Comments on: Buechner

By: Kent Dickeroson

Kent Dickeroson — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:01:56 +0000

K. Rex, watch the live video of Casting Crowns “I’ll Praise You In This Storm” on youtube. I think you’ll see this conteporary christian song definately speaks of worshiping God even when we don’t feel him. I just led the song with others for the first time over the weekend and found it very powerful, Kent

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:46:01 +0000

Preachers, if you don’t know Buechner very well and this post interests you, get a copy “Wishful Thinking.” It’s a quirky dictionary of Bible and religion. No matter what topic you’re preaching on, if there’s an entry under that word, it will be a great springboard for your thinking. You might find yourself reading some or all of it from the pulpit. That’s what happened to me anyway.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:49:57 +0000

I like what George Buttrick said about Buechner’s choice to enter Union Theological Seminary to become a minister, “It would be a shame to lose a good novelist for a mediocre preacher.”However, I think we know that his preaching and writing complimented each other quite well.
Peace.

By: qb

qb — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:42:12 +0000

qb incomprehensibly neglected to insert the phrase “theological implications of” before “contemporary political developments” in the first para of his reply to Brett. Sorry ’bout that…an inexcusable omission. qb

By: qb

qb — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:21:21 +0000

Brett:

Yes, in fact, it did. Many authors, notably including no less than N. T. Wright, have shown that Mark 13 is thoroughgoing Jewish apocalyptic after the fashion of Daniel 7 and other ancient and second-Temple literature, remarkable imagery infused with – and bringing out the fulness of – contemporary political developments, including (for instance) Titus’ fateful siege of Jerusalem. We can surely agree that *that* was a historically verifiable event…

You may wish to disagree with those authors (for whatever reason, perhaps including an _a priori_ of some kind), but you will have impoverished yourself if you don’t give them at least an honest hearing. Wright’s _Jesus and the Victory of God_ sets it out about as comprehensively and winsomely as you’ll find it anywhere, probably. And his earlier volume, _The New Testament and the People of God_, sets the table wondrously with an estimable effort in hard-nosed, historical criticism of second-Temple Jewish texts.

Or, rather, you might wish to ignore all of it and settle for a strawman’s take on Mark 13. Lord knows an army of two-bit evangelical preachers has taken Mark 13 so literally that they have to indulge in shameful contortions to mesh it with the historical record.

Had qb been a professional preacher in years past, he probably would have made the same anachronistic mistakes.

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:59:21 +0000

“Strange things happen. Again and again Christ is present not where, as priests, you would be apt to look for him but precisely where you wouldn’t have thought to look for him in a thousand years. The great preacher, the sunset, the Mozart Requiem can leave you cold, but the child in the doorway, the rain on the roof, the half-remembered dream, can speak of him and for him with an eloquence that turns your knees to water.”

That sounds a good sight better than “If you don’t believe in something that is invisible, silent, and improbable then you are destined to roast in hell forever like a pig on a spit.”

(If you wonder what I mean by improbable, chew on this: In Mark, chapter 13, Jesus speaks of nation rising against nation, earthquakes, and the coming of false Christs and false prophets, the stars falling from the sky, and the coming of the Son of Man “in the clouds with great power and glory”. Then, in verse 30, he says “Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.” But it didn’t happen, did it?)

By: K. Rex Butts

K. Rex Butts — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:45:35 +0000

“The preacher tells the truth by speaking of the visible absence of God because if he doesn’t see and own up to the absence of God in the world, then he is the only one there who doesn’t see it, and who then is going to take him seriously when he tries to make real what he claims also to see as the invisible presence of God in the world…”

That is so true…authenticity in the pulpit. Now I wish some of our contemporary “praise” songs would learn to acknowledge the seemingly absense of God as well…to be taken seriously when acknowledging the presence of God. That is what I love about such classical hymns as “Be Still, My Soul” and “Abide With me”…they both acknowledge, in subtle ways, the seemingly absense of God while, in faith, longing for and recognizing the presence of God. And that is why they still bring comfort to those who have experienced the absense of God in life.

Grace and peace,

Rex

By: Kathy

Kathy — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:37:26 +0000

Steve Allison – AMEN! I agree with your comments vis qb!! And thank YOU for stating it so beautifully too.

By: Steve Allison

Steve Allison — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:53:29 +0000

qb, I enjoy and learn from your insights and considerable ability to express them.

By: julie

julie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:30:01 +0000

Oh Mike. Buechner, to me, is counted among the best, the most real and the most eloquent. I always want to read his words aloud.

By: qb

qb — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:43:22 +0000

The skeptic and the cynic will read that first paragraph from Buechner and assert that it is little more than wishful imagining, a crass and feeble attempt at fabricating a beneficent God from the tragic incoherences and interstices that we are otherwise unable to fill.

And into that void steps this wonderful, eloquent, innocent faith that looks up into the face of the skeptic and the cynic and quietly says, “taste and see.”

That, to me, is Buechner.

By: Josh Linton

Josh Linton — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:14:39 +0000

Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons by Buechner has kept me occupied and alive lately like that friend who you call when you just want to get away and enjoy a good football game.

Amazing stuff.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:50:10 +0000

As I’ve told you before, I love Buechner! Thanks for the great quotes.