{"id":1804,"date":"2015-08-27T13:44:58","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T18:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2021-01-29T15:49:30","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T20:49:30","slug":"sermon-tips-preaching-old-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pts.edu\/blog\/sermon-tips-preaching-old-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon Tips: Preaching from the Left-Hand Side of the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Seminary continues our\u00a0sermon writing tips series.\u00a0Be sure to look for other tips from faculty, staff, and alums in the months ahead and read our recent posts on <\/em>preaching without notes,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0dealing with writer\u2019s block,<\/em><\/a>\u00a012 questions for effective preaching<\/a>,\u00a0using art as a tutorial to Scripture,<\/a> and preaching about current events<\/a>. Have a tip you\u2019d like to offer or have\u00a0a sermon issue you\u2019d like help with? Let us know by using the comments option.<\/em><\/p>\n

I love the scene in the first Ghostbusters<\/em> movie\u00a0where the team warns the\u00a0mayor of New York of a coming \u201cdisaster of biblical proportions\u201d:<\/p>\n

Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is <\/em>Old Testament<\/strong>, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together\u2026 mass hysteria!<\/em><\/p>\n

Actually, except for the \u201cdogs and cats\u201d part, this is a pretty fair summary of the impression many people, even life-long believers, have of the Old Testament. No wonder we are reluctant to read and study, let alone preach from, the first two-thirds of Christian Scripture!<\/p>\n

I am going to list the top three\u00a0reasons I have heard for not preaching from the left-hand side of the Bible. I am then going to argue that each one is actually a reason that we\u00a0need<\/em> to\u00a0preaching from the Old Testament.<\/p>\n

1. The Old Testament God is wrathful and violent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certainly, there is bloodshed aplenty in the texts south of Matthew (for example, see the account of Nineveh\u2019s fall in Nahum 2\u20133<\/a>). But the New Testament certainly is not lacking in texts witnessing to this theme (for example, Revelation 16:1-20<\/a>;\u00a0Matthew 10:34<\/a>;\u00a0or\u00a0Luke 22:35-37<\/a>). Avoiding the Old Testament doesn\u2019t solve the problem. However, addressing these texts carefully in context reveals a God who cares passionately about justice, and who sides with the oppressed against the oppressor\u2013themes we must address from\u00a0our pulpits. For example: the horrific texts in Nahum are introduced in the final form of that book by a psalm\u00a0(Nahum 1:2-11<\/a>) affirming that the LORD\u00a0is a God of justice who punishes the wicked and the oppressor:<\/p>\n

The Lord<\/span> is slow to anger but great in power,<\/span><\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and the Lord<\/span> will by no means clear the guilty\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em>(Nahum 1:3 NRSV<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Nineveh\u2019s destruction, then, is presented\u00a0as a measured act of just punishment, not the capricious act of a violent deity. Indeed Habakkuk, the book that follows Nahum,\u00a0wrestles with the problem of divine justice in the face of violence and suffering:<\/p>\n

Rather than providing simple, condescending answers to our questions, the Old Testament invites us to join in the age-old struggle for meaning, and so to find ourselves in conversation with the Divine.<\/p>\n

2. The Old Testament is law, the\u00a0New Testament is grace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This misunderstanding of the Bible derives from a misreading, not only of the Old Testament, but also of the New\u2013particularly, the letters of Paul, who\u00a0sometimes opposes legalism to\u00a0faith (for example, in Romans 4:13-16<\/a>). Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is the idea expressed that, by proper observance of the law, one earns God\u2019s favor.\u00a0Rather, always and everywhere, obedience is a faithful response to the love and grace that God has shown. Micah expresses this very aptly:<\/p>\n

With what should I approach the\u00a0Lord<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and bow down before God on high?<\/em>
\nShould I come before him with entirely burned offerings,<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with year-old calves?<\/em>
\nWill the\u00a0Lord\u00a0be pleased with thousands of rams,<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0with many torrents of oil?<\/em>
\nShould I give my oldest child for my crime;<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?<\/em>
\nHe has told you, human one, what is good and<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0what the\u00a0Lord\u00a0requires from you:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God<\/em> (Micah 6:6-8<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Grace is the beating heart of the whole of Scripture.\u00a0Indeed, hearing that grace expressed in the pithy, earthy language of the Old Testament, rather than the often otherworldly language of the New, may make its message all the more potent. This leads to\u00a0the third objection:<\/p>\n

3. The Old Testament is\u00a0odd.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Guilty as charged! The Old Testament is, after all,\u00a0old<\/em>: it reflects the worldview of ancient cultures, far removed from us in time and space. The oddity of texts such as Ezekiel\u2019s vision of the LORD\u2019s glory (Ezekiel 1)<\/a> should not, indeed cannot, be denied or explained away. However, precisely because they are strange, these passages may be able to help us hear anew a message that more familiar texts no longer effectively convey. The message of God\u2019s caring, and God\u2019s determination to come to us where we are, may no longer sound so strongly in passages we have heard over\u00a0and over again (such as John 3:16<\/a>). But the wheels beneath the divine throne in Ezekiel\u2019s vision reveal that God is enthroned in a chariot, enabling God to be present in God\u2019s full glory wherever God wishes\u2013a striking image that, in its very strangeness and unfamiliarity, may break through to us as it did for African slaves discovering the Bible and its faith.<\/p>\n

Preaching the Old Testament is not optional: if we believe that the Bible is indeed word of God for the people of God, then we need to preach Scripture in its fullness. When we do so, we will experience the power of God\u2019s word and God\u2019s presence anew.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This post first appeared on The Bible Guy<\/a> blog written by\u00a0the Rev. Dr. Steve Tuell\u00a0who serves as the\u00a0James A. Kelso Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Other recent posts have looked at how to read the Bible, grace, peace, and violence in the Bible.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pittsburgh Seminary continues our\u00a0sermon writing tips series.\u00a0Be sure to look for other tips from faculty, staff, and alums in the months ahead and read our recent posts on preaching without notes,\u00a0dealing with writer\u2019s block,\u00a012 questions for effective preaching,\u00a0using art as a tutorial to Scripture, and preaching about current events. Have a tip you\u2019d like to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,159],"tags":[142,143,131],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry","category-sermon-writing-tips","tag-old-testament","tag-preaching-from-the-old-testament","tag-sermon-writing-tips"],"yoast_head":"\r\nSermon Tips: Preaching from the Left-Hand Side of the Bible - Pittsburgh Theological Seminary<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We're often tempted to skip the land-hand side of the Bible. 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