Comments on: How to Preach What’s Not The Gospel

By: Headless Unicorn Guy

Headless Unicorn Guy — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:19:52 +0000

About all I can say is that in Hebrews faith is considered great in hindsight, but in the middle of the story it looks to be about the size of a mustard seed at best.

That reminds me of an axiom from a book about writing plot-drive fiction from my college days. Regarding plot events, it said that “events should seem random and accidental when they occur but inevitable afterwards.” That the pattern of the plot should not be recognizable as it happens, but all fit together by the end.

By: caedmon

caedmon — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:45:51 +0000

I serve a congregation that doesn’t know the Bible. Most members are adult converts who haven’t heard all the old stories. I can’t mention Jonah or Moses without giving a recap of the stories. It’s a wonderful, awesome opportunity and responsibility to teach the Bible. Telling the stories and telling about the stories is part of the process, but is not my primary purpose. It doesn’t matter what text I’m working from, I hope to preach in a way that people meet Jesus. I hope the men and women in the congregation are actively participating in the sermon, encountering the risen Christ. If he really is the Word made flesh, then this can be true regardless of what passage serves as the core of that moment’s message.

By: David Mays

David Mays — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:34:58 +0000

Michael,
This is my first visit to your blog. I read your bio and feel that we are at a similar point from different roots. You might say it seems we were grafted to the same plant. Glad you are posting, now let’s see if I can respond.

By: David Mays

David Mays — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:23:09 +0000

Dan I agree with you.

I try to find how we are like the characters and stories of the Bible. They, like me, fall short of their calling. Every given relationship shows faith and failure yet God was able to use them and the community found their story important to retain. The Bible talks about God’s love for us in the midst of failure. We are children of God and the Bible points to how and why we can accept that position. If we wonder how far God will go we need only turn to the Gospels!

By: T Freeman

T Freeman — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:34:05 +0000

Kelly,

Even if we say “distinguish” according to function, then I’m not comfortable distinguishing only some of Jesus’ life, words and actions as “gospel” or “grace” and other parts not when I study him for myself or present him to others. God’s leadership, IMO, is a gift he gives (grace) and it doesn’t help in the long run us to keep calling it something else. Unfortunately, I think this hermeneutic has only contributed to the lack of discipleship to Jesus in the West–because we don’t generally present his leadership or shaping of our lives into his as part of the good news. We just leave too much good (too much of Jesus) outside of our idea of “good news” using this lens.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:18:29 +0000

Greatest blog piece on hermeneutics I have ever read. This will be INCREDIBLY helpful to me in my feeble attempts to run a youth ministry. Thank you for this one!
The first church I worked for (SBC) had a former military chaplain for a pastor, and so he was very steeped in practical ecumenicism. He lead the leadership to include in the church statement of beliefs that “The criteria for interpretation of scripture is Jesus Christ.”
I knew that sounded right, but didn’t quite fully understand how a person could be a criteria. I think this article goes a long way toward explaining that concept.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:08:43 +0000

T Freeman: Lutheran theology isn’t about splitting Jesus (or even Scripture per se) into “Law vs. Gospel,” but about properly distinguishing between the two functions that they have. In fact, the same verses can hit the hearer in many different ways, depending on whether they are complacent in their sins, in despair and in need of comfort, and so on. A good pastor will preach the text and “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted,” with the ultimate intent of driving everyone to the Gospel once the Law has done its work.

I don’t think you need to make unrealistic stretches in OT Scripture to point things back to Jesus. If we truly see ourselves in these OT figures, we will see people who are struggling with sin and people of faith. The same Law that applied to them applies to us, too, and drives us to Christ. And whenever we see God’s undeserving grace and sacrificial love given to his people, we see that fulfilled in Christ as well.

Leviticus makes for an excellent sermon series. We did one during Lent one year, and it’s absolutely full of Jesus. How could it not be? It’s all about God’s work of atonement, sacrifice, and the forgiveness of sins. It’s not like God was making up arbitrary rules back in the OT that have no relation to the Christian faith.

By: cermak_rd

cermak_rd — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:19:41 +0000

Leviticus 19 will go quite nicely with some of the sermon on the mount (plains, depending on the source used).

By: Ethan Magness

Ethan Magness — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:49:34 +0000

Alas, they went pretty fast. It was an exciting semester. Many were scandalized but for some it was the first time they got grace.

Our next theme was “Serve Humbly.” We hoped they would form a meaningful balance.

We also ate a lot of pizza though, it was a youth group after all.

By: dave bish

dave bish — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:06:44 +0000

I dream of a long series in Leviticus – maybe not 18 weeks but the way the gospel shouts out from that book it demands to be preached. Try Andrew Bonar’s Geneva Commentary on Leviticus, or a four part series by Justin Mote at http://www.uccf.org.uk which could easily have been twice that length.