the Bible where we are met by a living, loquacious God determined to be in conversation with us— even us. Fleming’s work has long equipped me to climb into the pulpit every Sunday and dare to preach. Now, in the gift of this new devotional collection, arranged according to the liturgical year, her unyielding engagement with Scripture and her pastoral concern for the human situation will prove for readers what Fleming has been for me, a means of grace.”
— Jason Micheli
pastor, author, podcaster, and blogger at Tamed Cynic

“Fleming Rutledge is an astonishingly good preacher. Rooted in her conviction that the Bible is ‘the authentic breathing voice of the Word of God,’ she consistently draws out profound insights, new challenges, and joyful surprises from familiar and unfamiliar texts. Her sermons invite her hearers to expect God to speak specifically to them—to gain eyes to see how God is already creatively at work in their lives, and then gain courage to participate with God in that work. Laura Bardolph Hubers has given the world a beautiful gift with this devotional edition that will introduce many to Fleming Rutledge’s sermons, and, in turn, to the living, merciful Word of God that they proclaim.”
— Caleb Maskell
Society of Vineyard Scholars

“I’m tempted to say two realities govern all of Fleming Rutledge’s work—God and his gospel. But we might say it’s just one—the grace of God at work in our salvation. Yet this is no cheap grace, no easy feat, no quiet spirituality for those who can muster the energy for self-improvement and self-actualization, but the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who by the will of the Father in the power of the Spirit snatches hopeless sinners out of the jaws of sin, death, and the devil in the agony, judgment, and triumph of his cross and resurrection. And it is precisely this disruptive grace that we are blessed to reckon with on every page of this set of eloquent and energetic devotions. Laura Bardolph Hubers has done first-rate work in gathering and editing this collection of Rutledge’s work for us.”
— Derek Rishmawy
blogger at Reformedish

“These selections are powerful testimony to Fleming Rutledge’s grasp of the Gospel, her clear-eyed diagnosis of our condition, and her full-throated praise of the Cause of Grace.”
— Katherine Sonderegger
William Meade Chair of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary