00:00:11.440 - 00:00:28.250

it is my job. And my joy to invite reverend tom are back to give us his second lecture . You know, when I heard his historical, I mean his geographical history, uh, south Carolina

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, Virginia florida. I was looking forward to a beautiful southern accent coming out of his mouth. And tom you have lost your southern accent. Um, but I'm so delighted that you haven't lost that southern

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gift to weave a wonderful tale because I found myself this morning leaving this place while I was in the overflow, leaving the overflow and thinking, I have just heard this really hard, hard news about our

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context and I am so energized and so looking forward to what comes next. What just happened in there ? It was a delight when David introduced tom this morning, he mentioned that he is one of the

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leaders of the next conference and the next church. And I wanted to say a word about what that is because some of you may not know. It is an effort that Tom and others have led to

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and I'm gonna read what their purpose is to renew the PC USA by engaging new generations in God's mission through sparking imaginations, connecting congregations and reviving a distinctively presbyterian witness to jesus christ for the world today.

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This is an event that started last year. They gathered in Indianapolis. They will be in Dallas at the end of february this year. Young, I think they're mostly young leaders who are engaged leading congregations

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engaged in new and creative ways of doing ministry and the ideas are going to bring them together and let them network and generate even new life for the church . So, Tom is a person who, as

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we might say, walks the talk and I think that I would say I disagree with your self assessment that you are an ordinary thinker and I certainly am witness to your love and commitment to the future of

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this church in which you have found home. So we're delighted to have you back. Please join me in welcoming him. Yeah, thank you for those very kind words. And thank you for being here

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again. And I will affirm that yes, all of us involved in next church. All of us are young. Yes, why not in this? In this presentation, I would like to take some

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time to explore theology by that. I mean, the church is talk of God, not to confuse . I'm less focused on the content of our confession and more on the way that theological speech functions in

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the church. When we're in the wilderness. What fruit should result from our talk about God? What result is to occur in the church and the world ? I'm not a theologian in a formal way,

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I'm a theologian in a church way, I am more common kind and find comfort in the words that Hung's kung used to introduce his book on being christian . He said this book is written not because the

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author thinks he is a particularly good christian, but because he thinks being christian is a particularly good thing . With this in mind, I have more confessions , not only did we sing angels, we have

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heard on high during advent, but I preached an advent series entitled making christmas meaningful as a matter of fact for the past six years or so. All I preach is series that's after 19 years of preaching

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election erI it's a change for me and not an easy one, but one that is rooted in a significant reformation in my own understanding of the purpose of the churches. Talk of God, Reinhold Niebuhr begins

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his diary of his Detroit ministry with his statement, he said there's something ludicrous about a cal young fool like myself, standing up to preach a sermon to these good folks When I read this in seminary almost

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30 years ago. Now, I assume that the preaching felt ludicrous because he was young. I have learned that the foolishness is not a function of age . Who among us can speak with commanding tone when

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we tell others of God. If that is not humbling enough, remember that with everything else God has to do. On sunday, God may just choose to drop by to hear what you have to say

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when you find a preacher who recognizes how ludicrous that is, you may have found a preacher worth listening to neighbor. Also said, now that I have preached about a dozen sermons, I find myself repeating

00:06:04.790 - 00:06:23.960

myself. I read that in seminary and laughed as you did now. I admire his creativity. 12 sermons most profound in this book. However, in this little book is the anxiety in neighbor's voice.

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It is the anxiety that rises from the recognition that the theology of his teachers lacks the power to speak and honest and transformative word in the new season. It seems to me we are facing similar circumstances.

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It has been done as as has been done so many, many times before. We must reexamine our theological expression in this new season. one of the one of the reasons re examination is needed, as

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we have said. As I said in the first presentation, our communities are much more religiously diverse. Increasingly, people of various faith practices or not at all, or as little and so eloquently describes some

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kind of something, but what is it exactly? They're found not just in major population centers but across the Heartland of America. This is a reality that requires thoughtful engagement of the tradition and careful exploration of

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faithful ethic. The fact of the matter is jesus never encountered a hindu or buddhist or Islam, He left no clear precedent and regarding how his followers are to engage people of other religious practices. Therefore,

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a faithful response to the neighbor who happens to be muslim or behi requires on our part some original thinking . Dorothy day once said if I have achieved anything in my life, it is because I have not

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been embarrassed to talk about God. But today, how do we as disciples and apostles of jesus christ ? How do we speak of God in the wilderness of religious diversity? It seems to me understandable that

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a response to this confusion and diversity in the church is an intense desire for clarity, sometimes clarity. To the point of certainty, Karen Armstrong notes, among the more surprising things about the 20th century was

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the growth of fundamentalism in the world. We think a fundamentalist and we immediately think of of muslim fundamentalists that Released their horrors on 9 11. But read Armstrong's book and she is speaking of the emergence of

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fundamentalism in Islam as well as Judaism as well as Christianity. Thankfully not all fundamentalists are violent but truthfully not all fundamentalists are muslim dr George Tiller was an usher in the reformation Lutheran church in Wichita Kansas,

00:09:07.510 - 00:09:24.440

he's a doctor who served women, deeming themselves in need of late term abortions. Scott. Reeder was a fundamentalist christian and believe that dr Tiller's medical practice contributed to the moral decay of this nation and that

00:09:24.440 - 00:09:43.020

the practice of abortion should be stopped by any means necessary On Pentecost Sunday 2009, Scott Reeder walked into the Reformation Lutheran Church and fatally shot George tiller while he handed him bulletin. Let me say again!

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Clearly, most religious people are not fundamentalists and most fundamentalists are not violent. But fundamentalism does speak of God with clarity, sometimes even certainty, thereby exposing with clarity the lost or the heathen or the other

00:10:03.790 - 00:10:18.660

, who must convert or suffer consequences as martin, marty and scott. Appleby say fundamentalism sees the world engaged in a cosmic battle between ultimate good and evil and in such a battle, evil and evil Doers

00:10:20.340 - 00:10:45.920

must be destroyed when it feels chaotic, confusing clarity is a seductive companion. It is natural in uncertain times to strive for clarity Within the narrative of our Presbyterian Church. It was 1915. Many of you

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will remember we established the essential and necessary doctors 1910 , sorry, the essential and necessary doctrines. You'll remember them. Scriptures are kept from error in the original autographs. We have the original autograph. So

00:11:01.350 - 00:11:16.880

, but anyway, they were kept from area in the original autographs. Jesus was born of a virgin . Jesus died to satisfy divine justice. We affirm the bodily resurrection and that Jesus showed his power and

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love by working miracles. The church was arguing with them, God with clarity, sometimes even certainty, thereby exposing with clarity the lost or the heathen or the other, who must convert or suffer consequences as

00:11:35.440 - 00:11:54.520

martin, marty and scott Appleby say fundamentalism sees the world engaged in a cosmic battle between ultimate good and evil and in such a battle, evil and evil . Doers must be destroyed when it feels chaotic in

00:11:54.520 - 00:12:15.990

confusing clarity, is a seductive companion. It is natural in uncertain times to strive for clarity Within the narrative of our Presbyterian Church. It was 1915, many of you will remember, we established the essential

00:12:15.990 - 00:12:31.170

and necessary doctors, 1910, sorry, the essential , unnecessary doctrines. You'll remember them. Scriptures are kept from error in the original autographs. When have the original autograph. So, but anyway, they

00:12:31.170 - 00:12:46.680

were kept from error in the original autographs. Jesus was born of a virgin. Jesus died to satisfy divine justice. We affirm the bodily resurrection and that jesus showed his power and love by working miracles.

00:12:46.770 - 00:13:03.450

The church was arguing with the arch of Modernism, particularly science. And so the response of the church was just to speak our doctrine in all caps. We deem these doctrines essential and necessary. It is

00:13:03.450 - 00:13:22.660

natural in uncertain times to hunger for clarity, maybe even clarity. To the point of certainty, it is natural, but it is not necessarily good. We live in a different time, but their parallels

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. The Evangelical covenant order of Presbyterians has expressed grief over the fact that our ordination questions are ordination questions reference essential tenants, but those tenants are nowhere identified . Therefore, it is possible for one being ordained

00:13:41.950 - 00:13:56.560

to affirm ascent to the essential tenants and the body have no idea what has just been affirmed. They rightly point with grief to a theological confusion in the Presbyterian church. They rightly point to a lack of

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theological clarity in the church. They would likely find some agreement with my expression that the Church finds today herself in the wilderness. We live in a world of many voices, many varied and divergent truth claims

00:14:13.940 - 00:14:31.230

. So again, they plead that followers of jesus christ need to speak with clarity. Indeed, speaking the truth with clarity is the way to renew the church. In a document released in december, the

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pope said that the church is too broad in our theological ideas and therefore lacks the theological clarity to bring unity like jesus, who face down temptation in the wilderness by leaning into the old creeds of Deuteronomy,

00:14:50.140 - 00:15:09.080

we, as christian people need to stand firm in the essentials. To face down temptation ourselves. The healing of the Church will be the fruit that accompanies clearly stated doctrine, identify essential tenants. Their list

00:15:09.080 - 00:15:24.610

is far more reflective of the reform tradition than our list of 1910, and it is in times it is beautiful and poetic. But then they say, the Church has a faith without which she cannot live

00:15:24.610 - 00:15:43.160

faithfully. Some generations of believers have tried to live faithfully without a shared faith. All have failed. Our generation may be particularly tempted to try forging theological consensus is hard work in any generation, but ours

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seems to have include concluded it is impossible work. We now dwell in a land where ambiguities are preferred . Certainties are suspect. If the church, they say, is going to provide a meaningful witness to

00:16:00.320 - 00:16:18.390

the world, we must get clear about our beliefs . Perhaps they would appealed, perhaps they would appeal to the apostle paul who pleads be of the same mind. The prayerful hope has always been that with

00:16:18.390 - 00:16:38.860

clearly articulated doctrine, we will provide a core around which the faithful can gather. However, we must acknowledge the lessons of church history, which revealed that the core fits most comfortably with those who drafted and

00:16:38.860 - 00:16:57.440

that for others, we find ourselves in some varying degree of distance, perhaps from the core and therefore it feels less like core and more like boundaries. The truth is, the clearer the church has gotten

00:16:57.450 - 00:17:18.680

about doctrine. It has not often been unity but schism that has resulted 1925. The General Assembly set aside the essential and necessary doctrines of the presbyterian church . Grieving that decisions, conservatives led by J.

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Gresham H in split took a decade, but they split to form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And within a couple of years, the bible presbyterian Church split out of that. And a couple of years later

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, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church split out of that. When the purpose of the church is shared thought, it is by definition a community that was on the road to smaller and smaller communion. The reality is

00:17:48.230 - 00:18:03.270

God has never created a church where we all think alike. And if the purpose is to be of shared thought, then eventually it's just gonna be you and your spouse and your spouse isn't going to be

00:18:03.270 - 00:18:26.350

crazy about it anymore. When the christian faith is understood primarily as our doctrine, essential, necessary or not, than the burden of the speaker of the faith is to speak rightly accurately. To proclaim good

00:18:26.840 - 00:18:45.300

theology. Such a practice requires of the speaker and the hearer and evaluation of the truthfulness, which is similar if not synonymous with accuracy with which too often results in division of those who agree or failed to

00:18:45.300 - 00:19:00.780

agree. I suggest that that's not a mature enough way for the church to be the church in our day. If one response in the wilderness is to search for clarity, there are others that the search

00:19:00.780 - 00:19:17.320

for clarity just gives them a full body shake, leaning heavily on the computer programming world called Open Source reverend Landon Whitsett, in his book entitled Open Source Church, suggests that the church is like a computer

00:19:17.320 - 00:19:30.380

program. Open source software that you know best is Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia. Anyone can log on . Anyone who knows how to log on, can log on and edit an article on Wikipedia. This

00:19:30.380 - 00:19:48.280

public editing is what makes it open source. Whitson asserts that the generation that has grown up with this kind of mindset will be repelled not only by essential tenants, but by doctrinal claims at all, which

00:19:48.280 - 00:20:03.270

it claims. An open source church asserts that there's not really a legitimate chance. We're going to be able to truly know the truth and we shouldn't try given the reveal nature of most versions of christian faith

00:20:03.280 - 00:20:14.970

. I think, he says, I think we might feel comfortable enough to say that the truth has been revealed in jesus christ, but the realities of context also make plain to us that your experience and

00:20:14.970 - 00:20:32.640

subsequent explanation of it will radically differ from mine. Open source is theologically rooted in freedom. Again, what's it, I think of the gospel is roughly equivalent to software and computer programs and that it exists

00:20:32.900 - 00:20:49.950

to accomplish a certain goal, to ensure our freedom . Whether we are bound to outmoded ways of thinking or self destructive behaviors held captive emotionally or physically, or crippled by personal struggle or systematic injustice. The

00:20:49.950 - 00:21:07.500

Gospel of jesus christ exist. To set us free to proclaim jesus christ is proclaim freedom, and to proclaim freedom is to proclaim jesus christ. If I understand it here, freedom is clearly understood as individual

00:21:07.500 - 00:21:23.360

freedom. My freedom to think as I like to speak, as I like to express myself without hindrance . It is a different definition of being of one mind, as the Apostle said. It's a looser

00:21:23.360 - 00:21:41.870

mind, no doubt. But in the end, there's almost always one article in Wikipedia about anything. So in an odd way, both the evangelical covenant Order, an open source or after the same thing

00:21:41.130 - 00:22:03.750

, to find some kind of theological agreement. If theological clarity fails to unite, because it denies the reality of the complexity of thought in the church, and if individual freedom fails to unite, because conviction

00:22:03.750 - 00:22:21.280

actually has to be ignored, as Whitsett says, we might feel comfortable enough to say the truth has been revealed in jesus christ. I need more than that. So, is there an alternative? Is

00:22:21.280 - 00:22:36.150

there another way to stand to think about our talk of faith in the church, without being so certain , without being so free of content? But in the end, it's rendered insignificant. A church without

00:22:36.150 - 00:22:49.270

theological content, is a church that has no word to offer a hurting world, and nothing to sustain her through the wilderness. So there must be a way to talk. And so I invite us to

00:22:49.270 - 00:23:10.560

grapple with the question this question before we confirm for ourselves what it is we are to say, Why do we need to say it? What is the fruit that theological conversation is to bear in the church

00:23:11.540 - 00:23:30.020

? What difference in us and in the world is to result from our God talk 1st? I would ask, can we find a way to speak truth that does not produce schism differentiation or otherwise serve primarily

00:23:30.020 - 00:23:44.160

to create boundaries? Can we learn to talk in a way that contributes to the healing of a broken world? More than seeking clarity? It seems to me our God talk should be a love letter.

00:23:44.840 - 00:24:03.780

It should be a love story to a love, starved world. Now, admittedly, that's an impossible task for not even the major poets have invented the vocabulary for us to speak the full love that has

00:24:03.780 - 00:24:25.350

been revealed in the living word. But can we at least speak in its direction toward this end? The theological the tone of theological speech is characterized less by certainty, even clarity and more by love.

00:24:26.140 - 00:24:41.230

Even Joy was visiting the Gene. It had been more than a year after the death of her husband . We sat at her kitchen table drinking coffee, she said, Tom it is so strange. Everybody

00:24:41.230 - 00:24:56.700

thinks I should be over this. We were married for 53 years. Tom nothing feels right. He was a part of everything I said. He surely did love you. See how insightful I am.

00:24:56.710 - 00:25:14.040

That's why it's free. That's why it's free. He surely didn't love you. She said. He did, didn't he? I sort of thought after 53 years, she recognize that, she said.

00:25:14.040 - 00:25:23.150

I never fully understood why he loved me. Tom I can think of a million reasons why you shouldn't have loved me. But he loved me every day . Can you believe it? I knew her well

00:25:23.150 - 00:25:44.270

enough to know a couple of reasons myself, but I thought it I thought it better to take this as a rhetorical question. You see when someone chooses to love you, I mean really love you.

00:25:45.140 - 00:26:04.750

Only the most arrogant are not taking a little by surprise. God talk rooted in the grace of jesus christ will never be very far from surprising joy. It is my own experience that this grace enjoy this

00:26:04.760 - 00:26:25.110

love. Language is now most consistently found in the church. In testimony. I've been preaching for just over 25 years now, not this lecture, It may seem like it. I'm talking about total from

00:26:25.110 - 00:26:38.340

seminary. I carried with me the amazing and life changing words of john Calvin and Jonathan Edwards of carl bart and the neighbors. My eyes were opened by the prophetic speech of James cone and Letty russell.

00:26:38.340 - 00:26:53.700

In more recent years, I have been stretched by Miroslav Wolf and Douglas john hall and brian McLaren. These theologians have shaped the word I proclaimed on sunday mornings. Given them depth insight helped me connect with

00:26:53.700 - 00:27:11.570

the tradition as Lillian so eloquently expressed. But recently I've been wondering what happens if that river flow is turned around and goes the other way? What happens if the voices of the homily, Titian's inform the

00:27:11.570 - 00:27:30.830

theologians? I think there's an important contribution that preaching can offer theology. After all, it is home politics, not systematics, that is the first God talk of the church, it is preaching, it

00:27:30.830 - 00:27:45.050

is witness, it is testimony, that is the first theological language of the church. Now in this thought, I'm helped in particular by recent work of tom long and even more so by the work of

00:27:45.050 - 00:28:00.990

an echo to Florence, who both have explored the importance of testimony as a governing metaphor for preaching. And I also must admit the inspiring and practical work that's been done by Dorothy bass and particularly by lily

00:28:00.990 - 00:28:15.160

and daniel in exploring the spiritual practice of testimony in the congregation tell it like it is is I must read, I'm indebted to the work of these more than is reflected in the short time that I have

00:28:15.160 - 00:28:26.330

here and it's not my intention to re plow the ground that has been already done better than I could do with Lillian here. Instead, I would like to ask what happens when the metaphor of testimony is

00:28:26.330 - 00:28:37.190

applied to theology as a whole. The doctrine. Well let's talk a little bit about what we mean by the word testimony, it's an old church word . I didn't learn it growing up, I learned

00:28:37.190 - 00:28:48.310

it when I was in college, I got a I got a job, a part time job being the choir director of the new prospect baptist church in Lawrence south Carolina. There is nothing that prepares you

00:28:48.310 - 00:29:00.920

for that testimony was their language and it was used to describe the same conversation. The conversation was how they became a christian, not how the how is always the same. Yes, jesus into your heart

00:29:00.930 - 00:29:14.900

, that was the, how, what was, what was revealed was the wind, the circumstances, the situations in which I took jesus into my heart and in telling the testimony the moment was relived in

00:29:14.900 - 00:29:33.470

a certain fashion. I'm offering a more complex definition of testimony than this testimony is the speech of one's understanding, one's experience, one search for God in the biblical text and in the world it will be

00:29:33.470 - 00:29:49.720

more diverse than the singular moment of conversion or anything else. Indeed it will require and include repeated in various moments of growth and change, repentance, emergence , new life, but it will be routed in

00:29:49.720 - 00:30:07.810

the community in a court of Florence defines testimony this way. It's not limited in any fashion to personal story, but it is specific incarnation Elif, you will contextual confession, the one who gives testimony bears

00:30:07.810 - 00:30:23.790

witness to what has been experienced in scripture, she says. While not limited to personal story, testimony is always rooted in personal perspective. This is true , I think in part because of the very nature

00:30:23.790 - 00:30:44.460

of the Gospel itself. David Ford says. The Gospel word is self involving. It cannot be adequately taken in unless we begin to be transformed. It is not a truth, he says, to which

00:30:44.460 - 00:31:03.080

we can appropriately say how interesting and then go on to some other investigation. The Gospel word has the urgency of the most relevant news, like someone shouting fire or whispering, Will you marry me testimony?

00:31:03.080 - 00:31:19.450

Like christian faith itself is rooted in specific moments, particular experience specific, but truth, he says, to which we can appropriately say how interesting and then go on to some other investigation. The Gospel Word

00:31:19.450 - 00:31:41.810

has the urgency of the most relevant news like someone shouting fire or whispering, will you marry me testimony Like christian faith itself is rooted in specific moments, particular experience specific relationships. It is burdened and gifted

00:31:41.810 - 00:31:57.060

with a particular with the scandal of particular charity and is therefore incarnation of speech. The language of testimony is not often the language of certainty, but the language of conviction. Not often the language of knowledge

00:31:57.060 - 00:32:10.580

, not the kind of knowledge that's rooted in fact , but it's rather the language of trust, root in an experience. The language of testimony is not language to convince and never to condemn, but language

00:32:10.580 - 00:32:31.220

to persuade to allure. It is language that is winsome. Sarah touched on was elder in the presbyterian church in Columbia south Carolina. Both of her Children became presbyterian pastors. Her husband Bruce was the financial

00:32:31.220 - 00:32:45.680

secretary that served in the church that I served in that city. Sarah had an ordinary procedure on the hospital but the procedure required that she received a pint of blood. It would have been routine. But

00:32:45.680 - 00:33:01.560

this was the early to mid 1980s and the protocol to protect the nation's blood supply from HIV was lacking . Sarah contracted HIV. It quickly became AIDS in those days. The only thing worse than the disease

00:33:01.560 - 00:33:17.450

was the stigma. The people of her church loved her. But they will admit they didn't know how to handle this. They were afraid, they were confused. They tried to ignore it, which means

00:33:19.040 - 00:33:32.020

they ended up ignoring her. But they all remember the day that she walked to the front of the sanctuary and she said, you are my church family . So I need to tell you something. I

00:33:32.020 - 00:33:45.550

have AIDS. It's going to kill me. I do not have long now. I know many of you are praying for me and I am grateful. What you may not know is that in the early

00:33:45.550 - 00:34:00.060

church, sometimes those who were sick and dying would stand before the community, not only to receive prayer , but to offer testimony. That is why I'm here today. She said, I hate what has

00:34:00.060 - 00:34:17.940

happened to me. But I want you to know that I trust in jesus christ. He too suffer . And he promised that suffering will not be the last word. My faith is not shaken. And

00:34:17.940 - 00:34:37.220

I am not afraid when it comes to you, she said, and suffering will come to you when it comes to you. Remember I was here and remember suffering will not have the last word and do

00:34:37.220 - 00:34:55.550

not be afraid. Tom long says christians understand themselves to be in the biggest court case of all the trial of the ages. What is being contested is the very nature of reality and everything is at stake

00:34:59.140 - 00:35:16.750

. Put our final point on it and a car to Florence as all theology needs to be understood as testimony. It's no longer adequate to speak. A series of absolute claims. Let me turn to the

00:35:17.240 - 00:35:30.360

scriptures a bit to further illustrate the importance of this . You know, you don't need a seminary education to recognize that testimony is a helpful way to assess the scriptures. The systematic theologian, that's what they

00:35:30.360 - 00:35:45.010

call them. When I was in school, the systematic theologian faces the challenge of working with a non systematic bible that bears witness to a non systematic God walter Brueggemann therefore invites the church to see the scriptures

00:35:45.020 - 00:36:05.060

through the lens of testimony. He defines it this way testimony is the assertion that awaits a sense is open to review. It must make its way amidst counter assertions. It is an utterance that is continually

00:36:05.060 - 00:36:23.350

reassessed concerning its validity and persuasiveness. It's how we read the gospels, the synoptics. The consensus is that the Gospel of Mark was the earliest canonical gospel . Matthew and luke later wrote their gospels and when

00:36:23.350 - 00:36:37.590

they did, they had a copy of Mark on the desk. Matthew cuts in pace 600, approximately 600 verses of mark into his gospel, Luke takes about 350 approximately from into his gospel. For mark

00:36:37.600 - 00:36:53.480

, both of them clearly like mark. But then to rewrite it, that had to be edited, amending added to counter testimony, additional testimony. What's wrong with Mark? I like Mark. Why did

00:36:53.480 - 00:37:08.240

it have to be changed so much? Why there have to be addition reduction? The best answer we have to that is Matthew and luke spoke in different communities and there were different questions on the ground and

00:37:08.240 - 00:37:22.310

the synoptic riders were taking seriously the questions and testimony , the hope and affirmation the faith and needs in the Pew. In other words, the scriptures are not handed to us as a work of systematic theology

00:37:22.310 - 00:37:43.090

, but as a congregation of witnesses, a collection of witnesses. Sometimes they echo each other romans, Galatians. Sometimes they scruple each other, Deuteronomy joe . Sometimes they provide an irreducible complexity that provides different

00:37:43.090 - 00:37:59.840

voices of the truth luke john! The scriptures provide us not with a list of essential tenants and necessary doctrines which call us to convert by means of intellectual assent. Rather, the scriptures provide us a chorus

00:37:59.840 - 00:38:10.950

of witnesses, of Saints, who have gone before seeking to persuade the reader to journey to the land , that I will show you to drop your nets and follow, to discover wild beast in the wilderness

00:38:14.120 - 00:38:27.940

. So what are some of the possibilities if doctrine itself, if systematics itself are understood through this metaphor of testimony? It's not one over against the other . I hope I'm being clear about that. It's

00:38:28.080 - 00:38:46.830

understanding our doctrinal conversation as testimony. What would happen there, testimony is informed by the courtroom image of witness and the burden of the witnesses to tell the truth. Was ordained in the West Minster church of

00:38:46.830 - 00:39:00.950

charleston south Carolina. The Saints of Westminster suffered through many a sermon there, as my colleague. There was far too generous with the pulpit. It was my practice at that time to preach my sermon saturday

00:39:00.950 - 00:39:15.550

night to an empty sanctuary. If the pews didn't leave, I tried it the next morning on the folks remember the collection of sermon advisers who would sit with me on saturday night. They were my seminary

00:39:15.550 - 00:39:30.660

professors. I was met, it seems sometimes, visibly by their presence. Those who had poured out their wisdom and their faith for three years, attempting to prepare me for what I now found to be

00:39:30.660 - 00:39:51.840

the impossible, ludicrous task of telling others about God . Impossible. Because I trust in great disappointment to my seminary faculty. Actually, I felt I felt the burden of the preacher was to be right,

00:39:52.920 - 00:40:09.880

to be accurate. Was I appropriately reformed? Did I articulate faithfully? The tradition? Did I execute the text correctly, using all the methods, the subtle but dangerous temptation of that kind of approach to

00:40:09.880 - 00:40:30.030

be right? The subtle and sometimes that's not so subtle to the seminary student, is that the christian faith implies that those who actually excel are the smart , those who can figure it out, those who

00:40:30.030 - 00:40:45.330

can get it right. But the truth is just because we're smart doesn't mean we're good. And even more challenging reality is that when the burden of the preacher is to speak the truth accurately and we remember

00:40:45.330 - 00:41:07.100

that God is actually in the room, then the task is all but impossible. Or, as neighbor reminded, ludicrous, I cannot be right, always , maybe never. But what is possible and required

00:41:07.110 - 00:41:24.020

of testimony is, to be honest, that is the calling. To be honest. When my son was about five was when I was introduced to soccer every saturday morning, there were five and six year

00:41:24.020 - 00:41:32.020

olds that would kick a ball around the field, it was kind of a herd soccer kind of, you know, they kind of me, but around there was never a kid more than about 10 or

00:41:32.020 - 00:41:42.710

12 ft from the ball at any given time. And somehow the ball would escape the mass every now and then and trickle across the chalk line into the net and everybody would cheer everybody what you're doing,

00:41:42.710 - 00:41:52.350

no matter what team you're on, the goal is to get the ball in the net. So it's in the net, we cheer everybody cheers as with the parents on the sidelines, I didn't know much

00:41:52.350 - 00:42:01.820

about the game, so are paying closer attention and it's nerve racking for parents, it's nervous, we worry about the score, there's no scoreboard when they're that little, you can't I can't keep up what's

00:42:01.820 - 00:42:12.380

the score? Worry about the score and we worry about skill development, coach is always talking about skill development, you don't want to get behind you know and we worry about that rules and that big kid

00:42:12.380 - 00:42:22.470

in the, in second grade. I think that big kids in second grade, we worry about that and we worry about the score. Did I mention that we worry about the score the kids. However

00:42:22.470 - 00:42:35.130

, not really worried about all that. My friend Cheryl, she told me that after a game that was particularly lopsided. I think it was like 18-2 on the way home. Cheryl sent or son Joey

00:42:35.130 - 00:42:45.070

, she said Joey, we're so proud of you , you ran hard today. You really did. I saw you kick the ball a couple of times , Joey, I was so proud and I'm sorry

00:42:45.070 - 00:42:53.470

your team lost, you can't win every game Joey . You just, that's all we ask. Just do the best you can joy. I'm sorry you lost. To which he looked at her and he

00:42:53.470 - 00:43:15.240

said we lost. Okay, sometimes it's hard to see it. But every Saturday morning there are two games going on. There's the one the parents are watching and it's about the score and it's about the

00:43:15.240 - 00:43:29.670

rules and it's about skill development and that game can only be won or lost. And the other game is the game the kids are playing and it's about joy and it's about making your offering and finding your

00:43:29.670 - 00:43:49.310

place. It's a far better game testimony may not always be right, but it strives to be honest . And it is also language not to condemn or convinced necessarily, but it is language to persuade.

00:43:51.500 - 00:44:04.100

The first rule of testimony is not to create a boundary testimony. By definition acknowledges there are other voices , There are others who will give testimony. There are other witnesses. That's the reality of the wilderness

00:44:04.590 - 00:44:21.920

. There are competing truth planes, one who seeks to declare doctrine with clarity can only approach the other for the purpose of conversion at best, condemnation at worse. But the witness who gives testimony can approach

00:44:21.920 - 00:44:39.490

with conviction, the other not simply for conversion, but for conversation. It's not The conversion won't take place, it may take place to everybody involved. Sometimes conversation means that both the witness and the here

00:44:39.490 - 00:44:54.550

are converted. Along the way, the conversation is no small thing. It's Rabbi Jonathan sacks, says the greatest single anecdote to violence. It's conversation speaking , our fears, listening to the fears of others

00:44:54.560 - 00:45:15.150

and in that sharing of vulnerabilities, discovering a genesis of hope. This is critical for the main line . I think now we're not engaged in violence, but we have not displayed a great capacity for meaningful

00:45:15.210 - 00:45:34.180

conversation. We must learn to talk both with conviction and humility. God is always in the room. Our talk cannot seek to exclude, reject or dominate , but rather be provided as an offering to the

00:45:34.180 - 00:45:51.990

other. Wasn't seminary. I took an internship as a campus minister at Clemson University, only the student fellowship group there. And in our sunday night meetings , the students would give devotions and they would work

00:45:51.990 - 00:46:10.460

hard at them. But but they all kind of had the same plotline. It was in trouble, girlfriend's parents grades. I prayed God made everything okay sort of work that way. You know, I

00:46:10.460 - 00:46:27.520

was in trouble. I prayed God made everything okay . I kind of like those that made you feel better linda hearing. He was math professor and a student advisor. I mean a faculty advisor for the

00:46:27.520 - 00:46:39.260

group. He came to me and he asked one evening, he said could I do a devotional? I said of course he had a different word to speak. I wasn't prepared a couple of years before

00:46:39.260 - 00:46:54.890

I met Lynn and his wife Kay. They lost their elementary aged son Ashley to leukemia in his devotion , Lynn shared his story. He spoke of weeping through the night in a hospital room, lifting pleading

00:46:54.890 - 00:47:16.430

prayers to a silent ceiling. God healed my son . Morning came but there was no joy for actually was dead lin said I will forever carry the scars of grief in my heart. But I want you

00:47:16.430 - 00:47:37.000

to know that resurrection is not just for those who have died somehow. God brings new life even to those who hurt so badly, so unbelievably badly that our greatest fear is that we may never die.

00:47:37.380 - 00:47:59.960

I have been to hell but bit by bit, molecule by molecule God is resurrecting me. I am alive again, testimony Absges there are more voices than one in the room. It is a voice that

00:47:59.960 - 00:48:15.320

is honest however, about its own. The goal of testimony is to be persuasive. Even when some persuasive language recognizes from the beginning the value of the other. This recognition of the other is not however

00:48:15.330 - 00:48:36.110

demonstrated by a lack of conviction but by no need to be certain at the end of the day, testimony must be like the living word itself. A language of love testimony also thinks, I think has

00:48:36.110 - 00:48:58.080

something to say about our idea of having beliefs to start with and a car difference. She says we do not read scripture to be enlightened, we read it that the word might be embodied in us hosting

00:48:58.570 - 00:49:15.470

the word in our lives and bodies, she said is hosting the word in our bodies. Means that that which is proclaimed that needs to be lived encountering this word in a fashion that leads us to testify

00:49:15.760 - 00:49:30.700

, encountering the word in a fashion that leads us to testify means that the proclaim er cannot remain neutral or objective. But this is language of passion, testimony carries passion because it's not simply truth that is

00:49:30.700 - 00:49:47.050

known not simply truth understood, but truth that is trusted. Mark tells of that, jesus approached by a father whose son had an unclean spirit. He's been sick from childhood. The father said, it's

00:49:47.050 - 00:50:00.240

casting him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you were able, if you're able to do anything, have pity on us , help us, all things can be done for

00:50:00.240 - 00:50:21.830

the one who believes, jesus said to which the man says, I believe help my unbelief belief is pissed. This the verb pesto. remember pistols is not simply intellectual assent pistons is trust that what you

00:50:21.830 - 00:50:36.070

trust shows up in how you live in the service of ordination. It's not asked. Do you believe it's asked? Do you trust in jesus christ, your Lord and savior? It would be easier if

00:50:36.070 - 00:50:46.200

the question were not about trust. You see that what you trust shows up in how you live. It was years ago, our family, we took a trip to the Grand Canyon, had never been

00:50:46.200 - 00:51:00.770

to the Grand Canyon before I went to the great , stunningly beautiful. It's just stunningly beautiful. You'd probably rather be there right now. I also learned to my amazement at the grand, there are no

00:51:00.770 - 00:51:12.990

guardrails in this culture of there's no garbage, you can walk right up to the edge, you can look down hundreds of feet straight, hang your toes over the edge if you like if you're that kind

00:51:13.760 - 00:51:28.760

, which it turns out I am not. I decided it was just as beautiful from the car. Thank you very much. See here's the deal. I don't simply believe in gravity. I pissed this

00:51:28.770 - 00:51:45.380

gravity. I trust. I don't understand it, but I trusted I base my life on it. The father said, I believe christ your Lord and savior. It would be easier if the question were

00:51:45.380 - 00:51:57.290

not about trust. You see that what you trust shows up in how you live. It was years ago our family, we took a trip to the Grand Canyon. I've never been to the Grand Canyon

00:51:57.290 - 00:52:10.830

before. I went to the, it's stunningly beautiful . It's just stunningly beautiful. You'd probably rather be there right now. I also learned to my amazement at the drank. There are no guard rails in

00:52:10.830 - 00:52:22.180

this culture of there's no garbage, you can walk right up to the edge, you can look down hundreds of feet straight, hang your toes over the edge, if you like, if you're that kind

00:52:22.950 - 00:52:37.690

, which it turns out I am not. I decided it was just as beautiful from the car. Thank you very much. See, here's the deal . I don't simply believe in gravity. I pissed

00:52:37.690 - 00:52:55.730

this gravity. I trust I don't understand it, but I trust it. I base my life on it. The father said, I believe, help my unbelief. He cannot escape his doubt. Frederick

00:52:55.730 - 00:53:07.240

Buechner says doubts of the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving for beating or doubt or unbelief is that little question that lives in the back of your mind? It's that raised

00:53:07.240 - 00:53:17.710

hand at the end of the lecture, it's the skepticism that lives in the soul. You know what Bittner is talking about? There are always those questions that rise up either from thought or from circumstance of

00:53:17.710 - 00:53:30.660

our lives that cause us to think again, to wonder about the veracity of the faith. We claim . They send us back to the books. To think again to think deeper to thinking, knew about

00:53:30.660 - 00:53:43.740

the claims of the faith, my goodness, How much of the time you spend here in this campus , doing just that bigger is right down or unbelief pushes faith to new depths. But I think Bittner's

00:53:43.740 - 00:54:00.340

observation is only part of the story. The reality of christian faith is that belief and unbelief have and always will live in close proximity. When the church talks about belief, we tend to think about creeds

00:54:00.340 - 00:54:17.440

and doctrines and statements, but the father with a broken son is not pondering doctrine. He wants to know something far more demanding. Can you heal my son here, belief is not first a call to

00:54:17.440 - 00:54:30.860

creed. It is first a call to hope. It is first to call to trust to trust. Even when trust cannot be expressed with certainty or clarity , I believe help my unbelief. This pleading father

00:54:30.860 - 00:54:52.300

says his faith is not awake and moving because of his doubts. He doubts because of the unbelievable size of what he's willing to trust. Believe in unbelief for voice simultaneously, because jesus invites him to believe

00:54:52.300 - 00:55:12.490

in something so big, so grand that it is impossible to trust without some degree of wonder. It is because of his belief that he wonders, and his belief is not first a matter of creator doctrine

00:55:12.500 - 00:55:25.990

. It is a matter of hope of trust. Unbelief is the frequent companion of any who are willing to let life be defined by jesus christ. This unnamed man pointed to his son. Will you heal

00:55:25.990 - 00:55:37.450

my son? I believe, he said, but I know the power that grabs my son, I believe, but I also know there are many who suffer. I know God has stitched the body together

00:55:37.450 - 00:55:54.670

in miraculous ways to bring healing, but I also know that sickness is real. I want to believe , I believe help my unbelief as soon as we imagine the world shaped by the redemptive love of God

00:55:55.340 - 00:56:07.670

. There we are believing in something so big, so grand, so impossible to trust. Apart from some wonder, some questions, some down. I mean, is it really possible to take the words

00:56:07.670 - 00:56:23.660

of the poets seriously? They tell us justice will roll down like waters. Do you believe? They tell us swords will be beaten into ploughshares? What do you think, jesus said. The very kingdom

00:56:24.330 - 00:56:45.020

draws near. We believe help our unbelief. Do you trust in jesus christ your Lord and savior? To say Yes, means paradoxically, there will be moments when that trust shows up in our bodies and

00:56:45.020 - 00:57:00.200

there will be moments when we pray. We believe help our unbelief. A few words about preaching and then only finished testimony is incarnation of speech in the wilderness and therefore it has implications for preaching. It

00:57:00.200 - 00:57:13.190

seems to me I share the following, not as recommendation, not as a singular approach to fit every context, but rather as in the fitting of this lecture. My testimony Without question. One of the

00:57:13.190 - 00:57:25.540

most significant communities to shape my ministry over the past 25 years has been the cohort group called the movable feast. I was invited to participate with this group in 1992. I've only missed two meetings since then

00:57:25.540 - 00:57:39.850

, and Patrick Wilson gives me grief about missing both one was for the birth of my son and he pointed out rightly, my son didn't care. We gather every january to study election, every text together

00:57:40.530 - 00:57:53.100

. Our president Ted Wardlaw and our preacher Rick Spalding and your teacher in mind, Casey told me, are all members from whom I have learned much faith and faithfulness. My mentor, bob Dunham, the

00:57:53.100 - 00:58:12.040

practice of preaching election areas to sit with attacks. Practice of waiting, watching of listening. Every worship planning requires some assumptions. Election erI assumes indeed can only thrive if there is a basic knowledge of at

00:58:12.040 - 00:58:27.450

least two things, the liturgical calendar and its significance and the overall narrative of the biblical story. Apart from these, sometimes week to week can come at us a bit like popcorn. Take advent. For

00:58:27.450 - 00:58:37.310

example, I'm a friend of advent. It begins with the return of Son of the Son of man , which is followed by a visit from john the baptist for a week or two, depending on the

00:58:37.310 - 00:58:47.790

cycle. And then we turn to marry. Unless you've got an overall narrative of that, it can seem a bit disjointed. At least two people in Kansas City in the wilderness. We need a more

00:58:47.790 - 00:59:06.700

sustained and complex conversation today. Preaching needs to incorporate more than a fred craddock approach to artistically leading people along the way, we need to do a bit of teaching. A series allows nuance that a single

00:59:06.730 - 00:59:19.160

single sermon simply does not allow. Secondly, the practice of preaching election areas, one from which the preacher always begins with the tax, a good practice and then turns to the people and see that there's

00:59:19.160 - 00:59:35.650

a place to connect incarnation of theology invites a reverse of that process. What happens when the preacher starts with the people, the people will come to the sanctuary with questions and confessions with hopes, with their

00:59:35.650 - 00:59:45.730

own stories of faith, to tell what happens to the proclaim er to the proclamation. If the preacher begins with the questions and affirmations that are in the pew, what happens when the preacher assumes that a

00:59:45.730 - 00:00:00.000

word can be found in the conversation of the community and once a clear engagement of the community is experienced , then turns to the scripture to see what word comes. I've already suggested to you, I think

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

that's how the scriptures came to us to start with , paul was not election erI writer, he didn't put down a manifesto and ship it out to philippi . It is clear that regarding the apostles letter,

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

their content is shaped by the realities on the ground . You spend half your time trying to figure out what those realities are. So you can understand what he's talking about. The letter to, the Corinthians

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

speaks of foolishness because of their incredible confidence and fascination with wisdom. He calls the Philippians to be of the same mind. In part because of you, yo Dion syndicate, they're not getting along to those

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

paul says they shall not eat if they do not work in Thessaloniki. It's because of a twisted eschatology in Thessaloniki. To even romans that has been viewed at times as paul's institutes of sorts. Even romans

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

is now understand is being shaped by realities in Rome or realities in the life of the Apostle or a mixture of the two. I hear you already. Okay, this is just a preacher in search of

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

a text to fit a sermon maybe. But you know, I got to tell you, I've known some election erI preachers who were social justice preachers, every text is social justice, I've known some election

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

erI preachers who are piety ist and every tax of spiritual piety. If your seminary president, every text is fundraising. My point is that the lecture Neri itself does not ensure proper exit jesus, this is

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

a discipline of the preacher, not the calendar because God chooses to take on flesh to be part of history, because the resurrection insists that jesus is now on our side of the stone rolled away. The

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

preacher must take seriously the realities of the congregation incarnation of theology demands it. Barbara Kingsolver's novel poisonwood bible . She tells of how Nathan price of fierce evangelical baptist missionary packs up his 1959 family to go to

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

the Belgian Congo to save the lost. What he knows about them is they are hungry of soul and body. So he takes the scriptures and he takes garden seeds. He plants his garden plants to feed

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

the village which would be over in some way to bring them to bible study. I suppose the plants thrive, but there's no vegetables, there's no fruit he couldn't understand. There's a moment he's in the

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

garden and he he lifts up a bug and this is what it says. My father looked as if he'd just look down main street heaven. He told me there aren't any pollinators. What? No insects

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

here to pollinate the garden. Why? But there's a world of bugs here? I said an unnecessary mark as we both were looking at the bug in his hand. African bugs, leah creatures fashion by

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

God for the purpose of serving african plants. Look at this thing. How would it know what to do with a Kentucky wonder being if we are to offer a word that feeds then we will need to

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

pay attention to the world in which the word is spoken in summary. Let me not. Summary and conclusion. How about that conclusion? I want us to remind us of the conclusion of the Gospel of

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

Mark, that fabulous, holy abrupt secession of the story. Go and tell my disciples and I will meet them in galilee and the woman, the women said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid actually

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

as they were afraid for we smile. But the truth is they should be afraid. And so should we, for we have been instructed to testify to this life, to trust his life with our lives

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

to speak. A love to speak a love language to a broken and frightened world. It is no small calling and we're called to be persuasive, honest with winsome, respectful and in this wilderness. If

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

you're like me, you may feel like we're stumbling along. Which is why I want to tell you about Ben Coleman. Ben Coleman runs cross country. He did Cross country is not much of a spectator

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

sport, but people in Anderson south Carolina would go watch Ben Coleman run. I asked one gentleman who had no Children in the race, asked him why he was there, he said, because to watch

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

that kid run is beautiful. That's interesting. Ben's not fast. Not only is he never won a cross country race, he's never beaten anybody else across the finish line. Ben has cerebral policy. It

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

doesn't affect his intellect. He's a bright student, but it seizes his muscles and contorts his body, leaving him to lunge and fault or tripping over bottle caps and twigs. In every race, he falls

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

and he falls hard because he can't react and catch himself. The fastest kids they run the race, I don't know, 15, 16, 17 minutes . It takes Komen over an hour. By the

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

time he finally reaches the finish line, all the other kids, they could, they could have gone and got a shower, a cheeseburger. But they don't they wait, not just the kids on his

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

team, all the other teams, they wait. People from the town come out and they wait and they watch him run. And when he comes to the finish line, they said they all go out

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

with him and they run with him across the finish line, grown men in the stands twisting their jaws to keep the tears in their eyes and off their faces. I think they watch men come and run

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

because there there's so much like him or maybe they want to be like him. They gather in the bleachers like a whole collection of people who know that were not always particularly good if the things that matter

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

most and they watch this guy who reminds them, but you don't have to be particularly good to do a particularly good thing. They watch him because they know what it is like to live like stumbling and

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

falling and spastic. I'm not talking about muscles. I'm talking about our hearts, I'm talking about the fear and selfishness and violence that leaves our souls spastic . I'm talking about the greed and self centeredness that

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

leaves our hearts broken and our dreams dashed and our confidence that God will be God on ever fragile footing . There has been a long conversation about how and why Mark ends the Gospel the way he does.

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

But as I read it, the very first word of the Gospel tells us this is how it's going to end the ferry. The very first word of the Gospel is archaic. Beginning. Beginning some say

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

the beginning references john the baptist, others say, beginning references up to jesus begins his ministry. I suggest that beginning, the first word describes the whole narrative of Mark's Gospel, the whole 16 chapters.

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

Why? Because Mark genuinely believes that jesus is alive , and if jesus is alive, then all Mark can tell is the beginning of the story. He can't tell. He can't wrap it up in some

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

nice conclusion, because the story hasn't ended. It's still continuing. Mark offers testimony to the portion of the jesus story that he can tell his church stumbles through the wilderness because they and they do so with

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

courage and with trust that jesus is alive. But there are only the beginning and it seems clear to me that what Mark has done is take the Gospel writing pen, and put it in your hands.

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

You were to write it now. And we are at the whole narrative of the Church, but we're the only ones who can write it with our lives to tell you the truth. When it comes to

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

looking at it like that. I feel more than a little spastic, more than overwhelmed when it comes to those things christian. I am not particularly good , but in in the deepest places, the most

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

intimate pockets of my piety. I believe God has decided that our lives matter. I say that not with a trace of arrogance but rather with some genuine amazement, the Brokenness of the world is so intense

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

and the Witness of the Church feels small, insignificant spastic, but the pen is in our hands. So let us tell God's love story honestly, with as much persuasion and conviction as we know how and

00:00:00.000 - 00:00:00.000

because God is gracious, perhaps God will see our stumbling, faltering, embarrassingly inadequate witness, at least as the desire to do a particularly good thing. And maybe God well, think it's beautiful. Thanks