One of the things I read yesterday was this advice from Jehu
Teach your pastors to in general use the Scriptural Exposition method of preparing and delivering sermons. Just like avoiding being alone behind closed doors with attractive young women that you’re not married to, this greatly reduces the occasion of temptation when preaching. The sort of temptation is to grind one’s own particular ax or to make accommodation to the culture, rather than to God. You see, if you preach entire books of the Bible, not avoiding any uncomfortable passages or books, you will be forced out of your cultural comfort zone into the deep wherein you and your congregation can actually encounter the actual God of Christianity, rather than the god of Churchianity. In particular, make sure to give the Old Testament its due, because frankly, the New Testament makes zero sense without the ‘spiritual grammar’ of the Old.
Now, I agree. The reason I switched to the lectionary is that my local kirk follows it: they use a different daily reading programme, but the Sunday readings are the same. As a general rule, I look for the most difficult reading for each day here. It is a way of pushing me out of my assumptions.
Which are many. Anyway, Job talks about God’s sovereignty today.
1Then Job answered: 2“Indeed I know that this is so; but how can a mortal be just before God? 3If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand. 4He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength – who has resisted him, and succeeded? – 5he who removes mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger; 6who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; 7who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; 8who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea; 9who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; 10who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number. 11Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not perceive him. 12He snatches away; who can stop him? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
13“God will not turn back his anger; the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him. 14How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? 15Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
32For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. 33There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both. 34If he would take his rod away from me, and not let dread of him terrify me, 35then I would speak without fear of him, for I know I am not what I am thought to be.
There is a hard truth here. I really do not want to face the fact God is sovereign. A commentator at Bruce Charlton’s place put it this way.
But I often fear (and it not an intellectual fear, not something brought on by philosophy that can be fixed with philosophy- but a deep and ambiguous primal fear felt only in my heart- something I cannot easily get rid of) that maybe God is just far too high above Creation for there to be any understanding between Him and us. Like I will die and I go to Heaven, and I will be miserable. Like I will be told that C.S. Lewis and Peter Kreeft and you are burning in Hell because you all did not attend an Orthodox church. And that I will be told that I must accept this, and that this is good, and that it is I who in my fallen state cannot comprehend goodness, and it is I who is the confused one. And I know I probably sound foolish saying so, I know I am a fool for imagining “what if I find myself in Heaven and everyone else who I considered a good Christian is in Hell?” as if I know I’m destined for Heaven or that I deserve salvation or anything like that, but I wonder: what if I find myself in the position of Lazarus the poor man who looked down upon the rich man pleading to him from the torments of Hell. I could never witness anyone’s pain in Hell, and I certainly could not speak to them or give them any lectures, it would be far too much. it would be like a drunk driver blitzed out of his mind pulling his vehicle up to lecture a speeding motorist on why the speeder received a ticket and why it was just that the speeder was the one who got punished while he, the drunk driver who swerved across all the lanes and missed all the stop lights but maintained a legal speed, did not.
I don’t know… it’s like I think: well if they would let me into Heaven, well then, they must let all Christians in, shouldn’t they? Or will they just say: “You were spared by God by His whim and secret knowledge which you do not possess, it was a just and good move, don’t be ungrateful and don’t complain. Be happy. That is a command.”
I cannot feel joy on command.
Neither can I.
But feeling Joy is not what it is about. What Job and the commentator remind us that God is not tame. He is greater than us: we cannot understand his reasoning. We are like children, jealous that Mummy has had a dinner with Daddy. But in this state, in this fallen creation, we are left with passages and situations we do not understand.
But that God is sovereign.
And that the experience of every prophet and apostle who has been confronted with a vision of the glory of God is not joy, but fear, trembling, and a sense of unworthiness.
Let’s face it, it would be easier to talk about God not having a favourite nation, or Jesus preaching the Holy Spirit. Both are in the lectionary. But if in doubt, a good rule is to meditate for the most difficult passage. And today we are confronted our fallen state, our mortality, and our need for mercy.
“You see, if you preach entire books of the Bible, not avoiding any
uncomfortable passages or books, you will be forced out of your cultural
comfort zone into the deep wherein you and your congregation can
actually encounter the actual God of Christianity, rather than the god
of Churchianity.”
I think this is probably key, once you get past a certain number of foundational truths. Hopefully a group can get past the Hebrews 5:11-14 admonition so the foundational truths need to be repeated like they do now, but whole books can be preached, and all Scriptures must be confronted.
The problem I have found in looking at the lectionaries is exactly that. They skip around and don’t hit the Scriptures that threaten their own tradition or their own power if understood and born out to their full conclusion. This “threat” has been mentioned time and again in the literature I’ve read in the past (I remember a specific quote, but haven’t been able to find it again). A great example is even in some Jewish lectionaries where I understand they skip Isaiah 52:13-53:12, for reasons that should be obvious to the Christian. Any plan that isn’t comprehensive can easily be suspect.
Well, the lectionary does get there over three years. But each day there are four passages (Psalm. OT, NT, Gospel) and it is easy to take the most inoffensive one of them.
But you don’t need it. Do what the Reformed from Calvin to Baxter did and Spurgeon rediscovered: preach a book over a few weeks, then another one, then another. But be aware that to cover the bible in a year you need around 5 — 10 chapters OT and two NT a day…
Or preach daily. Which again, is what Baxter did: going into the fields with the plowmen if needed.