Another big day at the Festival of Homiletics today.
Lillian Daniel preached about Noah's Ark, asking an interesting, complex question. When we think about Adam and Eve (I know...this isn't Noah's Ark--bear with me) we have considered that they were exiled out of Eden. What if we reconsidered the situation? Could they have been, instead, relieved? Freed? Released? Consider then, Noah's family. Was getting off the ark an act of rescue or were they stranded? Her point? The kindom of God is within you--not in Eden or out of Eden, on the Ark or on the dry land.
Her lecture was about changing how we preach so that we begin to preach to the "nones" (people who do not claim a religion when asked on a survey). There are four kinds of "nones": those who are furious with the church; those who have drifted away from church and don't feel they are lacking anything; those who never had experience with church; those who are open and curious, but haven't experienced church. How do we start to talk about what church/God/Jesus means to us? Do we express our willingness to learn about Jesus and share how much more we want to know about God?
Mike Slaughter wakes up each day asking, "Lord, what is it you want me to do?" This question goes to his belief that his allegiance to Jesus supersedes all other allegiances--to country, to work, to anything but faith in the Triune God. With these two principles, Slaughter has learned, with the help of others, that success is marked in everything that leads to the glory of God, nothing more, nothing less.
And then there was Yvette Flunder. Our worship with her was lively gospel music and was filled with amazing grace. Her sermon focused on why Jesus spent so much time healing the blind. Did you know that statistically about 50% of the population in Jesus' time suffered from some form of eye problems? Of those, 20% were actually blind. Blindness meant that the person could not participate in daily living without the help of others. There was a stigma and people often wanted to blame someone or something for the blindness. Each of the many stories of Jesus with the blind are broader stories than we may understand. For some, healing requires a process, but that process serves a purpose. One of the most important questions to consider: "Do you WANT to be made whole?"
The last lecture I attended today was with Lauren Winner, who talked about the craft of sermon writing, particularly using poetry. Why poetry? We need to "find art and meaning in the everyday and feel beckoned beyond it." Why poetry? Because it "re-imagines truths and invites a different perspective."