We continue our look at the surprising baby for this Advent season. We may have thought we needed a God who “tears the skies” and comes down in ferocious wrath against our enemies, cleansing the world of them and leaving us, the faithful ones, as the true chosen of God. But, surprise, surprise! What we received instead was a peaceful shepherd, carrying silly lambs in divine arms, gently guiding those who are pregnant.
Welcome to another episode of Must Reads where Dr. Lisa Washington Lamb, Visiting Assistant Professor of Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary, discusses her book “Resonate: How to Preach for Deep Connection.”
During the two-generation exile, Israel found itself trapped in a theological cauldron with multiple competing voices trying to explain just what had happened to the chosen people of YHWH, just why land, king, and temple, had been snatched away. YHWH’s very first word to them is “comfort,” spoken “tenderly” (to the heart) to Jerusalem, assuring them that their “time of service,” and their “penalty” has been paid and that it was all too true that YHWH had indeed punished them for all their monstrous deeds (Is.40:1-2). But all that is now past.
I am struck by Is.64:1-2, and its hope: “If only (or “O that you would…”) tear open the skies and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence…to make known your name to your adversaries, so that nations might tremble at your presence!” Such language is generated by a people who find themselves helpless in the midst of multiple trials that they cannot seem to overcome.
Using the imagery of Israel as sheep, and reminding them that only God is finally the shepherd, the prophet promises that the great shepherd will once again call all the sheep together, and give them rich Israelite mountain pastures (Ez.34:14), making them “lie down,” using a clear echo from Psalm 23.
The prose account of Judges 4, locked as it is into the unbreakable Deuteronomic pattern of Israelite sin, divine punishment, enemy oppression, and eventual victory by means of a savior, leading again to sin, would appear to undercut any possible literary artistry. However, a closer look reveals considerable flair within the straightjacket of the pattern.
In this episode of Must Reads Classics, Dr. Alyce McKenzie interviews Dr. Thomas Long, the Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, about his book “Preaching and the Literary Forms of the Bible.”
Refusing to look at the contexts in which texts are ensconced is to run the risk of completely misrepresenting and misusing material for foolish or even dangerous purposes. Today’s reading presents such a problem.
In the central “resurrection story” wherein the Israelite slaves escape from their Egyptian captors by the power of YHWH and the servant Moses, sea and land are at the center of the story.
Welcome to another episode of Must Reads where The Rev. Dr. Joni Sancken, Associate Professor of Homiletics at United Theological Seminary, discusses her book “All Our Griefs to Bear”
Deuteronomy 34 presents to us a kind of coda on the literary life of the great lawgiver, a portrait that Deuteronomy shapes throughout his lengthy book. For Deuteronomy, Moses is most especially a prophet, a role not particularly emphasized in earlier accounts in Exodus, though his calling at the famous bush becomes the very model of later prophetic calls.
In this final episode from Exodus, the question of a human conception of God is raised forcefully, and at the same time with traditional Hebrew delight.
© SMU Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence
