conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

sermon musings: the good shepherd

Abba Abraham told of a man of Scetis who was a scribe and did not eat bread. A brother came to beg him to copy a book. The old man whose spirit was engaged in contemplation, wrote, omitting some phrases and with no punctuation. The brother, taking the book and wishing to punctuate it, noticed that words were missing. So he said to the old man, 'Abba, there are some phrases missing.' The old man said to him, 'Go, and practice first that which is written, then come back and I will write the rest.' [Scetis=Sheheet]

This week's lectionary is challenging. The Good Shepherd passages are so well known. I hear many people say the same thing that I struggle with: Do I simply preach the comforting and familiar, or do I try to find an uncommon or unfamiliar take? I certainly will not come up with anything new. That is certain. If I am honest, that is true for most Sundays. People have been engaging the scriptures for thousands of years. So, what the hell do I know? Not much in comparison with the ongoing conversation I am entering whenever I preach. Humility, brothers and sisters, humility. Oy. Friggin. Veh.

Here are some of the various themes running through my head this morning.

1. Historically, the Good Shepherd was a very common image for God in the first couple of centuries of the church. Historians suggest that this is because of the persecutions that the church faced and the believers' understandable need to equate themselves with those who have passed through the great tribulation of the Revelation passage.

2. Walter Wink in his book The Powers That Be has a lot to say about the falsehood of redemptive violence. I am thinking about the variety of understandings of sacrifice that we have and wondering which is appropriate for the Christian. Believe it or not, I am trying not to force my own opinion in this. Is it the violent act that redeems us in martyrdom or is it the faithfulness in the face of/in spite of violence that redeems us?

3. I do not want to talk about sheep...how intelligent they are or how stupid they are. Please, God, don't ask me to talk about sheep. Amen.

4. McClendon wants us to think that one way to unity for the church is simple embodyment of the true saints. It's not a bad idea.

5. Hauerwas has a lot to say about sacrifice. But can I preach any of it? Perhaps in that there may be no earthly reward in civic life for the true martyr. Heck, I dunno. This is some dense stuff!

Well, folks, that is what is running through my head this morning. Trish is making cupcakes for a baby shower that we are going to later today. The house smells wondrously unhealthy right now. There is nothing like chocolate at eight in the morning to get the day started right!

Oh! This is from Protestants for the Common Good:

The Lectionary readings taken from the book of Revelation are heavily loaded toward the liturgical and heavenly-drama sections of that book. There is much else in this unique Christian book that has been left out of the three-year cycle of readings.

Christopher Rowland sums up Revelation in the Lectionary as follows:

The Revised Common Lectionary prescribes ten readings from Revelation over the three-year cycle. Of these ten readings, five are from Revelation 21-22 [New Heaven and Earth and the New Jerusalem], four from two passages (1:4-8; 7:9-17) [both visions of the heavenly liturgy], and one from chapter 5 [another heavenly liturgy]. …To paraphrase Bonhoeffer’s words, we have ceased to be a community that hears the Apocalypse, for the simple reason that we do not allow ourselves the opportunity of hearing, let alone keeping, its words.” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 12, p. 510.)

The point is that over half the book of Revelation is about the struggle and chaos on earth of the agony accompanying the birth of the new age. There is a great cosmic warfare going on, and the seer’s visions present the warring sides and the cost to faithful witnesses of the struggle between the mighty forces of evil and the good forces of the heavenly Lamb. There is not another book in the Christian Bible that presents so clearly the oppressive power of great imperial forces. This is a message that many Christians around the world need to hear, because it reflects their own experience of overwhelming forces bearing them down – but insists also on a final hope for deliverance.
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Much of the language and vision materials of Revelation are highly suggestive insights into the forces of evil, the larger inertias of masses of people and power that ultimately oppose and resist the power of good indicated by the great end-goal, the Reign of God.

Posted by tripp at April 28, 2007 07:32 AM