Headwaters recirculated for 1/1/12

Looking back at what I first posted on this blog on March 4, 2008...

I'm just beginning in the world of leisure blogging, though I have started a blog for work http://georgelinney.edublogs.org/ in case you want to visit me as my students visit me.

While At Water's Edge will be mostly about running, I am also remembering fondly my prior outdoor life as a whitewater canoeist and kayaker which might have some overlap to this blog title. Every once in a while I sneak into the water skirted and surrounded by a plastic whitewater kayak, if only at an artificial site http://www.usnwc.org/. Perhaps this blog will inspire me to kayak a few more times this season.

Still the blog title, At Water's Edge, comes not primarily from images of trail running nor whitewater kayaking, but from Hebrew Scripture. The Word of God is my first love and no better place to start than in the language of the 42nd Psalm--As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

When crossing a stream as a runner, one must make a series of quick decisions. How much does it matter to keep my shoes dry? Would I even want to keep them dry if I could? What are the pitfalls of trying to pinball off each of those rocks? Will I slip? How is my triple jump these days? Can I pronounce groin should I strain mine in this leap, leap of faith, if you will?

None of these questions seem to address the question of thirst, since the psalmists' image is of a panting deer who longs for a drink from the stream. But I will stretch the metaphor to include the thirst of my shoes. Sometimes a trail shoe just wants to get wet. Here are two of my favorite races to water one's shoes:

http://www.raceuwharrie.com/

http://www.mitchellraces.com/springmaidsplash/race.html

...Now it is the first day of 2012. I don't kayak as often as I would like or write about the sport much. I'd like to remedy that someday. I do tend to thread running and the Word together. What does 2012 hold for me? I can't wait to see.

Shoulda Set for Crete

On the way to Rome
the winds were against us
and we shoulda set for Crete
and stayed a piece

Aristarchus from Thessalonica
was with us
bet he knew our people there

No good bein' a prisoner
when the sea and the wind burp and howl
against our wayward ways

The centurion had a fool plan
that had us doggin' on toward the big city
but he was a fool

Get us killed is what would happen in this weather
Right on past Crete
in the wintry weather violent and all a fuss

Fortnight later, well past old Crete now
I told 'em
stay on this ship
if you want to live
and they did
and we did

Jaw

What saves from the Lion's mouth
Jaws that can break a neck with the ease of a yawn

the lamb's mouth is covered
his nose is snuffed out
slow choking
heart slows and then it stops
easy work under the tight clamp of the predator's jaw

For all the terror
the lion is first among the four in Revelation four
primary and primal
of the tribe of Judah
first even among the twelve

With a lamb in your mouth
seemingly gloating
the conquering hero
you are struck down
by a shepherd boy
carrying only a sling
the lamb escapes
for now

Benign
you and your friends are among Daniel
Why...what about your jaws?
Because Daniel trusted the Living God
Will that suffice?
Takes a great cup of faith

But you, Lion
Fierce
A Beast
A Predator
Hungry for Blood
Fresh warm Blood

What if you were winged
as Daniel dreamt it?
then morphing erect
standing like a human
rising from the sea

You are the one who opens the Scroll
You, the Root of David

Inspired by Rev 4:7, 1 Sam 17:34, Dan 7:4, Dan 6:20, Rev 5:5 and the vision of lions both good and bad.

Preaching as Holding a Precious Stone

My greatest preaching mentor is as always, Rick Lischer. He wrote, "The preacher holds the text like a precious stone and turns it against the light until its greatest brillance is revealed." (Theology of Preaching, 1992, Preface). What an image. I remember when he spoke such a word in a 2004 class and I have never forgotten it. That means that preaching the same texts over an over will be plenty until the end of the age, and certainly the end of my life. I hope to be preaching for no less than another half century and this image makes certain that I will not run out of material because the stones can be turned and turned and turned again.

I like to think of preaching as holding the text up as something valuable when it may not seem worthy to most upon first glance. The text may not seem too amazing upon a first reading. It may seem archaic, lodged in the dirt or inside a lump of coal for many years. The text may seem outdated, the last thing that might shape us in 2011.
But that's not true.
The text from which we preach comes in the context of Christian worship and from the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation we receive a magnificent lens for preaching that can and does show us the nature of the very lives we live.
As I go to prepare for this week's sermon, I am brought into the language of stones in the opening verses of Matthew's 24th chapter:
Jesus then left the Temple. As he walked away, his disciples pointed out how very impressive the Temple architecture was. Jesus said, "You're not impressed by all this sheer size, are you? The truth of the matter is that there's not a stone in that building that is not going to end up in a pile of rubble."
How many ways can this be turned?
Is it simply about the structure of the Jerusalem Temple?
Christ's own body?
The Pharisees's inside the Temple?
The Eschaton?
All of these are possibilities and homiletical choices must be made. The danger in any sermon is to try to answer all the questions posed. This tactic is both superficial and too much the attempt to be God. Neither are a good idea.

What to do. What to do.
Certainly the revelation will come through prayer and fasting.
Lischer writes in the same preface that "the genius of preaching lies in the discovery of [the witness of the text] which occurs amidst prayer, struggle, and exegesis, in a moment of theological insight." It is quite a lot to expect this to occur each week, but it does or it does not and even in the moments of homiletical failure God can be witnessed as we preachers humbly fall short. This is not a safety net to be repeatedly caught by, but one will need the net more often when the greatest effort has been put forth. We can be so assured that our careful and dilligent preparation means we will hit a grand slam from the pulpit, and instead we hear crickets. Who knows what will be heard and what will be no more useful than chaff.
If the text shapes the sermon then all will be well, at least more often than not.
We chanted yesterday:
All the time, God is Good
God is Good, All the time.
This will protect homiletics in spite of our human failings. Stay faithful, stay the course. Do keep the audience in mind, just as Christ did. He spoke a word for a particular people. The audience always matters. Getting it right means having it heard and therefore the speaker must know his people. One of my best friends from seminary is Julien and when I went to preach at his church, he was so gracious with the words, "I know my people." That set me free to get it wrong. What I mean is that I trusted that his people needed to hear me because Julian had invited me, but I might not know them well enough to speak an intelligible word. That set me free to take chances. If I got it wrong then that would be the witness for the day.

I've been at the practice of preaching now for eight years and I enjoy it more now than ever. I worry about it less and have confidence not that I am good at it, but that with good habits it will happen week after week, year after year. I try to remember that I work for God before working for God's gathered people. That's a tricky one to negotiate, but an order of priorties that may just keep this pastor from dangerously becoming a quivering mass of availability. If the Gospel is not always satisfying and seems less helpful rather than a great problem solver, well, then that's probably a good thing. I doubt the fisherman who gathered as the first hearers of the word got an inkling of what they expected or wanted. Yet, they were still intrigued enough to stay the course, and continually follow. Being the Church means being patient, sometimes painfully patient. The first hearers of Dr. King's sermons seem to indicate that he wasn't all that good at first. I love that from his father's grumblings behind the pulpit in Montgomery, under his breath, "Martin, make it plain," we later have speeches, sermons, and letters that changed the face of the church in America. I live 300 yards off MLK Blvd in Durham and try to remember daily as I leave and return to my home that King started wordy and heady as a preacher and then became a prophet for a generation. The preacher with good habits, staying the course, just might find himself in a prophetic season where The Beloved Community truly has ears to hear.