wfn.org | ELCA Lectures Address Preaching in a 'Post-Christian' World

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 25, 2002

ELCA LECTURES ADDRESS PREACHING IN A 'POST-CHRISTIAN' WORLD
02-061-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Two prominent preachers are delivering a series
of sermons and lectures on the difficulties of preaching on deep
theological themes to an audience that may or may not know basic Bible
stories.  The 11th Hein-Fry Lecture Series, titled "Biblical Preaching
in Babel: Preaching in a Post-Christian World," visits all eight
seminary campuses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

THE REV. BARBARA LUNDBLAD
     The Rev. Barbara Lundblad, associate professor of preaching, Union
Theological Seminary, New York, began the series Feb. 7 at Lutheran
Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C.  She spoke Feb. 27 at the
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and March 1 at Pacific Lutheran
Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif.
     An ELCA pastor, Lundblad has been a frequent speaker on "The
Protestant Hour," an ecumenical national radio program.  She authored
"Transforming the Stone: Preaching through Resistance to Change."
     In Chicago, Lundblad said today's audience does not live in
"biblical times."  So, "biblical preaching" is often reduced to "a
remedial course on Bible content" or to ignoring the Bible "in favor of
contemporary human questions and longings."
     "'Biblical preaching' rooted in the 20th century biblical theology
movement has resulted in a strange silence on public affairs, a
preoccupation with past-tense religion, and a tension between preaching
the gospel and preaching the Bible," said Lundblad.
     The challenge for today's preacher is to recognize that "the Word
of God is Jesus Christ and is not reducible to the printed page of the
Bible," said Lundblad.  "We read the Bible through the lens of Jesus
Christ, the prism of justification," she said.
     The Bible is "open to new meaning in each time and place,"
Lundblad said.  "Preachers must listen to the 'community text' as well
as to the 'biblical text.'  In this way life serves to explain the
text," she said.
     Preachers must have a firm grasp of biblical times to understand
what the Bible is saying to the people of its day and interpret how it
addresses today's people, said Lundblad.  The Old Testament can "help us
address issues such as ecology and care of creation, Sabbath time, and
what it means to be a prophetic people," she said.
     Lundblad will speak April 11 at Wartburg Theological Seminary,
Dubuque, Iowa.

THE REV. PETER J. GOMES
     The Rev. Peter J. Gomes, professor of Christian morals, Harvard
University, Cambridge, Mass., spoke Feb. 19 at the Lutheran Theological
Seminary at Philadelphia.  He challenged the premise that the United
States is a "post-Christian world," especially in the aftermath of the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
     A pastor of the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., Gomes has
served as minister in The Memorial Church at Harvard since 1970 and on
Harvard's faculty of divinity and faculty of arts and sciences since
1974.  In 1979, Time magazine named him one of the seven most
influential preachers in the United States.
     Gomes said religion is showing itself in new dimensions in the
United States, largely out of exhaustion with many aspects of modern
life. "We're not in the middle of a revival, but in a period of
discovery," he said.
     "People are recovering a memory of something they once knew.  The
task we have as church leaders is to keep up with our people and find
out where they are going so we can lead them there," said Gomes.
     Clergy and other church leaders are in a "teachable moment, a time
and place where people are beginning to ask afresh the old questions,"
said Gomes.  "We have the spiritual hot milk that people are looking
for, but churches sometimes make faith a cumbersome thing," he said.
     "I help people understand that the story of faith is not dead and
ancient.  I work to make religion credible," said Gomes.  "My job is to
get people from this world to the next."
     Gomes advised preachers to trust the Scriptures and to know, each
time they contemplate a particular text, something new may come to
light.  Preachers need to trust the Holy Spirit, he said.  "The Holy
Spirit is interested in maintaining the power of the Word."
     Gomes will speak April 8 at Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Gettysburg, Pa., April 16 at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., and April
22-23 at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio.
     The Hein-Fry Lecture Series predates the ELCA which was formed in
1988.  The endowed theological lecture series fosters original
scholarship and enriches theological dialogue throughout the church.  It
combines the Dr. Carl Christian Hein Memorial Seminary Lectures of the
former American Lutheran Church and the Franklin Clark Fry Theological
Lectures of the former Lutheran Church in America.
-- -- --
     The Web pages at http://www.elca.org/DM/hf/heinfry.html have
information about the lecture series.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html