we had our first evening worship and lecture tonight at the festival of homies homiletics. on the docket for tonight were thomas long & barbara brown taylor. first off. first baptist was packed! i was a little late getting away from the church so when i got there people were already sitting in the aisle and i am sure that the video conference in the fellowship hall were probably full too. i sat on some cozy corner where i couldn't see the pulpit.. so that might have been defeating to a preaching conference not to see the pulpit. as with most of my conference blogging i'll jot down my notes.
thomas g long speaking on john 20: 19-31
- we are in a culture that is able to not worship.. & this mans name is legion
- there are a lot of tourists in our congregations that do not know our language or code that dan brown could not even crack
- quoting: your congregation is made up of people who almost didn't come today
- told a compelling story of joshua bell performing as a street musician. no one stopped to listen except the children. they knew something special was happening
- religious spam filter
- we all have problems with worship
- we are not trying to fix worship we are trying to fix ourselves.
barbara brown taylor on "how to preach like Jesus: parables"
- too often we preach like paul. who was the church builder, not the Saviour. he was the left brain guy. the guy who gave answers. left brain language is the language of clarity, factual.
- the right brain is the language of power. impressionistic. sets in space, not in time.
- i love the way the parables of Jesus work the margins of this kind of speech. the longer ones have memorable characters and plots. long or short a parable is not an information delivery system.
- parables contain within the seeds of individual and communal transformation.
- there is little transformation without disintegration.
- the teaching of parables required something of them. as hungry they were, he would not chew their food for them. chewing and food are one.
- parables are stories, we spend a lot of time arguing whether the stories are true. these are huge issues. in parables this question does not apply. these are stories. they relieve the burden.. relax, it's a story
- parables wake us up to the fact that not only are these fitting to our lives but they connect to the divine life
- i am willing to bet that Jesus told the story of the prodigal son a dozen times with little flares.
- parables have more than one door and more than one floor.. more ways to enter and more levels to see and experience.
- as far as i could tell, Jesus never told a parable to a congregation of one
- why do you tell stories" his disciples asked. "you've been given incite into the kingdom".. i tell stories to create readiness
- parables are wisdom literature, Jesus didn't invent this. job and others used this, there are no appeals to Torah or patriarchal doctrines, literature is not interested in the dogma. wisdom means to be accessible to options. wisdom draws from the lilies of the field.
- wisdom is not all cheery. it asks the questions of hard human experience.
- wisdom is interested in real life, not piety.
- sin is not the problem in wisdom literature, foolishness is
- wisdom is not necessarily what frightened people want. they want teachings that keep them safe. maybe that was Jesus problem. he taught frightened people, but he told them stories. no matter what they asked him for the right answer he turned them around with a question. he gave them fish, but he told them how to fish.
- parables are paradoxical, parables rightly told do not aid religious certainty. they more aid religious uncertainty.
- it's often a good mistake to try and tell the good and bad guys in a Jesus parable.
- is pounding God black and blue really Christ's intentions
- parables are to stretch the mind and beyond. press bruises, push and shove.
- Jesus didn't explain his stories, so should you. he left some stories unfinished. he trusted his listeners and his words.. God's word, even if no one got it.
- trust God's word to do God's work even if you don't have the slightest idea how
- parables offer themselves, their subject is life lived, but it does not necessarily dictate behavior. parables wound listeners to live into questions like these
- parables do not tell the listener what they want. but they want to live in life.
- Jesus did not spend so much of his time on parables so that people would know good farming, party throwing, etc. but he was pointing to the moon. (zen story of reference when one points to the moon it's not to look at the finger pointing)
- he wanted them to feast on the word.
if you want to preach like Jesus here are things to try - tell more stories and invest the time to learn to tell them well. you can even make up true stories. go to a storytellers conference. listen to those really good at telling stories.
- preach a sermon with no footnotes in it. preach from the life that you and your listeners know best. eat locally. where the gospel you share is not on the top shelf that they need help, but is with the lilies of the field
- decline to chew your listeners food for them. leave something for them to cut or chew. introduce some problems that you cannot solve. make trouble instead of moderating it for once. depending on what you feed your congregation it may not go over well at first.
- try sitting down three paragraphs before you are done. or before they are done listening.
book of Matthew: you have been given incite into the kingdom. you have God blessed eyes. ears that hear.
