Part XXV Matthew - Atonement Theology, Conclusion: Seeking New Possibilities

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 10 July 2014 3 Comments
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Question

What biblical commentaries do you suggest that would be most beneficial for sermon preparation in contemporary teaching for the 21st century?

Answer

Dear Bennie,

Thanks for your letter. The question you ask, however, will not lead you to the conclusion you seek. I applaud your desire to find proper resources for “sermon preparation in contemporary preaching in the 21st century.” That is certainly needed, but the idea that you can find this in a Bible commentary or even in a series of Bible commentaries, is not the answer. The problem that you are seeking to address is far more complex than that. I also do not think that preaching alone will ever address the problem you state as your goal.

First of all, there is no single commentary on the Bible that is worth the paper on which it is printed any more that there is a single volume guide to the practice of medicine that a doctor might follow. The Bible, not including the Apocrypha, consists of 66 books written over a period of 1000 years, roughly from 1000 BCE to 140 CE, by a wide variety of authors living in a wide variety of human situations. Not one of them by itself will carry ultimate truth. Before I wrote my book on John’s gospel, which was published in 2012 under the title The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, I read every major commentary on that gospel written or translated into English from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. The names of those authors were listed in my bibliography. I learned from all of them. I agreed totally with none of them. In my book I blended insights from many authors to find my own conclusions. The 19th century commentaries revealed a world view that no longer exists, but that did not invalidate some of the insights. The 21st century commentaries also quite frequently did not address the issues of the modern world. I think you and all who preach regularly need to engage the best scholarship available to you. It is a lifetime process not a Sunday by Sunday process. You must also be conversant with history, science and with the inevitable process of change that life brings. I do not believe that Sunday worship services are the proper place to accomplish this task. People do not have the proper setting in worship to process the things that you would be saying. They cannot in that setting disagree with you verbally, they cannot ask questions, they cannot object. This means ultimately that they cannot really learn in that setting. Churches need to offer their people a format for learning. In my opinion this will be a classroom setting, in which questions and challenges are welcomed and in which things can be explained over and over again, ideas repeated and consensus built. A worship service with a preacher behind an elevated pulpit speaking to worshippers sitting below is not that kind of place.

If we do not recognize how deeply the world has changed since the Bible was written, we will never achieve the goal of communicating Christianity in our world. Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo removed from us the idea that we live in the center of a three-tiered universe and that God was a being who dwelt above the sky. The traditional theistic view of God died in that advance of knowledge, but most people in church do not yet recognize it and we still pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”

The work of Charles Darwin ended forever the idea that there was an original perfection from which we have fallen and that, in turn, ended forever our pious talk about original sin and how God overcame it in the death of Jesus. Bible commentaries do not tend to address issues about changing perceptions of the world so without the study of the world, they are very inadequate resources.

There is finally the problem that so many parts of the church are so firmly attached to traditional ideas of God that for you to challenge those ideas from the pulpit would result only in the destruction of that congregation. People grow only when issues are explained, when they can process new ideas over a period of time, when they can ask questions and even when they can disagree. New ideas need to be presented in a classroom setting and for this kind of learning, a Bible commentary to assist your preaching will be of very little assistance to you.

In conclusion, I think you have the right goal, but the wrong tactic to arrive at that goal. That is also the problem I see reflected in almost every part of the church. That is why the task before the Christian Church today is so hard and why success using the patterns of the past is so limited.

For starters, Bennie, choose one gospel and stick with it until you have mastered it. I admire your desire to do your task more professionally.

My best to you in your ministry.

John Shelby Spong

 

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