Broken Saints and Healing Sinners. The title of this blog is intentionally vague and linguistically awkward. It is at once intended to evoke the static and dynamic.
When I attended college sometime near the end of the first millennium the wonderful Lutheran pastor and preacher, John Vannorsdall, or “JV” as we knew him, was my college chaplain. After my freshman year I changed colleges as I was invited to do since I had not taken seriously my academic responsibilities. I returned home to attend school in CT and improve my academic record and I found JV at Yale University having replaced William Sloane Coffin there. During that time had some additional contact with JV through a group that worked across the various colleges in New Haven.
Finally, after having made my way through college and during seminary in Gettysburg JV came to Gettysburg to speak about preaching and the task or art of preaching. One of the things he talked about that day was using images in preaching and how important it was to make sure that when speaking about the Gospel our images were dynamic and not static. The Gospel JV insisted was not like a house, it was like a bridge or better yet Robert Frost’s “The Road not Taken” or “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening,” speaking of roads we traveled and "promises to keep."
The Gospel is leading somewhere, it changes us and everything we are and do. It is fine to use static images, but rarely if ever for the Gospel because the good news about Jesus of Nazareth is always doing something, changing us, being busy in our lives.
The Gospel is like a river flowing from the head waters in Jesus Christ, the source of living water, and it flows through life, rushing downstream. Sometimes it overflows its banks and threatens to engulf us and drown us sins and all, but as Paul proclaims Christ himself raises us up from the waters to new life and we continue on our way ever carried forward and beyond in a new life that is different even while we still struggle and wrestle with our sinfulness.
"Broken Saints" is meant to be a static image; something dead and unmoving. Like the images of Saints hanging on the wall in iconography or frozen in stained glass they don’t move. They are like a broken car; they just sit, immovable. In contrast, "Healing Sinners" is dynamic and implies two possibilities; a sinner in the process of being healed by God’s grace and the possibility of passing on of God’s healing to others. As the disciples learned from God’s grace in Jesus they were sent out into the world 12, 70, and then the whole of the Pentecost community. They moved out and communities were changed, first the Decapolis, then the Roman Empire, and then the world. Today the Gospel still changes things, it changes you and me.
Let these images of "Broken Saints and Healing Sinners" evoke in you contemplation of all the ways in which you and the saints around you have been broken and captive to the old Adam and the constant battle against self-centeredness. unmoving, frozen in place, and dead in its tracks. And let it inspire in you the Spirit of God and God’s grace in Jesus; setting you free, healing and restoring your relationship to God and neighbor. The truth is before they were frozen images on our walls those saints were all sinners. Sinners animated by God’s grace and who breathing in the Spirit traveled amazing journeys.
When I attended college sometime near the end of the first millennium the wonderful Lutheran pastor and preacher, John Vannorsdall, or “JV” as we knew him, was my college chaplain. After my freshman year I changed colleges as I was invited to do since I had not taken seriously my academic responsibilities. I returned home to attend school in CT and improve my academic record and I found JV at Yale University having replaced William Sloane Coffin there. During that time had some additional contact with JV through a group that worked across the various colleges in New Haven.
Finally, after having made my way through college and during seminary in Gettysburg JV came to Gettysburg to speak about preaching and the task or art of preaching. One of the things he talked about that day was using images in preaching and how important it was to make sure that when speaking about the Gospel our images were dynamic and not static. The Gospel JV insisted was not like a house, it was like a bridge or better yet Robert Frost’s “The Road not Taken” or “Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening,” speaking of roads we traveled and "promises to keep."
The Gospel is leading somewhere, it changes us and everything we are and do. It is fine to use static images, but rarely if ever for the Gospel because the good news about Jesus of Nazareth is always doing something, changing us, being busy in our lives.
The Gospel is like a river flowing from the head waters in Jesus Christ, the source of living water, and it flows through life, rushing downstream. Sometimes it overflows its banks and threatens to engulf us and drown us sins and all, but as Paul proclaims Christ himself raises us up from the waters to new life and we continue on our way ever carried forward and beyond in a new life that is different even while we still struggle and wrestle with our sinfulness.
"Broken Saints" is meant to be a static image; something dead and unmoving. Like the images of Saints hanging on the wall in iconography or frozen in stained glass they don’t move. They are like a broken car; they just sit, immovable. In contrast, "Healing Sinners" is dynamic and implies two possibilities; a sinner in the process of being healed by God’s grace and the possibility of passing on of God’s healing to others. As the disciples learned from God’s grace in Jesus they were sent out into the world 12, 70, and then the whole of the Pentecost community. They moved out and communities were changed, first the Decapolis, then the Roman Empire, and then the world. Today the Gospel still changes things, it changes you and me.
Let these images of "Broken Saints and Healing Sinners" evoke in you contemplation of all the ways in which you and the saints around you have been broken and captive to the old Adam and the constant battle against self-centeredness. unmoving, frozen in place, and dead in its tracks. And let it inspire in you the Spirit of God and God’s grace in Jesus; setting you free, healing and restoring your relationship to God and neighbor. The truth is before they were frozen images on our walls those saints were all sinners. Sinners animated by God’s grace and who breathing in the Spirit traveled amazing journeys.
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