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postmodern preaching

Proper 28 Year C

  • Isaiah 65: 17-25

The text of the Book of Isaiah concludes this section with a description of God’s breathtaking promise to restore, renew and even totally re-create “new heavens and a new earth….”  The power of the promise is conveyed in such poetic images as imagining a time when infants no longer die after “a few days;” a person who only lives to be one hundred will be considered to be the exception.  And, of course, an image that has inspired many poets and and painters over the centuries: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together….”  But even in this extraordinary passage, God makes a statement that is exceptionally startling: “Before (emphasis added) they call I will answer, while they are still speaking I will hear.”

  • First Song of Isaiah (12: 2-6)

Isaiah’s hymn expresses confidence– “Surely it is God who saves me….”  And then calls for continuous and perpetual recitation of God’s “deeds” so that God’s name is remembered by all nations.

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  • Malachi 4: 1-2a

This brief excerpt from the Book of Malachi expresses a familiar assertion that “the day is coming” when the “arrogant” will get their due, but “for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.”

  • Psalm 98

Human voices, accompanied by all kinds of instruments and joined with nature, are summoned to praise the Lord and to recall God’s kindness and fathfulness.

  • II Thessalonians 3: 6-13

Apparently the writer of this “second” letter to the Thessalonians felt the need to admonish those who were not earning their “own living.”

  • Luke 21: 5-19

Just before Jesus faces his fate, Luke’s narrative deals with the apocalyptic question, which had become more urgent due to contemporary events when this gospel was written, possibly in the 90’s.  The specific question is about the Temple, which had  been built by Solomon, destroyed once and rebuilt, then desecrated by Greek invaders, finally quarantined by the Romans (and , if we assume the common consensus, by the time of Luke’s text had been written, destroyed again).  Jesus is standing in the Temple itself when he warns that the “day will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”  Some ask Jesus, “when will this be?”  Jesus warns not to be led astray by those who claim to know the answer to that question, nor to be rattled by “wars and insurrections….”  Human-made and natural disasters are inevitable.  But more immediately, “they will arrest you and persecute you” in synagogues, and before kings and governors.”  “This will give you an opportunity to testify….”  But do not prepare your testimony ahead of time, because “I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.”

Uncertainty, turmoil or the potentiality or actuality of chaos is never that far away in our lives.  A natural disaster, a sudden set-back, the loss of a loved one are life’s events that displace everything we had come to rely on.  These are always the times we are particularly susceptible to panic.  There are always charlatans– religious, financial and political– who seek to exploit public or personal anxiety and offer easy answers and solutions.  Times of full-blown crises are the backdrop for many biblical texts, such as Luke’s gospel.  Luke’s text also mentions a fate some believers would actually face– arrest, imprisonment and even death.  Such passages as Luke’s– and there are many, many more similar biblical passages– acknowledge realistically human nature and our propensity to fall apart and be vulnerable to phony saviors/solutions.  Luke’s text addresses such times with what at first appears to be a non sequitur:   Jesus says such times “will give you an opportunity to testify.”  Furthermore, we will not need to outline or rehearse what to say, we will already know what to say!  “I will give you words,” Jesus declares!  Isaiah’s amazing announcement of God’s readiness to renew, repair and even re-create that which was broken is capped off with a promise not even dreamed of– “Before they call I will answer.”   Isaiah’s hymn (12: 2-6) seeks to set in motion a perpetual repetition of God’s deeds for the benefit of all future generations and “all nations.”  Malachi is certain that those who “remember” God’s name will survive any crisis.  The psalmist (98) unites human voices and instruments with nature in one majestic hymn “to recall God’s kindness and… faithfulness.”

A major theme of postmodern writers is that language/words/narratives which predate our birth, enable us to function in daily life and to express and interpret our own thoughts, emotions and experiences not only to others but to ourselves.  The Word/word of God– as relayed in biblical texts– have a special power, because they speak about ideals, absolutes, extreme goals that exceed human grasp, but fuel human aspirations.

Jean-Louis Chretien makes these ideas about the vital function of words a major theme in The Call and the Response.  Chretien writes:

“Other voices are at once the past and the future of my own voice.”  “They anticipate me in the future just as they preceded me in  the past.  In order to be able to give one’s word, and to give oneself in one’s word, one must first have received it.”  (p. 81)

About the Word/words of God, Chretien writes:

“Voices fade away before, or in, the revelation of God’s word, but the Word also wants witnesses, calls other voices to be born in order to transmit its revelation.”    (pp 64-65)

To repeat/testify/sing/witness with words that recall and celebrate God’s “faithfulness and kindness” sets in motion a particular action, Chretien writes:

“To sanctify the divine name is to struggle against letting it be profaned….   When a man [sic] is victimized and humiliated, the divine name of glory is humiliated,  and to assist the man back up is to sanctify this same name.  The injustice that we witness profanes the divine name of justice, and to fight against injustice is to hear the voice of the Word aggrieved in the event.  To answer the voice of events is to speak, but also to act, by letting ourselves be transformed by it.” (p. 69)

Jesus unexpectedly says that times of crisis are times to “testify.”  What is the content of our testimony?  What are the actual words that are appropriate for times of crisis?  When we testify, we enter into a conversation/song that was already underway long before we were born because it was initiated in response to God.  It is a conversation/song about God’s love- -which initiated all that is and sustains it forever.  But unless we vocalize these words, they remain unsaid/unsung for the time being.  Chretien surmises:

“Every man [sic] who announces the Word is the voice of the Word.”  “…the Word needs still and needs always to be announced by new voices.  Even having been born, the Word still needs to be born in each person.” (p.65)

“I will give you words and wisdom…” Jesus assures.  When we sing/speak them, especially in times of crisis, we have become the newest witnesses.  “The Word still needs to be born in each person.”

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