Wednesday, May 13, 2015

2015 Festival Journal - Day Three

Festival of Homiletics, 2015 – Denver Colorado

Day Three

Is it Day Three already?  How does this happen?  One side note, despite the warnings and concerns expressed, I haven’t noticed any effects from the altitude.  There has been a lot of walking, but so far so good.  Fresh air and sunshine most of the time.  A few showers and storms roll through quickly, but nothing serious (there are threats in the mountains this evening, the news tells me tonight)   All in all a great visit to the Centennial State.  

(One pg rated observation: be careful when passing by a group of smokers on a street corner, it just might not be tobacco!)

My morning began with worship. The preacher was Luke Powery, the current Dean of the Chapel of Duke University.  He introduced himself as a Bapticostal, and said anything could happen.  But what happened in the sermon is that we were treated to a sermon reflecting the best of African American tradition and mainline progressive faith.  Based on the introduction of John the Baptist in the Gospel of Luke, Dr Powery talked about how the word of God comes in the wilderness and not in the places of power.  Which can mean that sometimes in our wilderness God speaks and sometimes when we are large and in charge it doesn’t come to us!  It wasn’t an us and them sermon, but a how does God choose to speak sermon.  And maybe we need to learn to listen to wilderness folk more often.  And wilderness usually means the marginal ones.  

But my favorite part was when he pointed out the wilderness words that came to the slave ancestors and he proceeded to sing a series of spirituals with an amazingly powerful voice.  I love preachers who can sing.

This was followed by a lecture from Walter Brueggemann, titled “Fidelity Amid the Seduction of Certitude.”  His premise is that scripture presents to us a God of wonder, not a God of consistency.  That faith is more about being in relationship - fidelity - than it is about right behavior - certitude.  

Along the way, he referenced the rabbis who taught that the bible is notoriously multi-layered, multi-voiced, profoundly complex and deeply conflicted.  Interestingly, Sigmund Freud immersed in this rabbinical tradition presents a theory about the self.  He says that the self is multi-layered, multi- voiced, profoundly complex and deeply conflicted.  

The morning then concluded with a presentation from Diana Butler Bass, a church historian who revived hope for the mainline church a few years ago with her book “Christianity for the Rest of Us.”  I found that book a source of hope for many of us.  Today she was presenting the work of her latest book coming this year.  The title is “Grounded: God Has Left the Mountain - Understanding the Theological Revolution of Our Time.”

Diana Bass suggests that the most prominent question of our age (beginning with the second World War) is “Where is God?”  And that the ancient vision of the three tiered universe, with God in Heaven above, and us on earth in the middle and underworld below representing the opposite of God or the absence of God has given way to a God of Presence.  God is not “up there” somewhere, no longer is “God in His heaven and all is right with the world.”  But rather that God is with us, in both pain and joy, in ugliness and in beauty.  God is with us.  Emmanuel.  That is the word for us today.  Presence.  Even Wesley knew that.  His dying words were “Best of all, God is with us.”

After a quick lunch I moved to the United Methodist Church for a sermon and a lecture from Anna Carter Florence.  Anna is a favorite of mine.  I heard her the very first Festival I attended many years ago and look forward to her every year.  She teaches preaching at Columbia Seminary in Atlanta and has a unique way of looking at scripture and the preaching task.

For her sermon she took one of the “texts of terror” as identified by Dr Phyllis Tribble in the mid 80's.  Judges 19, go read it if you want.  No easy explanation.  No way to smooth it over, or explain it away.  Usually we just ignore it.  But there it is.  

Anna preached about concubines.  About the difference between a relationship of love and a desire to use a person for your own purposes.  And while none of us would claim to take concubines, she asked us to consider are there cases where we use people for our own purposes rather than see them as whole persons with whom we can be in relationship?  It’s a hard question, a hard thought.  Sometimes this faith stuff makes our living so much more ... intentional.  That living blindly, without thinking about consequences or the impact on others or on the planet, is what leads us to texts of terror.  

Not an up sermon at all.  But maybe necessary.

She lightened the mood in her following lecture.  She is also working on a book and the thrust of her next book is about paying attention to the verbs in the text as a way of shaping our preaching and our understanding of our faith.

So she took the book of Ruth and discovered by paying attention to the verbs, the dominant verbs of each for the four chapters, we find that Ruth is actually not just a nice love story, but a manual for preachers.  (This is a preaching festival after all)

Chapter one the verb is “cling.”  As in thought Naomi told both of her widowed daughter in laws to turn back and stay with their people, and Orpah took her up on this advice, Ruth instead decided to cling to Naomi.  And cling here doesn't mean clingy or co-dependent or needy. But faithful, steadfast, committed.   Cling is a relationship word.  As preachers (and followers) we are called to cling to the truth, to the text, to the God behind the text.

The verb in chapter two is “glean.”  You know the story.  Ruth had to glean behind the harvesters to get enough for her and her mother in law to live.  But Boaz took a liking to her and made it easier.  Easier, but not easy.  Gleaning is hard work.  It is hands and knees work.  It is getting down to see what is left behind after the professionals have been through.  What tidbits of meaning, what insights of living, what hope is there down on the ground?  Is it enough to live on?  Look hard.  Glean.

In chapter three it is “uncover” and the textual story is interesting and odd and a bit ... racy, to tell the truth.  But for preachers, to uncover is the reveal truth.  To show the community the truth about who we are and how we behave, what we value and our practices that continue to shape us.  Uncover who we a really are, not just who we think we are, for good or for ill.  Just the truth.  Uncover.

Then she kind of wrapped it up for us.  But there is one more chapter.  There is another verb, she says, in chapter four the verb is redeem.  But that is not our job it is God’s.  

A long day, but I had reached the end of my endurance.  Even though there were more events, I caled it a day and came to write this and turn in.  One more full day and then a half.  Then the trek to the airport and back home.   

Stay tuned.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Did you realize that in order to leave a comment, I've been asked repeatedly to prove that I am not a robot? I'm not entirely certain that I am NOT a robot. What is a Not Robot, anyway? Secondly, I was instructed to select all the photos of STEAK from a collection of food shots. I ask you, what does any of this have to do with Homiletics? All this nonsense just to say hello; to tell you how happy I am that you are there - and here, and that I am enjoying the Tales of Your Trip.

Derek Weber said...

OK, that is weird. But thanks for persevering! It has been a fun and transforming experience. Always glad I came. Even so far from home.