Hello everyone, Sorry that I didn’t get around to posting yesterday. Between class in the morning, driving home from Ohio, going to Amanda’s funeral visitation, and the trip to Jeffersonville to visit Terri and pick up Odie, I had gone about as far as I could go yesterday.
When last I left you, I said that the response to my sermon was not a pretty sight. That was an extreme understatement. After each student had finished their mini sermon they were asked to sit down and simply listen to the responses of the others. We weren’t allowed to respond, only listen, although several classmates violated this rule and felt compelled to defend their sermons, I chose to simply hear what the class had to say. I wasn’t at all criticized on presentation, or delivery. I wasn’t critiqued because I didn’t make enough eye contact, or paced around too much. There was no complaint about talking too fast or too slow. The discussion about my sermon, at least the negative discussion was centered completely around one thing…… They didn’t like my theology.
Now I realize that I need to explain that, and I am not totally sure how to do so in a short concise way. Terri told me last night that my blogs were already too long, so I am not sure how I can explain the differences between liberal and conservative theology in just a few short paragraphs, but let me try.
The complaint was that I had the audacity to express the idea that each of us does indeed have an expiration date. The criticism was that there was no message of hope in my sermon. The complaint was that I shouldn’t suggest that perhaps there is a day of judgment which each one of us will face. Although if you read the sermon, you will see that I wasn’t talking as much about judgment as I was about our duties and responsibilities while we are still on this earth. There was even a suggestion that it was disingenuous of me to somehow suggest that people actually died in the flood of Noah. (Yeah I know, hard to believe isn’t it.)
Those who know me, and listen to me each Sunday will probably have a sense that my messages are overwhelmingly about God’s love and grace. The greatest preponderance of my sermons are messages of hope for those who are hurting or in need, or they are calls to arms for Christians to step outside of our comfort zones and reach out to those less fortunate around us, to help the strangers in our midst and to always be willing to help the weary sojourner who God has placed before us.
On the other hand, to presume that there is no judgment as my classmates suggested in their “theology” is totally ludicrous to me, to ignore the idea that we do indeed have an expiration date is unrealistic at best and laughable at the worst, and to say that we don’t know whether or not there is a time when it will be too late, is to totally ignore the majority of the Bible and, in my opinion, common sense.
I think that you should also know that I strongly believe that the Bible is a book first and foremost about salvation and redemption, even the story about Noah, to me, is not about God’s wrath, but about God's salvation of Noah, his family, humanity and God’s creation.
These are the things I would have said to the class if I were given the opportunity, and trust me I will get my opportunity in dining hall conversations and round table discussions. You may remember the post earlier where I was asked how could someone who was a seminary professor not even believe in miracles, well, you will have to trust me when I tell you that not believing in miracles is the tip of the iceberg of theological thought that most of us would simply not understand. But, as I said in the earlier post, I am grateful for the opportunity to get hammered by other people when I find what I would have considered to be a majority opinion to be suddenly thrust into a minority opinion. These experiences help me to be able to articulate not only what I believe, but perhaps more importantly, why I believe it.
Terri, sorry for another long post, I’ll work on that next time!
Blessings
When last I left you, I said that the response to my sermon was not a pretty sight. That was an extreme understatement. After each student had finished their mini sermon they were asked to sit down and simply listen to the responses of the others. We weren’t allowed to respond, only listen, although several classmates violated this rule and felt compelled to defend their sermons, I chose to simply hear what the class had to say. I wasn’t at all criticized on presentation, or delivery. I wasn’t critiqued because I didn’t make enough eye contact, or paced around too much. There was no complaint about talking too fast or too slow. The discussion about my sermon, at least the negative discussion was centered completely around one thing…… They didn’t like my theology.
Now I realize that I need to explain that, and I am not totally sure how to do so in a short concise way. Terri told me last night that my blogs were already too long, so I am not sure how I can explain the differences between liberal and conservative theology in just a few short paragraphs, but let me try.
The complaint was that I had the audacity to express the idea that each of us does indeed have an expiration date. The criticism was that there was no message of hope in my sermon. The complaint was that I shouldn’t suggest that perhaps there is a day of judgment which each one of us will face. Although if you read the sermon, you will see that I wasn’t talking as much about judgment as I was about our duties and responsibilities while we are still on this earth. There was even a suggestion that it was disingenuous of me to somehow suggest that people actually died in the flood of Noah. (Yeah I know, hard to believe isn’t it.)
Those who know me, and listen to me each Sunday will probably have a sense that my messages are overwhelmingly about God’s love and grace. The greatest preponderance of my sermons are messages of hope for those who are hurting or in need, or they are calls to arms for Christians to step outside of our comfort zones and reach out to those less fortunate around us, to help the strangers in our midst and to always be willing to help the weary sojourner who God has placed before us.
On the other hand, to presume that there is no judgment as my classmates suggested in their “theology” is totally ludicrous to me, to ignore the idea that we do indeed have an expiration date is unrealistic at best and laughable at the worst, and to say that we don’t know whether or not there is a time when it will be too late, is to totally ignore the majority of the Bible and, in my opinion, common sense.
I think that you should also know that I strongly believe that the Bible is a book first and foremost about salvation and redemption, even the story about Noah, to me, is not about God’s wrath, but about God's salvation of Noah, his family, humanity and God’s creation.
These are the things I would have said to the class if I were given the opportunity, and trust me I will get my opportunity in dining hall conversations and round table discussions. You may remember the post earlier where I was asked how could someone who was a seminary professor not even believe in miracles, well, you will have to trust me when I tell you that not believing in miracles is the tip of the iceberg of theological thought that most of us would simply not understand. But, as I said in the earlier post, I am grateful for the opportunity to get hammered by other people when I find what I would have considered to be a majority opinion to be suddenly thrust into a minority opinion. These experiences help me to be able to articulate not only what I believe, but perhaps more importantly, why I believe it.
Terri, sorry for another long post, I’ll work on that next time!
Blessings
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