It is hard to believe nearly a month has gone by since Rob and Kirstin came through on the Eat well food tour. Several times in July I began a post but never finished and posted them.
Since my last post I was approached by the PR firm for Johnny Indovina (lead singer of Human Drama) and his new band Sound of the Blue Heart, asking if I'd do some pieces on the new album, Wind of Change. I received the album last Monday but didn't get a chance to listen through it completely last week. I am doing so now and am enjoying the album, though on first listen the songs are not grabbing me.
Preaching has been really difficult lately. I am not exactly sure why. Though it may be that in following the semi-continuous Old Testament Lectionary readings of the story of David I am working with lectionary texts that don't necessarily fit together thematically. When I decided we'd follow the semi-continuous OT lectionary I was simply thinking it would be good for us to in the least hear the Story of David even if I simply preached on the Gospel, which I was thinking I'd do for the summer at least. Then the parallels between David and Jesus both anointed of God, Christ's, Messiahs, wouldn't let me go, and so I have been preaching on the OT texts and the Gospels. I think I then have been exploring the nature of the messianic and the ways in which Jesus fulfills and explodes the Messianic idea, and of course reconceives it and the implications all this has on Christian faith. So, maybe that is alot to attempt to accomplish. This may explain mys struggle with the sermons.
In July I read Scott McKnight's book Blue Parakeet:Rethinking How You Read the Bible. The basic premise of the book I agree with, and many of his positions and conclusions are things that I had come to on my own before seminary. So, his presentation was interesting, as was discovering how much how I was taught to read the Bible was not terribly "evangelical" at least the evangelicalism McKnight has known and that of the Evangelical Free Church. Though it was a little disconcerting that it seems that his Covenant Students at North Park do seem to being taught in their home churches these deficient forms of reading the Bible. In the end I found the book largely oriented towards a particular form of evangelical, though he does this irritating thing of seeming to address all Christians. Also I found his account of the possible role of tradition lacking in part because he seemed to at times conflate the approach of evangelicals that would hold up a fairly recent practice and and interpretation that was then based down as tradition, with that which has been passed down from the apostles, Tradition. Over all I found his position oddly frustrating, especially since his main point of seeing the Bible as Story as key to its interpretation I basically agree with. this is one of the things I have been meaning to post on but end up not doing so.
Oh and you should check out the latest issue of Catapult magazine, as usual interesting stuff.
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