Pilgrim Preaching

ATLA Serials for Luther Sem Alums

With apologies to those readers of Pilgrim Preaching who did not graduate from Luther Seminary or one of its forerunners, I have an announcement for LS alums. You can now get the American Theological Libraries Association Serials (including many full text articles) free! This was made possible by the ATLA and a donor's gift to Luther Seminary. Find more information here.

Books for the Year of Luke

As we approach Year C in the Revised Common Lectionary, I'm beginning to look more closely at a couple of books on Luke.

The first is from Luther Seminary graduate and Augustana College professor Richard Swanson, who has published two similar books, Provoking the Gospel of Mark (2005) and Provoking the Gospel of Luke (2006). Both of them are subtitled, "A Storyteller's Commentary," and they both focus on lectionary texts.

There is a DVD in each book that demonstrates the kind of ensemble storytelling that Swanson writes about in his Provoking the Gospel: Methods to Embody Biblical Storytelling through Drama. (Here is a review.) On the DVD, we see Augustana students acting out portions of the gospel as the group figures out together how best to embody the text in order to tell its story. The Provoking the Gospel Project web site has more information about the project, performances, and workshops.

The book on Luke includes commentary-like material from Swanson on each pericope in the lectionary as well as ideas for "provoking the story" with drama in one's own context. Swanson's books are not really lectionary commentaries in any traditional sense. They do not give as much historical background on a text as a good study Bible's notes would, but that's fine. Why duplicate the Harper Collins Study Bible notes? What Swanson does offer for almost every lection is a story you can't get out of your head all week, or an insight into a detail of the text you had not noticed before. I find the books to be good at "breaking open" texts I've preached on or listened to—or both—for years.

The other book I'm reading more these days is Sharon Ringe's commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Westminster/John Knox, 1995). In the Westminster Bible Companion series, this commentary is non-technical but still careful and worth spending time with when one is preaching a text from Luke. As an exegete, Ringe is concerned with hearing voices in the tradition that have been silenced in the past, or that have gone unnoticed. Some of the readings may seem a little too ideologically driven for those not captivated by feminist or liberation hermeneutics. On the other hand, I usually find even the more ideological interpretations plausible and a good corrective to reading without noticing the way my own social location creates its own hermeneutical lens.

John's Holy Spirit Baptism

The Baptism of Jesus

January 8, 2006
Mark 1:4-11

Notes on Structure

John and Those Being Baptized

This week's text has a couple of interesting structural things going on. First, there's a move back and forth between John and those being baptized. In the first half of the text, we hear about John, and then we see everyone—rural people and city dwellers alike—being baptized. In the second half of the text, we hear from John, and then we see Jesus being baptized.

From Sin to Spirit

It also happens that in the first half of the text, the narrator tells us that John's ministry was "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins," to which the people respond by being baptized and confessing their sins. All good. And all sort of looking backward, in order to prepare for what is to come. In the second half of the text, what "is to come" is here. John speaks of one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and then the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus as he is baptized. Repentance mean a turning around, and the text itself turns from a focus on confession and forgiveness of sin to a focus on the one-who-is-to-come becoming present, and a proclamation that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is happening now.

Here are the two structural observations in table form:

Verses	Characters	Notes
1:4	John	Mention of sin.
1:5	People being baptized.	Confession of sin.
1:6-8	John	Mention of Holy Spirit.
1:9-11	Person (Jesus) being baptized.	Appearance of Holy Spirit.

A Couple of Preaching Implications

Water and the Holy Spirit

John performed at least one "Holy Spirit" baptism. Acts makes a strong distinction between John's baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. (See this week's second lesson, Acts 19:1-7.) Yet, for the record, God uses John's water baptism as the time and place to split open the heavens and have the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus. In at least this one place in scripture, a baptism of water and the Holy Spirit coincide. This should offer a caution to those who teach that water baptism is second-rate or incomplete. God uses this water-baptism as a venue for anointing with the Holy Spirit and proclaiming Jesus' status as a Son with whom God is pleased.

Looking Back, Bounding Forward

The focus on sin and forgiveness in the first half of this text is not an end in itself. John preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. People receive that baptism, confessing their sins. This is astonishing ("All the Judean countryside, and all the people of Jerusalem…), but it is actually small potatoes compared with what will happen in the second half of the text. Something greater than your remorse is here. Something greater even than a whole community's capacity to repent is here. "O, that you would tear open the heavens and come down," Isaiah had pleaded with God (Isaiah 64:1). Here, God does just that. The heavens are torn open. "God is on the loose," as our teacher Donald Juel used to say. The turning back at the first part of this text leads to a bounding forward as Jesus begins his ministry.

On Rendering

24 Pentecost A | Matthew 22:15-22
October 16, 2005

Probably nine years ago, I heard this line in a sermon by Paul Palumbo: "Having been rendered to Caesar, Jesus renders us into the very heart of God." I wrote it down on the back of a bulletin. This week I finally had an opportunity to use it. That sermon, preached in the Luther Seminary chapel, follows.

Chapel sermons are strange for several reasons (the congregation members are all connected to a theological seminary; one is preaching before one's students, teachers and colleagues; the sermon is supposed to be about 8 minutes long!). I thought I had to throw out a few good things this time so here are some notes that wouldn't work in the sermon I preached but might work somewhere else.

1. Is it lawful? This question is posed to Jesus here but other occurrences of the question/issue are really interesting. Among the places it shows up in Matthew are (a) when Jesus' disciples are plucking grain on the Sabbath, and (b) when Jesus is about to heal someone on the Sabbath, and (c) when Judas throws the money back at the temple authorities after he repents of betraying Jesus. That last discussion of whether something is "lawful" struck me as a great tie between this text and the cross, but I couldn't get it to fit in my sermon.
2. Where do we fit in the story? In the sermon, I put the congregation in the position of Jesus, asking them to answer the question, "Is it lawful to pay taxes…?" from the perspective of a teacher, student or staff member at the seminary. It would be a different sermon if the congregation were asked to identify with, say, the questioners. Is there a way that we fuss about theological questions precisely so we do not have to face the real question about who Jesus is and how he challenges Caesar's authority?

One more comment about my experience of this text. I am just about the farthest thing imaginable from a prophetic preacher. I am a great fan of direct deposit and tenure. I like the prayer in Compline that says, "The Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night, and peace at the last." Mostly I like paying my taxes and being left alone. I don't naturally take to agitating or being agitated. Yet it seems to me that the powers and principalities really do make a play for all of us, and I wanted to announce to my hearers, "You do not belong to them." After I did that, I got a lot of feedback about how the sermon was courageous. Is it an "edgy" thing to call American an empire? I didn't think so, but I heard enough of those sorts of comments that I'm curious how a parallel between America and Rome might play in the preaching contexts of my readers.

Here's the sermon.