Daily Dose of Calvin II

18. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. If we thus read, the sense is, that when there was no probable reason, yea, when all things were against him, he yet continued to believe. And, doubtless, there is nothing more injurious to faith than to fasten our minds to our eyes, that we may from what we see, seek a reason for our hope. We may also read, “above hope,” and perhaps more suitably; as though he had said that by his faith he far surpassed all that he could conceive; for except faith flies upward on celestial wings so as to look down on all the perceptions of the flesh as on things far below, it will stick fast in the mud of the world. But Paul uses the word hope twice in this verse: in the first instance, he means a probable evidence for hoping, such as can be derived from nature and carnal reason; in the second he refers to faith given by God; for when he had no ground for hoping he yet in hope relied on the promise of God; and he thought it a sufficient reason for hoping, that the Lord had promised, however incredible the thing was in itself. - John Calvin, commenting on Romans 4:18

Another Missional Presbytery

This sounded interesting: http://www.pcusa.org/missionyearbook/Sep/18.htm

Daily Dose of Calvin

We have here also a type and a pattern of the call of us all, by which our beginning is set before our eyes, not as to our first birth, but as to the hope of future life, — that when we are called by the Lord we emerge from nothing; for whatever we may seem to be we have not, no, not a spark of anything good, which can render us fit for the kingdom of God. That we may indeed on the other hand be in a suitable state to hear the call of God, we must be altogether dead in ourselves. The character of the divine calling is, that they who are dead are raised by the Lord, that they who are nothing begin to be something through his power. The word call ought not to be confined to preaching, but it is to be taken, according to the usage of Scripture, for raising up; and it is intended to set forth more fully the power of God, who raises up, as it were by a nod only, whom he wills. - John Calvin, Commenting on Romans 4:17

The Alban Institute - 2009-08-31 The Bivocational Congregation

This is worth reading, from the Alban Institute:
The Alban Institute - 2009-08-31 The Bivocational Congregation

Craddock on Preaching III

Here's my summary of what Fred Craddock had to say about preaching after watching the four-video series:
1. Get into the text: study, reflect, consult commentaries, etc.--go into the strange world of the Bible
2. Get out of the text: interpret: what does it mean today?
3. Get a message that can be put into one declarative sentence; if you have more than one from a particular text, choose the one that fits you, the congregation, and the occasion, and save the others for another time.
4. Craft a sermon: start with the message (see #3) and use that as your conclusion; otherwise you'll use up all your good stuff in the beginning

Craddock on Preaching II

Just watched the third tape in the Fred Craddock series; this one is called "Arriving at a Message." The fascinating part was watching him work through the text (John 19:31-37, surely a text that is seldom preached; it is not in the Lectionary) and ask himself questions about it. He actually arrived at not one, but three possible messages. He chose one ("don't try to do all three") and told us that if we saved our notes in a file we would have the other two messages whenever we came back to that text.

I sorta do it that way, but not nearly so well.

Craddock on Preaching

I try to read a book on preaching about once a year, just to see what other people are saying, and to re-energize my own preaching. This year, though, I'm watching a set of videos I scored from the Presbytery office. They were among the leftovers from when we maintained a resource center.

Anyway, the videos are a series of lectures the legendary Fred Craddock gave in 1986. The first was "getting into the text," and the second, "getting out of the text." In the latter, he talks about something I had never considered: the fear of interpretation. He noted that there are some preachers who say, "I don't interpret the Bible, I just tell people what it says." And of course we should be legitimately concerned lest we substitute our interpretation for the meaning of the text. But Craddock emphasizes that interpretation is an essential part of our calling as pastors and preachers, as it is of many callings.

Parents, for example, interpret to their children all the time. "What's that noise?" "It's just the wind making the tree branch brush against the window. Go back to sleep." Doctors interpret all the time. "I've had this pain in the small of my back for about two months now. What is it?" Craddock says that an uninterpreted pain is the worst pain of all. If I know it's cancer, I can deal with it. It's not knowing that's the hard part, and we need the doctor's interpretation.

In case we're not convinced, Craddock goes on to point out that Scripture interprets Scripture. It's the living text of Scripture, and the work of the Holy Spirit, that keeps us from substituting our own interpretation for what the Bible actually says--at least on our best days.