habakkuk: a midrash [week one]
hey gang - we're beginning a new series this week that will ultimately take us through the whole book of habakkuk.
in your experience this weekend, i'd love for you to think and reflect on the following questions.
#1 what benefit is there to having a more conversational style of preaching [i.e. having dave/jvo/randy all talk]? in what ways does that reflect a "midrash"? do you think the american church in the 21st century would benefit from an awareness that there is more layers to a text than just the obvious? how so?
#2 what most resonated with you during this week's sermon? was there one point, or maybe a phrase, that stuck with you? do you feel like you "got a window" into the life and times of this prophet and his book? do you feel a little more equipped to understand this part of the bible now?
#3 what crossovers do you see between habakkuk and our series on jeremiah? in addition to them being alive during the same period of time, how do you understand the differences between the two men and their responses to crisis?
ok - that's all for this week. please let me know how you're thinking and processing all of these experiences and feel free to comment about larger god-motivated happenings in your life as well!
cheers,
david
in your experience this weekend, i'd love for you to think and reflect on the following questions.
#1 what benefit is there to having a more conversational style of preaching [i.e. having dave/jvo/randy all talk]? in what ways does that reflect a "midrash"? do you think the american church in the 21st century would benefit from an awareness that there is more layers to a text than just the obvious? how so?
#2 what most resonated with you during this week's sermon? was there one point, or maybe a phrase, that stuck with you? do you feel like you "got a window" into the life and times of this prophet and his book? do you feel a little more equipped to understand this part of the bible now?
#3 what crossovers do you see between habakkuk and our series on jeremiah? in addition to them being alive during the same period of time, how do you understand the differences between the two men and their responses to crisis?
ok - that's all for this week. please let me know how you're thinking and processing all of these experiences and feel free to comment about larger god-motivated happenings in your life as well!
cheers,
david
posted by david mcdonald at 7:46 AM
4 Comments:
I am going to give some first blush remarks before I forget it all :-) I may end up responding more than once because I only have a few minutes right now!
I am really looking forward to this series...good timing!
#1I liked the 3 of you speaking. You each have very different styles so WE have a greater chance of connecting with more people. Some people connect better with factual/historical info., others like stories. Some like relational/emotional components to really enter a story. All of you provided these aspects today! I guess what I said covered the whole midrash idea, because you articulated all of the very different layers of meaning in your introduction to the book. I feel very strongly that the 21st century church will not survive without the "midrash"...it is being demanded by the current generation of teens and 20 somethings and even me :-)
#2 I never realized just how much Habakkuk is like me! I have personally wrestled with God regarding Brandon's suffering and sometimes my own, and your right...he never gives me a clear, complete answer!Yet, I have already come to the response choices you presented today. You can wrestle and say this sucks and possibly get stuck in the "why?" or respond in a way that says "what" do I need to do to successfully get through this and reflect Christ too?!!! I am looking forward to getting to know Habakkuk in a deeper way.
#3 I think you did a good job of showing some similarities between Jeremiah and Habakkuk. They both wrestled with God in significant ways during the same time period, and about governmental injustices. I also see that both prophets were promised restoration, but were not told that they would be spared from suffering! Isn't that our promise too!!!! Thank God for these stories...they reinforce that promise of restoration and hope we live for.
I am going to have to go back through Jeremiah and re-read Habakkuk to continue to study and find the differences....you only briefly touched onthe "connection" between the books today.
#1- I did enjoy the 3 speaking. I think the only disadvantage was it was a little harder to concentrate at times because you do have different teaching styles and the switch was fast. I guess my concentration gets rattled! Feedback I have heard from others has been very positive regarding the 3 of you speaking. I think it displayed the midrash idea well. The church can definitally benefit from this. As Donna said above, people learn differently and this style helps with that. I think people need to see these layers to get a better picture of what God/Bible is all about.
#2- I really felt like I could resonate with this weeks sermon. We've all had something that we have struggled and wrestled with. I liked the emphasis on how its ok to have a problem with something and to wrestle with it. It's ok to question God and look for the answer. I think our Christian society has closed the door to questions throughout history and its important to remember we can do this. It also stuck out to me how love was brought into the picture again.
Regarding Habakkuk, I better understood what he was all about. The history and details really helped me get a picture of where he was coming from. It was a great intro into the book. Its a book we can all relate to.
#3- I missed a lot of the Jeremiah series so I don't feel like I can answer real clearly on this one. Sorry! I am curious to see what everyone else has to say on this one.
#1 what benefit is there to having a more conversational style of preaching [i.e. having dave/jvo/randy all talk]? in what ways does that reflect a "midrash"?
Gaining different perspectives through style, etc. can be good, but in balance. Leadership can emerge from this style, but there is also a natural affinity toward a prime leader as well. This is not a question easily or briefly answered. Conversational style, at least on context of coriolis, usually translates to conversation between the speaker and the audience. What if that conversation at times puts the audience in a distant observer mode, such as a play would be say at the “Purple Rose”? What if the conversation occurs between the three? What if the conversation(s) include others (plants) within the audience?
do you think the american church in the 21st century would benefit from an awareness that there is more layers to a text than just the obvious?
Enormously. First, humans tend to not remember very well. They tend to not recall the lessons of history. Second, they tend to pass everything they hear through the filters they’ve spent years creating and if that translations differs from a newly expressed layer, they (we) will benefit from revisiting it over time…how so?
The broader the understanding the more skill we have in living and accepting others who may not see things as we do…
#2 what most resonated with you during this week's sermon? was there one point, or maybe a phrase, that stuck with you? do you feel like you "got a window" into the life and times of this prophet and his book? do you feel a little more equipped to understand this part of the bible now?
I found the connection between Habakkuk’s wrestling with God and that of David interestingly similar and refreshing. Refreshing in that it provides biblical approval or sanctions our frustration or worse toward God. That God is not as small as I (we) often make him. How often as parents do we experience with our children what I would think is similar to what God experiences with us as his children. Our children often get extremely frustrated and even lash out at us when circumstances occur that they either don’t understand or desire and we don’t allow. They simply can’t yet grasp what we know is clearly best from our level of understanding, which is very similar to the chasm between our understanding & Gods (at a much greater scale of course). Habakkuk’s frustration is honest, and God understands that, just as we don’t stop loving our children when they lash out in frustration but rather sieze opportunities to teach them the lessons of the moment.
As Paul writes when he says that we now see things through very blurred and inaccurate prism of understanding but when we are united with Christ we will know & understand even as we are understood. When Desmond and Jessica were early teens I know for sure there were times they were confident we were out of step with reality and simply could not possibly know what was best, based on their often self-absorbed or at least limited understanding. As they have gone through college and now on their own it is amazing how many times they provide unsolicited accolades as to how great our understanding is. In some small way that is the correlation I make when I read Habakkuk, Psalms, Jeremiah, etc. Gotta run..
hey gang - thanks for your comments! we've really wrestled with whether or not to even try and tackle a book like habakkuk in fusion, because it's so "out there" and we knew that weeks 1-3 would be really heavy, but i'm glad to hear you're engaging the text.
many blessings in your god-wrestling!
Post a Comment
<< Home