Miley, Robin and why we really reacted

First it was "Tut, tut Miley."  Next came the cry "No, shame on you Robin!".  With pendulums swinging all over the place here, the analysis seems to take amazing delight in its ability to gush forth with moral outrage.

The difficulty that I have with ducking the pendulum swinging from one to the other is that the decisions to make music videos of a similarly sexual nature are made every day and there's not a blink of an eye-lid.  The raunch and skin on display on that stage seemed to me remarkably unremarkable.  (I didn't watch the whole thing, so I may need correction on that)

So why the outcry?

The outcry about the narrative of Miley Cyrus has been pinned as justification for knotted knickers.  Once such a wholesome icon of goodness, Miley's shocked the world by turning slutty.

Except, that she hasn't.  Surprised us, that is.  Cyrus is only following a well-worn path trod by Brittney and others before her.  The shock and horror has nothing to do with Miley's, totally expected, sexualisation.

I suspect that the reason that it has gained so much traction is because it was simply bad.  It undeniably had no positive aesthetic qualities, let alone redeeming ones.  Cyrus' attempts to find a value and identity fell flat in amongst a sea of cheap and nasty sexual stunts.  If she'd been as tasteful as, say, Rihanna who has equally fallen victim to raunch culture, then I suspect we'd have only seen about half the outrage that's come about.

And so, amongst the evils of exploitation of women so rife in our culture, we can add the sin of only really caring about it when they do it badly.

Why Kutzey can't preach #1

I think I do this a bit, and I'm starting to think it's dumb.  What do you think?

While illustrations and jokes are really helpful in all sorts of ways, I've noticed that sometimes I'll make a joke that makes light of a possible and amusing, but wrong, way of reading a text.  The flow ends up being something like this:

Describe next bit of passage (Ie, "God brings the animals before Adam to see whether they might be a suitable helper for him")  

Entertain wrong understanding of passage (Ie, "Does this mean that God really thought an animal could be a suitable helper for Adam?")  

Make 'amusing' comment by extending possibility to the ridiculous (Ie, "You know, Adam, bulls are pretty handy. They can pull a plow. So they don't look so good in a mini-skirt. So what?")  

Plausible denial (Ie, "Of course God didn't think that, what he's really doing is...")

Ok, so this is a particularly dud example of it.  I couldn't come up with something better on the spot, sorry.

But I think what I end up doing by using this kind of construction is drawing attention away from the text.  Instead, if I use positive illustrations and jokes that utilise the surprising elements of what IS there in the text, then I'm drawing attention to how interesting and surprising God's word is.

The alternative is, I think, a bit bland.  But not only bland, I think by laughing at the ridiculous possibilities of getting the text wrong, it can create a bit of an 'insider' atmosphere of "of course we don't think that!" where we laugh at wrong understandings, rather than thinking them through.

This is all a bit unpolished thought, so I'd love to get some wisdom from all you peeps out there.  Any thoughts on this or related preaching bits and bobs?

QTC preaching week - O'Donnell #2

7 quotes of WL in NT.  Most are asking the question: How do we respond to the reality of God's judgement.

Tip #2: Gospel ethics .

The cross should use the cross not to 'let people off the hook' but to drive them on in godliness.

Proverbs 31 -> Advice to a young man on what to look for in a wife.

Chiastic structure, and the middle of the poem is v23 "Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land." (Pro 31:23 ESV)

So, the point is about what kind of wife a man is wise to look for.

What to look for?  Well, there's lots of action words!  A group of young men should be excited at the industriousness of a member of the opposite sex.

Point #1: she should be industrious.
Point #2: she should be fearless, of the present and the future
Point #3:

He got to be the head honcho (v23), because of her work.  He married well.

Charm is often deceptive, and beauty is always fleeting.

Boaz selected his wife by his ears, rather than by his eye.  Oh that we would do the same.

Lady Wisdom has been calling all through proverbs, and by proverbs 31 she has taken on flesh and blood.

Every man has a choice between Lady Folly and Lady Wisdom.  Wisdom is at first not an intellectual concept, but a relational one.  Response to God. (?)

How is a woman to gain the praise of the world?

She is praised because of her sacrifice.  Because of her sacrifice of personal glory.

How ought a man find a wife?  Find one who fears God and serves.
How ought a woman find praise from God and others?  To fear God and serve.

QTC Preaching Week - Plenary #1 - Gary Millar

The Wisdom of God: Preaching, Wisdom and Prayer

"God works through preaching"

A big statement, but to which end of that clause is the weight?

Does God work through preaching?  Or does God work through preaching?

It is GOD who works through preaching.  A deep conviction about this reality will drive us not to work harder on our sermons, but to PRAY.

2 problems: one general and one specific.

1: A general lack of prayer.
2: Specifically, do we pray for preachers if we're listeners?  And do we pray for our preaching if we're preachers?

The rise of and emphasis on small groups has come, Gary suspects, at the cost of prayer meetings and prayer in those small groups.

Often it seems that as teaching quality goes up, emphasis on prayer goes down.

Why?  Gary has a few thoughts.

1. The emphasis on training and reliance upon trained people decreases our reliance upon God.  They're trained, why would I need to pray?
2. Dangers of the digital consumption of preaching?  Takes preaching out of the context of relationship, and holds all preaching up is compared up against the big guns.  It breaks the connection between praying and preaching.

God uses people not because they're gifted but because he is gracious.  If we believe this then we will pray.  And we will pray for preachers.

What do I make the most of?  My training?  My gifting?  My creativity?  My wisdom?

Or do I make the most of the grace of God, and pray?

Preparation can crush devotion.

In Acts 6 it seems that prayer and ministry of the word seems to clearly mean prayer FOR the ministry of the word.  Gary suggests that prayer for the impact of the apostles' preaching is a no brainer.

Double challenge:

1. Resolve to make a habit of praying for your own preaching of the Word.
2. Make sure that our churches pray together for preaching.

In a church Gary was once in, a phrase that was the heartbeat of the church was "the ministry of the Word, nourished by prayer."  It was a church where it was clear that God showed up when His people gather and heard his Word.

God is strong.  We are weak.  Pray.

QTC Preaching Week - Gospels Elective with Luke Tattersall #1

First thing:  Work out the structure (particularly important for gospels because it can be hard to tell!)

To preach on a bit, you have to have some idea of the purpose of the gospel, where the gospel writer is going with this.

Encouraging us to work out our own  idea first before bouncing off other people's structures.

Two levels of structure: the structure of the book, and then the breakup you do for your preaching series.

"The question that I keep coming back to in how to break up passages into preaching portions is: will this break-up help people learn to read this book for themselves?"

QTC preaching week - O'Donnell #1

"Our adult age doesn't bring us so near to God as we are apt to think" - Jonathan Edwards

The wisdom literature puts us in our place, for the Lord alone has heavenly wisdom.  He alone is truly wise.  Knowledge of the Holy One can't be gained from within us.  We can't fathom the one who gathers the waters and winds in his hand.

The key to wisdom: the fear of Yhwh.

Ultimately, God's wisdom is displayed in Christ crucified.  He is no fool who abandons human wisdom to follow a secret but now revealed foolishness, which is the perfection of heavenly wisdom.


Tip #1 for preaching Wisdom Literature (WL): Gospel Awe.

The necessary bridge between hermeneutics and homiletics.
There is a certain ethos that must go with preaching WL.

Holiness brings happiness.
Purity gives power.

The preacher's awe builds ethics as much as the preacher's ethos.

"Amazing condescencion, that God would become a man and have a genealogy."  Charles Spurgeon.  (in a sermon on Matthew 1)

Listening: the appropriate subjectiveness of truth

I think that in my younger years I at times suffered from an inappropriate oversimplification of my understanding of truth.  From my adult interactions with others, I can see that I was never alone in this.

Truth is always something that is contained within a certain frame of reference.  If I'm travelling in a car on the freeway, the car next to me may look like it's standing still.  Is it?  Some would say, "But it's not!  It's driving 5kmh over the limit!".

Yet if my 9 month old son were to magically be able to speak and said "That car's not going anywhere."  I'd agree with him.  Because that statement speaks truthfully of our experience of it.  It is true, within our frame of reference.  It's a narrow frame of reference, but the statement is an entirely valid expression of the experience of someone from within it.

Which is what allows me to listen well.  Well, better.

When I listen to someone, this allows me to listen actively and acknowledge their thoughts, experiences and feelings.  I can honestly nod my head when listening to someone explain how a situation affected them, even when I might have a totally different understanding of that situation.  I can truly hear that person, and allow them to feel heard and understood.

He who answers before listening--that is his folly and his shame. (Pro. 18:3)

All too often I have in the past, and sometimes still do, fail to hear a person well because I'm too busy putting together my 'objective' take on the situation.  We can all too easily invalidate a person's experience by helping them see it from another angle before we've acknowledged what it looked and felt like from their camera angle.

Our subjective experiences are real.  Real to us.  They are a truth, in that sense, however untrue they may be when a larger body of facts and broader perspective is available.  Having someone sit with you in your experience and feeling what you're feeling is a powerful thing. Being understood is massively powerful.

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.   (Pro. 18:2)

In fact, often it is enough on its own to enable that person to evaluate their perspective and self-correct.  And you've managed to do so without ever acting as if you've got the omniscience to know all truth as God knows it.

When I was younger, I'd baulk at nodding my head to indicate understanding if I disagreed with what the other person was saying.  It was amazing how quickly my body language and posture towards them would make it clear that I was no longer with them, hearing them, understanding them and how quickly the other person would close up.

Understanding the appropriate subjectivity of truth allows me to acknowledge the other person's experience as their experience, and so to hear and understand them well without being scared of lying by nodding or saying 'right' as I listen.  To acknowledge their experience is not to validate their interpretation of it.

Listening is a language of love.  And it's only in love that the truth builds up.