"Tender Mercies" a Movie Review Michael D
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Leaven Volume 3 Article 19 Issue 1 Galatians 1-1-1995 "Tender Mercies" a Movie Review Michael D. Gose [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Gose, Michael D. (1995) ""Tender Mercies" a Movie Review," Leaven: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 19. Available at: http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol3/iss1/19 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Leaven by an authorized administrator of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gose: "Tender Mercies" a Movie Review Galatians 43 Book Reviews Elizabeth Achtemeier, The Old Testa- continues, "is not that it has merely abandoned the ment and the Proclamation of the Old Testament and living on the basis of the New. GospelCPhiladelphia: Westminster, 1973). The present dilemma of the church is that it is attempting to carry on its life apart from the totality of its Scripture" (44). Although many might place the Churches of The inseparability of the testaments for Christ outside the mainstream of American Protes- Achtemeier is based exclusively on Gerhard von tantism on the strength of our "traditions" and con- Rad's promise-fulfillment schema. This logic is the gregational autonomy, certainly we have not escaped presupposition for her prescriptive approach to the homiletical crisis identified by Elizabeth preaching. Therefore, to faithfully preach an Old Achtemeier twenty years ago. In general, preaching Testament text, the preacher must pair it with a New from the Bible has probably been a more secure Testament one. Unfortunately, Achtemeier claims practice within the Restoration Movement than in that "In every sermon rising out ofan Old Testament some mainstream denominations but, more specifi- text there must be reference to the New Testament cally, preaching from the Old Testament is always in outcome ofthe Old Testament's word" (142). It seems need of fresh encouragement and sound models. to me that she has overstated the homiletical useful- Until the book on preaching the Old Testament is ness of von Rad's promise-fulfillment paradigm for written, Achtemeier's classic, long out of print, re- Old Testament theology. Many scholars have been mains the essential handbook for aspiring young critical ofthis approach because it tends to ignore the preachers and for those masters who want to rethink Psalms and Wisdom literature. By casting the Old the enterprise of Old Testament preaching. Testament in such a rigid way and by moving so Beyond simply naming and tracing the roots readily from it to the New Testament and Jesus, a of the church's loss of the Old Testament for its life sermon reduces the value of the Old Testament's and nurture, Achtemeier delineates the results of witness to God's character and obscures the particu- th-at loss. She states that the New Testament's view larity and integrity ofeach Old Testament text on its of Jesus Christ and of the church is based on the own. The preacher should not be required to Chris- saving activity of God in the Old Testament. As the tianize Amos or Isaiah by matching their message church gradually abandoned the Old Testament, "it with a New Testament text in order for the church to lost the Bible- and the Christian faith - as a whole" hear the word ofGod. Although Achtemeier cautions (44). "The present dilemma of the church," she the reader against reductionism in the pairing ofthe Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 1995 1 Leaven, Vol. 3 [1995], Iss. 1, Art. 19 44 Leaven, vol. 3, #1 testaments, she appears with several examples to do Walter Brueggemann, Finally Comes the this herself (e.g., motifs common to the old and new Poet: Daring Speech for Proclamation testaments which become generalized under the themes of the church calendar). (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989). One of the most valuable sections for the preacher is the suggested sequence for sermon "The gospel is thus a truth widely held, but a preparation under the heading "Understanding the truth greatly reduced" (1). This observation is the text" (144-46). After pointing out the common mis- premise of Brueggemann's book. Believers (and takes made by many of us who have attempted to their preachers) have "flattened, trivialized, and preach fromthe OldTestament regularly, Achtemeier rendered inane" the gospel. Thus, the one place emphasizes "that the preacher must listen to the text where people could come to hear bold speech and in its fullness, not ending his study ofthe passage as allow them to enter into a new existence is instead a soon as a sermon idea presents itself, but analyzing place of intellectual curiosity at most and mere tra- and pondering the whole passage, until all its inner ditionalism without substance at worst. "Reduced and outer relationships and thrust become clear. speech leads to reduced lives" (3). Such an exercise takes time and meditation and Brueggemann's solution is a call for poetic wrestling .with the text on the part of the preacher, speech in a prose world. By 'prose' he means a but only If a clergyman engages in it will he ad- formulaic setting in which our prayers and sermons equately prepare himself to mediate the word ofGod sound like business correspondence. By 'poetic' he to his people, and, after all, the clergyman has no does not mean rhyme and meter, but rather speech other reason forhis office"(146).Without this rigorous that ~... breaks open old worlds with surprise, ministerial discipline the congregation hears the abrasion, and pace" (3). He rejects preaching that theology ofthe preacher rather than the word ofGod moralizes, solvesproblems, delineates doctrine, gives mediated by the text and spoken through him. 'goodadvice' or is soothing goodhumor. Instead, bold, In addition, Achtemeier points out a problem poeticspeechis that whichbreaks oldwaysofthinking, frequently overlooked or avoided in graduate theo- foregone conclusions and mindless traditions - this logicaltraining, but one that preachers often commit: is what the gospel can do when the power of God's "the error of talking about the text rather than pro- word is unleashed. There are four elements in this claiming it" (156). If one of the goals of the preacher speech. The first is the text itself. The listeners are is to allow the word of God in the text to recreate a vaguely familiar with it, but in a reduced way. Poetic new situation in which divine communication and speech can bring it refreshingly back to meet the transformation are experienced by the community of listeners where they live. The second element is the faith, he must enter the text to proclaim it. baptized believer. This person has understood the The usefulness of Achtemeier's critique of texts in some way, but is unclear of its authority. sermon outlines and analysis ofmodel sermons rests Third, there is a specific occasion for this poetic on the reader's acceptance ofher promise-fulfillment speech. "It is an artistic moment in which the words approach to linking Old and New Testament texts. are concrete but open, closeto our life but moving out Her more recent book, Preaching from the Old to new angles of reality" (9). Finally, the fourth Testament (Louisville,KY:Westminster/John Knox element is revelation that takes place outside tradi- 1989), was also written on this premise. One need tional religion and comfortable social and political not, however, accept her presuppositions to benefit ideologies.When this ha ppens, the text is larger than from her experience, wisdom and guidance. For the speaker or the hearers, larger than the world - further reading on this topic I suggest: John C. and healing begins to take place. Holbert, Preaching Old Testament: Proclama- The remaining chapters deal with prose- tion and Narrative in the Hebrew Bible (Nash- reduction and what Brueggemann sees as solutions. ville: Abingdon, 1991);Thomas G. Long, Preaching The preacher must disclose the power of guilt and the Literary Forms of the Bible (Philadelphia: healing, then lead the hearers to healing which the Fortress, 1989); and, Dennis T. Olson, "Rediscover- gospel can bring by overcoming that guilt. He can do ing Lost Treasure: Forgotten Preaching Texts ofthe this by revealing the reality of the destructiveness Old Testament," Journal for Preachers 13 (1990) that guilt brings. Then he can disclose the alterna- 2-10. tives presented in the biblical texts: reconciliation, forgiveness, and restoration. The preacher must do Reviewed by Craig Bowman who teaches in the this in a way that shows how "God moves for us and Religion Division ofSeaver College,Pepperdine Uni- with us from one world to the other, a move wrought versity, Malibu, California. in love and faithfulness, but also wrought in grief and http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol3/iss1/19 2 Gose: "Tender Mercies" a Movie Review Galatians 45 humiliation" (14). Much of the problem is that our Nebuchadnezzar, his fall, and his renewal. This speech has been reduced to docile chatter, commit- parallels the question of human personhood that ting nothing, and thus it loses the real meaning of Brueggemannn has been exploring. Through God's communion. Such worship may be upbeat, happy and word, our imagined autonomy is demolished, and we positive, but it is dishonest and destructive. It is a are reduced to humiliated silence. Then, like great denial of the "covenantal, mutual, risking, Nebuchadnezzar, we can lift our eyes to heaven and demanding, surprising, frightening, and unsettling" give our life over to God. A new power is given and (44) character of true communion.