I've often wondered why Psalm 117 is so short, just two verses:
Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord.
But as I was reading it this morning it struck me that nothing more needs to be said. What other reason do we need to praise God than his great love toward us and his enduring faithfulness?
Incidentally, I discovered that Psalm 117 is the middle chapter of the Bible, according to the chapter division our Bibles use. Fitting, I think, that the central chapter of the Bible is a call to all people to praise the Lord.
Over the weekend, I was made aware that Mars Hill Church in Seattle is hosting a preaching contest tomorrow to determine who will fill in for lead pastor Mark Driscoll on weeks that he is not preaching. Like those who pointed me to the news, I was hoping it was a joke. But it's not. The description on the Facebook event page reads as follows:
Tuesday, November 15th from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., we'll be hosting our first ever Preaching Qualifying School (Q School) at Mars Hill Ballard. This event will be a pressure-cooker preaching competition a la American Idol between 3 Mars Hill elders with the prize of being part of our preaching rotation to fill the pulpit on weeks Pastor Mark is out of the pulpit.
The three candidates are: Pastor Thomas Hurst of Mars Hill Bellevue Pastor Scott Mitchell of Mars Hill Everett Pastor AJ Hamilton of Mars Hill Albuquerque Judging the candidates will be: Pastor Mark Driscoll (playing the part of Simon Cowell—minus the v-neck) Pastor Justin Holcomb Pastor Dave Bruskas Pastor Scott Thomas Emceeing and playing the part of Ryan Seacrest will be Pastor Tim Gaydos of Mars Hill Downtown Seattle. We're hoping to get a big crowd of folks to come cheer on these guys and make a event of it. So, come on by and cheer on your favorite contestant.
It's hard to know where to begin with this, but a few things immediately come to mind. First, the use of the phrase 'a la American Idol' is obviously not arbitrary because the aim of this exercise is to see who will preach the most like Mark Driscoll. He is really the standard against which these other preachers are being judged. If that were not the case, they'd simply put together a rotation of preachers to fill the slots.
Second, and more signifcantly, holding an event like this speaks volumes about the theology of preaching at work here. This is what concerns me most. For one, when you pit three preachers against each other like this and turn it into a spectacle, all the weight and responsibility of the task of preaching is removed. No longer is your concern to address the spiritual needs of the congregation and to apply the Word to the specific context you're ministering in, but it's to impress four men who are determining whether or not you'll get a chance to preach in the most prestigious pulpit in the Mars Hill world. Needless to say, the dynamics of preaching in such an environment will completely alter how these three guys preach.
What's more, the church is making a public declaration in judging between the 'contestants' that one preacher is better than the other two. What will happen as a result is that a very low view of preaching will be fostered among the members of the church because they are being taught that it is more worthwhile to listen to one preacher than another.
Quite frankly, this is disastrous for the ministry of the Word. Believers need to have the conviction that, when the Bible is expounded faithfully in the pulpit, God is speaking through the preacher, regardless of whether or not he is as animated, humourous, or gripping as another preacher. Without that conviction, they will not come before the preached Word with humility. They will approach preaching with the consumeristic mindset of our culture, only giving ear to the preacher who entertains and captivates them most.
There is much more that could be said about this, but for now, all I hope is that Mars Hill recognises these problems and cancels this event.
Preaching is not a game or a contest. It is serious business.
This video is really quite interesting. A number of scholars are gathered at Tyndale House in Cambridge to discuss the different ideas of the word 'slave' and how it should be used in an upcoming revision of the English Standard Version of the Bible. If nothing else, it's a great window into what goes on behind the scenes as we wrestle to translate Scripture into our own language without losing the meaning and emphasis of the original text.
Our church's home groups are studying Romans 12-16 this term, and this past week we looked closely at Romans 12:1-2. We spent quite a bit of time discussing the idea that we must be 'transformed by the renewing of your minds', and how we work this transformation out in practice. The group that meets at our home talked about the importance of recognising the role of Scripture in this renewing of our minds. This meant devoting ourselves to sitting under the preaching of the Word, engaging in the study of the Bible in groups and individually, and so on.
Some years ago, I remember reading a portion of Don Carson and Douglas Moo's book, An Introduction to the New Testament, that related to this discussion of the importance of the Word of God in our transformation. In their chapter on the book of Acts, they write this:
An easily overlooked theme in Acts is the power of the word of God. Again and again, Luke attributes the growth and strength of the church to the dynamic activity of God's word. Preaching the world of God is what the apostles do wherever they go. 'Received the word of God' is another way of saying 'became a Christian' (Acts 11:1). Especially striking are those places where Luke, usually in transitional summaries, claims that the word of God 'grew' or 'spread' or 'increased' (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 13:49; 19:20). For Luke the word of God is especially the message about God's gracious redemption through Jesus Christ. For all Luke's emphasis on the importance of apostolic preaching, therefore, he makes clear that it is only as they are faithful witnesses to the Word that spiritual transformation takes place. As C. K. Barrett notes, 'Luke's stress on the proclamation of the Word...shows that the Word itself was the decisive factor,' and that the church is an agency of salvation 'only in so far as it provides the framework within which the preaching of the Word takes place.'
It really testifies to the significance of Scripture in the transformation of people that Luke gave it so much emphasis in Acts. And as we see in Romans 12, Paul felt the same way. If we are to be truly transformed, we must allow the Bible to have a prominent place in our lives. As David simply and honestly writes, 'How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word' (Psalm 119:1).
1. Dealing with texts is ultimately a mode of engaging persons and with what persons have done by means of writing. 2. As biblical interpreters, we are ultimately dealing with the Holy Spirit speaking and presenting Jesus Christ in the Scriptures. 3. As biblical interpreters, our task is to discern what the Spirit is saying by means of what the human authors of Scripture have said.
These are helpful convictions to hold as we ourselves approach Scripture. It can be a particular temptation of those who hold to a high view of the inspiration of Scripture to ignore the personal aspect, viewing the human authors almost as robots. But we miss something significant if we don't recognise the contribution of the whole person to the corpus of Scripture. The authors did not lose their personalities or individualities when writing, nor were they removed from their particular stories. All this needs to be kept in mind as we work to understand the revelation of the Bible.
This video was posted by St John's Nottingham a few weeks ago, and I found it quite helpful to hear N.T. Wright give his introduction to the book of Romans. Particularly helpful is his explanation of what he thinks Paul means by 'the righteousness of God'. This has been one of the major points of contention in Wright's theology, and his critics have often challenged him about his understanding of the phrase. Regardless, the 22-minute clip is worth your time.
It is important when reading the Bible to understand it as a story, or narrative. Doing so helps us avoid pitfalls like seeing Scripture as a collection of isolated events, or thinking there is a sharp division between the Old and New Testaments. This short video below is a creative look at the story of the Bible in five acts, and though I would quibble a bit with some of the phrasing, on the whole it's a helpful summary of the story of Scripture.
