Monday, December 05, 2005

Preaching as Christian Scripture: "How Shall They Hear?"

Preaching of Christian Scripture especially exemplifies for me William Graham's observation that "Scripture" is a relational concept. It seems to me that Scripture isn't really Scripture, that is, the word of God, in Christianity unless it has an observable effect on its audience. The Gospel as Christian scripture has to be "heard." That's why I think Samuel Proctor's question "How shall they hear?" exemplifies to me what is so crucial to understanding Scripture in Protestant Christianity. How do you say it, that is preach it, in such a way that it does visibly affect your audience? It's got to come from an experience you've had and has to resonate with, or evoke an experience in your audience. So that's what I've tried to do in the sermon I composed for our class (adopting the style of Protestant Christian preaching), touching on the four crucial points that the late Rev. Proctor says most audiences want or need to hear. But in order for you the class of "Scripture in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" to hear my sermon, I felt I had to connect Proctor's 4 general points to specific experiences we shared as class - to "make it real." I also wanted to use this sermon as an opportunity to bring some closure to the class, to sum up what I think are the most important things we have learned from the class. So here's my attempt to practice what Samuel Proctor preached:

My sermon
Jonathan B-Kraus Rel 204

It is with great trepidation that I take on the task to today to preach the Gospel. I've got two strikes against me. One - What does a rabbi know from preaching the Gospel? Two - what business do I have a preaching the Gospel in a critical study of religions class at a non-denominational liberal arts college? I should be teaching religious diversity at the university, not witnessing the Good News in the church pews! But the most important point I want to make is a bit of a paradox. Critical, analytical comparative study of religions is for me, and (I hope) for you a source of hope and inspiration, as it says in the Book of Lamentations, as the abandoned wife of the midrash says over her ketubbah, "This is what I call to mind, and therefore I have hope."
It's not only what you learned, but that you learned, despite your insecurities that you couldn't memorize a passage from the Qur'an in Arabic or that the midrash was so foreign that it made no sense; Despite my second guessing that I didn't do everything I could do to make this a better class - organizing the promised field trips so that everyone could attend, making every reading on the syllabus, every class discussion so fascinating that no one could imagine skipping class, spending more time on Christianity, less on Judaism. Yet as I read your web journals, I couldn't help but be struck by how much you did get - how you put things together yourself and made connections to your own experiences, how you asked the right questions and more often than not, answered them yourselves later in the course. Or I was amazed that so many of you got the point of the meaning of the Dome of the Rock though I feared I hadn't conveyed it effectively. See - “our carnal package of drives,urges, [fears and doubts that hold us back] can be contained, restrained, and reconciled.”This is what I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.
It's not only what you learned , but how you learned. When I taught the class before, I assigned a Surah from the Qur'an that played on the image of reed, that is used both in musical instruments and in old-fashioned pens, to make sounds and letters. We have been a grove of reeds, in whom other people's songs and words have been sounded, penning new ideas and new experiences. To paraphrase the Qur'an Surah 96, though our origins are humble "created from a mere clot of congealed blood, we have become signs (ayat) that proclaim
"Thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who taught by the reed,
Who taught [us] that which [we] knew not.
Where did the breath come from that let us sound these new words, whose hand guided our writing? Who really taught us that which we knew not? Not me. I felt like a reed too, a hollow vessel, conveying something to you that I got from somewhere, Someone else. Our experience of learning, of going beyond what we thought we were capable is indeed palpable proof that there is something more than “our space-time frame of reference,” that there is a generous Power beyond us at times revealing to us that “the universe is a friendly place.” Jewish tradition recognizes this in the Sayings of the Fathers (the Oral Torah), when it says, "Wherever two or three are gathered to engage in words of Torah, the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) is also present." Or as Jesus puts it, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." (Mt.18:20). Though the three traditions have their own way of putting it, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all recognize that the experience of learning, especially with our fellows, is more than the sum of its parts. This too I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.
This brings me to the last feature of the Gospel Rev. Proctor wants me to proclaim “genuine community is possible?” We have learned from each other. As Paul said so eloquently in his first letter to the Corinthians (13:2,8-9),

"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels and do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing...Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For now we know only in part, and we know only in part,"
It takes a community of learning to realize this. We could not have done it without each other. When we really care what others have to say, in order to make room for them we have to know only in part. At moments we've been just that sort of community. If the comparative study of religions is words and ideas theoretically geared to appreciating the diversity of religions, what we have accomplished as as a group over the last semester is to become those words made flesh. You have been a terrific class! This is what I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.