We preachers know all too well that there are a myriad of “lenses” through which we examine the golden homiletical nuggets of a Scripture text.  Some of these lenses are historical, narrative, sociocultural, and linguistic; we can also use literary and textual criticism.  Having so many choices is both exciting and daunting, because confronted with so many runways into the proverbial hermeneutical airport we are often left pondering: Which runway do I choose this week?  So many helpful research tools afford us wonderful exegetical license, but they also mean we must make methodological choices that ultimately shape and limit the type and content of the sermon we craft and preach.

One innovate and creative way to address the lectionary is to consider all or some of the texts in any given month by tracking common threads or themes that potentially run through them all.  This can offer a fresh exegetical approach to familiar texts that may seem hackneyed or over preached.  Tracking the common threads in all four Gospel texts is the method I employ in this article.

If you are anything like me, as you approach next week’s sermon (even with the lectionary narrowing the textual choices for you), you often feel overwhelmed with which text to choose and where to begin.  I initially began by limiting my scope, focusing solely on the gospel texts – although, if so inclined, one could certainly include all the readings.  I printed each of the gospel texts from my computer’s Bible program and laid them next to each other on my desk – reminiscent of what Burton Throckmorton did in his classic Gospel Parallels.  I did a cursory reading, noting with a highlighter each text’s salient elements, themes, and movements.  This method is a kind of “let’s look at the forest before we consider the trees” approach.  It was fun, easy, insight-yielding, and relatively quick.

Reviewing my note, I noticed the following five-pronged movement in all four gospel texts: visitation, declaration, trepidation, implication, and anticipation.

Visitation

In each of the four gospel readings for June, Jesus is on a journey.  In John 16 he has journeyed to Jerusalem for his final Passover, and the text is located in John’s long Last Supper narrative (chapters 13-17).  In Luke 7:11-17 he stops when he sees the body of a widow’s only son being removed from a house in the city of Nain; in Luke 7:36- 8:3 he is at a Pharisee’s house; and in Luke 8:26-29 he is in the region of the Gerasenes.  Apparently when Jesus goes visiting, things happen!

Declaration

Jesus declares something profound in each of the Gospel texts.  In the first reading he notes that he has many things to say but that his hearers cannot bear them all at this time.  What they cannot fully bear at this time is that his hour has come.  In the second text Jesus declares to a weeping widow, “Do not weep,” and then declares to the dead son, “Young man, I say to you, rise.”

In the third text he tells the parable of the two debtors, ending with a question: “Which of them will love him more?”  The parable is poignantly aimed at Simon, Jesus’ disciples, and the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and hair.  In the fourth text Jesus declares that a legion of demons must enter a herd of swine and depart, and they do – right off a cliff!

Trepidation

I suspect that we and our flocks know these familiar texts so well that we do not really know them at all.  They have become so cozy due to the number of times that we have preached and heard them that their surprisingly rough edges have all been sanded down.  One of the things we tend to pasteurize out of these remarkable stories is the tremendous fear and anxiety in them.  We often forget that Jesus and his work and words were often threatening and frightening – sometimes even terrifying.

In the first text Jesus notes that the words to share that his hearers “cannot bear …right now.” In the second text Luke tells us that when the crowd and the disciples saw Jesus raise the young man from the dead, “fear seized all of them.”  In the third text Simon cannot bear that Jesus apparently does not know “what kind of woman” he is allowing to wash his feet, and the text ends with Jesus performing the very fearful act of casting seven demons out of Mary Magdalene.

In the final text, after seeing Jesus send a legion of demons into an unsuspecting and innocent herd of swine, “all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear.”  Their fear was understandable.  Is it not true that any authentic visit of God or in-breaking of the Holy in our world is a fearful thing?  For when God breaks into the commonplace of our lives, it turns our world upside down.  I suspect this is precisely what former slave trader John Newton meant when he penned the words: “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear.” One of the greatest challenges we preachers face is giving adequate voice to how fearful it must have been to meet Jesus Christ face to face – and how fearful it still is.

Implication

The people in each of the four gospel texts are frightened, in part because the implications of Jesus’ message and ministry are so unsettling.  When Jesus visits us, life is never the same again.  They hear words they have never heard before; they see things they have never seen before – a man raised from the dead, demons driven into a heard of swine who run off a cliff, a woman of questionable reputation washing the Song of God’s feet with her tears in the home of a prominent citizen, seven demons cast out of another woman, and then a series of healings along the journey.  Those who witnessed such amazing feats had their world turned upside down and now have tough choices to make.  They have witnessed- first hand – God taking on human flesh and living among them, and they must answer to questions: “What are we going to do about it?” and “How then do we now live?”  Are not these the two questions that confront us in worship each week?  After hearing the good news preached we all have to ask the same questions: “What are we going to do about it?” and “How then do we live?”

Once we encounter the person, message, and ministry of Jesus, we are face with life-changing implications that are hard, if not impossible, to ignore or avoid.  Try as we may to hide from them, they follow us all the days of our lives.

Anticipation

Thank goodness our God is not a God of fear – but rather a God of uncompromising love, hope and healing.  Each of these four gospel texts ends on a note of hopeful anticipation.  In John 16 the disciples and future generations of believers are told to anticipate the Holy Spirit who will guide them into all truth.  In the second reading the grieving woman is told not to weep, and although both the crowd and the disciples are seized with fear, they also simultaneously glorify God and declare: “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!”  And the good news with its anticipatory hope spreads through all of Judea.

In the third reading Jesus declares to the woman who washed his feet: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”  He then continues his journey and proceeds to heal many others of their personal demons and many sundry infirmities.

Finally, in the last gospel text the healing of the demoniac, although initially prompting riveting fear, results in contagious hopeful anticipation and healing as the good news is declared throughout the whole area.  John Newton captures such anticipation when continuing the stanza noted above with “grace my fears relieved.”

Trinity Sunday

May 30, 2010

Jn 16:12-15

Perhaps the most obvious approach to preaching this week’s lesson is to look at the focus on future things.  At the Last Supper, Jesus promises the disciples that the following events will be coming soon: the Spirit of Truth will guide them into all trust, will report all the Son tells him, and will declare things to come.  He will glorify the Son and will take what is the Son’s and declare it to them.

Second Sunday after Pentecost

June 6, 2010

Lk 7: 11-17

Here we encounter the least remembered account of Jesus’ raising someone from the dead (the young man from Nain) with all the familiar ingredients: “Do not weep…I say to you, rise.”  All the people are simultaneously seized with fear yet glorify God.

Third Sunday after Pentecost

June 13, 2010

Lk 7: 36-8:3

This week we have the intriguing construction of a parable within a parable.  Simon’s world gets flipped upside down when Christ responds to the Pharisees’ criticism of both the woman’s character and Christ’s seemingly naïve (“If this man were a prophet…”) acceptance of her kind act.  Christ’s concluding question to Simon after telling him the parable to two debtors – “Which of them will love him more?” – is one the most poignant and parabolic in the Bible.

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

June 20, 2010

Lk 8: 26-29

It is a great day for a man long tormented by a plethora of demons!  It is, however, a bad day for the demons, who curiously request to enter a herd of swine, and an even worse day for both the swine and their herdsmen.  The local villagers are understandably seized with great fear and put Jesus on the first stage out of Dodge before he can do any more damage or cause them any more loss.

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

June 27, 2010

Lk 9: 51-62

The focus to this text is on the urgency of following Jesus.  When one has seen the power of God and the coming reign of God, there is no turning back.

Conclusion

In June’s gospel readers we see this simple yet intriguing five-pronged paradigm that begins with visitation, moves to declaration, then on to trepidation, then to implication, and finally to hope-filled anticipation.

Jesus’ visit begins with works and works of declaration that initially unsettle and scare those who and hear and experience them.  The words and works ultimately cause all who hear and them to ponder their profound, piercing, and prophetic implications.  Confronted with a holy visitation – a burning bush experience – we are compelled, like Moses, to stand in awe and fear as we remove our shoes in order to hear the word God has for us.  When the dust settles, we ultimately find ourselves nudged by new choices, hope and confidence in the person of Christ and his unsettling yet comforting touch, words and deeds.

Preaching this juxtaposed good news of trepidation and anticipation is the challenge we preachers face each Sunday as we lead God’s people in holy worship.  And isn’t this the five-pronged paradigm of the gospel itself? – that Jesus visits us where we live while boldly declaring the good news of God’s unending love for us which initially causes trepidation which eventually leaders to profound life-changing implications and showers us in anticipatory hope born only of heaven.

Indeed, John Newton has it right: “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come: ‘tis grace has brought me safe thus are, and grace will lead me home.”