The written word and the living word
Commentary
Out of the Old Testament reading for this day verse eight of the eighth chapter of Nehemiah leaps out and grabs my attention. "So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading." Ideally, that is what should happen in our services of worship every Sunday morning. It is the minister who as pastor and teacher has the prime responsibility to proclaim and interpret so that what is read is understood. Fidelity to this task requires a significant investment of time in personal study and just plain brooding over the scriptures. This is the price of creativity in any discipline.
Consider this as a plea for a return to expository preaching in the interests of overcoming what James Smart called The Strange Silence of the Bible in the Church. He wrote that book some two decades ago, but I believe informed biblical preaching is still in a state of decline. There have been some exciting developments in gospel studies, for example, that are just not being reflected in much contemporary preaching. Given the price of good books today and the fact that the public library probably would not stock many in the field of biblical interpretation, what can the pastor who wants to keep abreast do?
Here is one suggested resource that I find valuable. The Congregational Library, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108, will loan books to pastors all over the country. Borrowers cover the cost of postage. A bulletin listing and describing new acquisitions is issued three times a year. The annual subscription fee is five dollars. This is an ecumenical service. The library telephone number is 617-523-0470.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Verse nine offers a sermonic possibility. This was a public reading from the book, something that takes place whenever a congregation gathers for worship. While the interpretation is the pastor's task and carries its own need for disciplined preparation, the reading should also get some advance study and preparation. I recently attended a service where two of the lessons were read by children who read poorly, stumbled over words, and failed to maintain adequate volume. The readings were a total disaster. I have heard adult lay readers who did no better. Whoever does the readings should prepare carefully.
More and more churches have pew Bibles, list the page numbers of the readings in the printed order of worship, and encourage worshippers to follow the reading. Those who want to introduce such a practice in their own churches could use this reading as a launching pad for the idea. Competent reading, careful hearing, and informed interpretation all contribute to enhanced understanding of the word. One of Rembrandt's drawings reflecting a Reformation theme simply depicts a small group gathered in a sanctuary before the lectern while a pastor holding a book talks with them. That is our tradition. We are a people of the book, but we are not to be bibliolatrists, for over the written word stands the authority of the Living Word. Today's gospel lesson will make that point.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
In the course of dealing with the rivalries and spiritual arrogance rampant in the Corinthian congregation Paul gives us this superb statement about the relationship of the group and the individual in the community of faith. "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (v. 24). His coining of this metaphor reflects Paul's thoroughly Hebraic background and the understanding of corporate personality in ancient Israel. The many are represented in the one and the one represents the many. To a congregation filled with big egos Paul defines the whole individuals in Christ in terms of social interdependence and responsibility. The congregation in Corinth was a chorus composed of soloists.
It is this understanding of our life together in Christ that sets the church at odds with the atomistic privatism that characterizes much of the religion-in-general scene currently in vogue. In fact, right through chapters 12-15 of 1 Corinthians Paul will articulate an understanding of the individual in community that carries powerful social implications.
Luke 4:14-21
Luke is defining for the church the character of a Spirit-led ministry modeled by Jesus and authoritative for the church. The setting is the congregation at worship and a reading from the book. The reader is a lay person, Jesus. He selects the scroll of Isaiah and reads the words of an unknown prophet recorded in Isaiah 61:1-2a. Refer to the November-December 1993 issue of Emphasis, and this column for Advent 3 for comment of this passage from Isaiah that may be suggestive here also.
Jesus opened the book, read the book, and incorporated its truth into his life. One possible outline for a sermon is here in the actions of Jesus. One important observation to make on this passage is that Jesus not only read the book but edited it. He abruptly cut off the reading just before the words, "and the day of vengeance of our God." He would have occasion again in his ministry to blue-pencil other words handed down from of old. He is the Living Word who stands in judgment on the written word and all those scary ways of saying God.
An interesting alternative would be to create a sermon on the contrast between this reading and Jeremiah 36:1-26. This is a dramatic scene that speaks for itself as King Jehoiakim cut out and burned piece by piece a portion of a scroll from Jeremiah as Jehudi read from it. In a way, all of us at times cut out the part that rubs us the wrong way. The end result was a much abridged version of the words of Jeremiah, the King Jehoiakim version. At any rate, linking this story to the gospel lesson gives us two different responses to the prophetic word.
Consider this as a plea for a return to expository preaching in the interests of overcoming what James Smart called The Strange Silence of the Bible in the Church. He wrote that book some two decades ago, but I believe informed biblical preaching is still in a state of decline. There have been some exciting developments in gospel studies, for example, that are just not being reflected in much contemporary preaching. Given the price of good books today and the fact that the public library probably would not stock many in the field of biblical interpretation, what can the pastor who wants to keep abreast do?
Here is one suggested resource that I find valuable. The Congregational Library, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108, will loan books to pastors all over the country. Borrowers cover the cost of postage. A bulletin listing and describing new acquisitions is issued three times a year. The annual subscription fee is five dollars. This is an ecumenical service. The library telephone number is 617-523-0470.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Verse nine offers a sermonic possibility. This was a public reading from the book, something that takes place whenever a congregation gathers for worship. While the interpretation is the pastor's task and carries its own need for disciplined preparation, the reading should also get some advance study and preparation. I recently attended a service where two of the lessons were read by children who read poorly, stumbled over words, and failed to maintain adequate volume. The readings were a total disaster. I have heard adult lay readers who did no better. Whoever does the readings should prepare carefully.
More and more churches have pew Bibles, list the page numbers of the readings in the printed order of worship, and encourage worshippers to follow the reading. Those who want to introduce such a practice in their own churches could use this reading as a launching pad for the idea. Competent reading, careful hearing, and informed interpretation all contribute to enhanced understanding of the word. One of Rembrandt's drawings reflecting a Reformation theme simply depicts a small group gathered in a sanctuary before the lectern while a pastor holding a book talks with them. That is our tradition. We are a people of the book, but we are not to be bibliolatrists, for over the written word stands the authority of the Living Word. Today's gospel lesson will make that point.
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
In the course of dealing with the rivalries and spiritual arrogance rampant in the Corinthian congregation Paul gives us this superb statement about the relationship of the group and the individual in the community of faith. "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (v. 24). His coining of this metaphor reflects Paul's thoroughly Hebraic background and the understanding of corporate personality in ancient Israel. The many are represented in the one and the one represents the many. To a congregation filled with big egos Paul defines the whole individuals in Christ in terms of social interdependence and responsibility. The congregation in Corinth was a chorus composed of soloists.
It is this understanding of our life together in Christ that sets the church at odds with the atomistic privatism that characterizes much of the religion-in-general scene currently in vogue. In fact, right through chapters 12-15 of 1 Corinthians Paul will articulate an understanding of the individual in community that carries powerful social implications.
Luke 4:14-21
Luke is defining for the church the character of a Spirit-led ministry modeled by Jesus and authoritative for the church. The setting is the congregation at worship and a reading from the book. The reader is a lay person, Jesus. He selects the scroll of Isaiah and reads the words of an unknown prophet recorded in Isaiah 61:1-2a. Refer to the November-December 1993 issue of Emphasis, and this column for Advent 3 for comment of this passage from Isaiah that may be suggestive here also.
Jesus opened the book, read the book, and incorporated its truth into his life. One possible outline for a sermon is here in the actions of Jesus. One important observation to make on this passage is that Jesus not only read the book but edited it. He abruptly cut off the reading just before the words, "and the day of vengeance of our God." He would have occasion again in his ministry to blue-pencil other words handed down from of old. He is the Living Word who stands in judgment on the written word and all those scary ways of saying God.
An interesting alternative would be to create a sermon on the contrast between this reading and Jeremiah 36:1-26. This is a dramatic scene that speaks for itself as King Jehoiakim cut out and burned piece by piece a portion of a scroll from Jeremiah as Jehudi read from it. In a way, all of us at times cut out the part that rubs us the wrong way. The end result was a much abridged version of the words of Jeremiah, the King Jehoiakim version. At any rate, linking this story to the gospel lesson gives us two different responses to the prophetic word.
