Most people who know me on Xanga, know that I have accepted a new church.  This major transition has been the reason for my inactivity.  I have yet to decide whether I will continue blogging.  But I had to post something for today ...

I just finished the sermon for my final Sunday at the church I've been preaching at.  I delayed much of the preparation until today, because it was just so hard to do. 

I can't be poetic about it, nor can I hardly describe it.  But tonight I feel as though nothing has been as heart-rendering as preparing this final sermon.

Hebrews 13:1-21
"Let Mutual Love Continue."

Well it's time to post again.  Had a great Christmas season, and in many ways just didn't feel like posting.  In many ways, I was hardly even online.  I need to take breaks like that sometimes. I plan to post more regularly again.

In the past few weeks, I preached about the angel appearing to Mary in Luke (4th Sunday of Advent), the angel appearing to the shepherds (Chrismas morning), and then Jesus consecrated at the temple (last week).

This week I am preaching from Mark 1 about Jesus's baptism.

So far I am thinking about two things.  One is how to preach Jesus' baptism.  I can use this opportunity to talk about baptism and also about the trinity if I want (we have the appearance of all three in this passage).  This would make for another teaching moment, a kind of doctrinal sermon.  I also am planning on a sermon series.  I don't know if I should focus on a topic, or a book of the Bible.  So far I am leaning on the latter, and possibly going with Exodus.  There is a lot of Jewish history in that text that is hinted at in the NT and impacted the way prophets and Psalmists wrote.  I also would like to dip into the OT, and I think it has been awhile for the church as well.  In addition, I have more OT commentaries in Exodus, than I do in any other book.  So I will keep praying about it, and ask some of the parishioners this Sunday what they think, and make a final decision next week.

My son and wife are not feeling great.  The wife had a flu shot, the son probably the flu.  So they both went to bed early tonight.  So with all that extra evening time to myself  I got to do some extra reading (Although, I don't suggest hoping Sam gets the flu!).  I decided to finish the Matthew commentary I had been reading before the Advent season.  The commentary mentioned two allusions to the Psalms, and after reading them closely with Matt 27:45-56 I decided that they might actually add a little more light to the hell topic I was writing about not too long ago.

Does Matthew 27:45-56 encourage the creedal statement "He descended into hell."?  I know Matt isn't taking the time out of his narrative to elaborate on a statement of faith, but would his audience have reason to believe that Jesus did in fact descend into hell, based on their reading/hearing of Matthew 27:45-56?

V. 46 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is the classic text often used to depict Jesus as forsaken and thus hell-bound.  Although, some have rejected this by pointing out the allusion to Psalm 22 and its joyful ending.  Of course, the people who heard these words spoken by Jesus didn't catch the allusion, as Matthew portrays the entire scene as one of sorrow and despair.  But what of the allusion to Psalm 22:1 (indeed Matt 27:43 also alludes to Psalm 22:8, but curiously only John alludes to 22:18)?
The Good News that ends Psalm 22 includes these words "To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him" (22:29)  Is there something in Matthew that allows those who are forsaken in hell to find identification with the Son who was forsaken by the Heavenly Father?  This question probably cannot be well answered with just this Psalm, but perhaps by looking at another Psalm we will see how Matthew might still depict this forsaken one as hell-bound.

The gift of sour wine in v. 48 recalls Psalm 69:21.  But it is Psalm 69 in its entirety that interests me.  Does Matthew have this entire Psalm in mind, just as much of Psalm 22 is alluded to?  Much of Psalm 69 is written in the same despairing tone of Psalm 22, and much of it would certainly work with Matthew's depiction of Jesus.  There is mention of false accusations (Ps 69:4 : Mt 27:19), shame (Ps 69:6-8,19 : Mt 27:27-31), and traps (Ps 69:9-12 : Mt 22:15-46).  The plea of the Psalmist is not to be abandoned.  The cry is to be "answered" (69:13), "rescued" and "delivered" (69:14).  Yet in so far as these words might correlate to Jesus, he is not rescued.  Instead the deep swallows him up and the Pit closes its mouth over him (Ps 69:15 : Mt 27:60).  Again the Psalm ends positively, but not before Matthew's allusion to the Psalm in Mt 27:48 situates Jesus within these words. He is the one who longs for salvation and deliverance from the surrounding enemies.  Yet the promise to rebuild Judah so that those who love and serve him will inherit it (69:35-36), comes precisely through the one who is not rescued, but rather forsaken.  The one whom the Pit swallows.

The very idea that those who were dead before might be raised to new life is hinted at in Mt 27:52-53 as a result of his death.  His death is the earth-shattering event, but the deliverance of these dead from their tombs (hell) does not occur until after his resurrection (27:53).  Matthew gives an unusual glimpse ahead of the narrative, to situate the resurrection of the saints within the crucifixion narrative.  Perhaps these raised ones is tied somehow to Jesus' forsakenness as alluded to in Psalm 22:1,29.


I don't think it is a stretch to say that Matthew may be alluding to all those elements in these Psalms.  I don't know that I'm ready to say that Matthew definitively implies Jesus' descent into hell, but with all his allusions it is easy to see how subsequent audiences to the written gospel interpreted it as such.  All of a sudden it seems 1 Peter 3:18-20 may not stand so alone as Scriptural support, but may have actually depicted the Christian ideas of the time based on some of the allusions and interpretive moves surrounding Jesus's crucifixion.

Currently Reading The Fires of Heaven (The Wheel of Time, Book 5) By Robert Jordan see related

This week I had to make a difficult preaching decision.  The lectionary gospel is in Luke 1, the story of Mary being told by an angel that she will give birth to a son.  Last year, I prepared a sermon on this passage for a class.  The sermon went so well, according to teacher and students, that I preached it for the church I attended at that time as well.  So, here I am on the year that this passage is supposed to be preached and I find out that much of the allusions in it are still culturally relevant, and I haven't really lost anything.  Not only that, but it is still fresh enough in my mind that it might be difficult to recreate an entirely new sermon on the same passage.  So the question for me was whether to repreach this sermon or to pick a different passage. 
I had a couple of things going for me:  I like preaching from the gospels on important days (like the 4th of advent, Easter, Pentecost, Good Friday, etc.), it was a good sermon in my opinion, only my wife has heard this before, I would have a week with much less sermon prep.  The marks against it were: I have told a fellow seminarian that I don't tend to repreach sermons, because I enjoy studying new passages, and most sermons I've written aren't good enough to repreach (and a few weren't good enough to preach at all); also I had my eye on 2 Sam 7:1-11,16 to preach from the OT for once, I also don't want to create a habit of repreaching sermons (I've known too many poor preachers who repreach sermons because of a lack of creativity for new ones.) 
But, when it came down to it, I realized that with two days agonizing over it, I certainly wasn't falling back on it, nor was I making a rash decision (like spur of the moment, Saturday night decision).  So, I'm repreaching Luke 1:26-38 this Sunday.  Tonight, I went to Barnes & Noble and edited the sermon for the third time.  Now the sermon is fit for this congregation and I feel good having the sermon completed so early.  I kind of feel like I am on Christmas vacation or something. 

As for Robert Jordan, it is 11:00 pm.  I have two choices - stay up late to read 100 more pages and finally finish this addictive book tonight. Or tear my eyes away from it long enough to go to bed.  *Sigh* The means to stay up lies in the Mountain Dew bottle on my left, and I feel the pull of saidin to continue reading the book on my right .....

Today went well.  We talked about the statement "he descended into hell" and it went about as good as could be expected.  One guy said that he had more to learn and would spend some time looking at the verses I gave them in their context, and his own verse as well. 
The sermon went well also, and it was obvious that they were still willing to listen to me as someone who could interpret Scripture for them.  That was reassuring.  Also, said guy who disagrees with that doctrinal point was moved by a prayer request to send that person a card and some money for their financial hardship.  Though highly opinionated, a good guy all-around.

I made a phone call to another parishioner who did not attend today.  I assume she was mourning the suicide of a life-long friend.  I really didn't ask why she didn't attend, I figured it was obvious enough.  We spent some time on the phone and had a surprisingly good conversation about this person, and she was given the hope of the gospel, and I was able to counsel her in regards to her friends final destination.  A good phone call, and she assured me she'd be back at church the following week (besides her grandkids are lighting the advent candles next week).