Sunday Reflection: William Sloane Coffin’s Sermon Voice on Hope, Faith, and Love
For this Sunday post, I’m drawing from a sermon-like set of featured lines by Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a major mainline Protestant preacher (United Church of Christ, Riverside Church). The provided source page is not a complete single sermon transcript; it presents selected quotations and archive context, so this summary is based only on what is present there.
Key Passages
“Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible.”
“I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.”
“It is often said that the Church is a crutch. Of course it’s a crutch. What makes you think you don’t limp?”
“Love measures our stature. The more we love the bigger we are…”
“…There is no smaller package in the world than a man all wrapped up in himself.”
Overall Theme
Coffin’s message, even in these brief excerpts, centers on active hope, courageous faith, honest humility, and outward-facing love. He pushes listeners away from self-protection and toward moral risk, community, and spiritual maturity.
Practical Takeaways for Everyday Life
- Choose hope as a discipline: focus on what can be built, not only what is broken.
- Take one faithful risk this week before you feel fully ready.
- Admit your limits without shame; needing support is part of being human.
- Measure growth by how much you love, not by status or control.
- Fight self-absorption by serving someone else in a concrete way today.
Read the full sermon here: https://williamsloanecoffin.org/