Preaching or teaching?

Yesterday, I was privileged to have a 'return gig' leading worship at Hastings Uniting Church. The people there are lovely and very welcoming, and it was great to see them all again.

Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday, and so the Bible readings included the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. The Old Testament reading was Genesis 11:1-9- the story of the Tower of Babel. I made the point about how in both cases, diversity of language was used by God: to spread humanity out across the world in Genesis, and to enable the gospel to be spread across the world in Acts (because people from foreign places heard the message in their native languages in Jerusalem, and presumably would be able to take the message back home when they returned).

I also commented that I personally have some struggles with the Tower of Babel story. It has always struck me as a bit counter to my picture of God, for God to be worried about the people building this big tower. Even if the intention was to go so high as to reach God, common sense tells us (and presumably God would have known this too :-) that they would never be able to do that. So what was the problem? Did God, the almighty creator of the universe really feel threatened by this building project? I wouldn't have thought so... so then why did God feel the need to go down and put a stop to it?

I commented in my sermon that one of the benefits of being at Theological College is that we have seemingly unlimited access to 'Professors on Tap', and so I asked our Prof of Old Testament about this over morning tea one day. His response to me was that it was partly a tactic by God to get the people to obey the commandto spread out and populate the earth (because up until this time, they had stayed together in a single group in one place).

In addition to this, I had also read in a commentary on the passage, that the writing in this particular part of Genesis contains vestiges of pre-Israelite theology:gods were jealous of humans (v. 6), and “us” (v. 7) refers to the royal court of the gods; and the recognition that many of the stories in the book of Genesis were based on other ancient myths and stories that were around at the time (eg the Genesis flood story, based on the Babylonian story of Gilgamesh), and were included in the canon of scripture to illustrate theological points, rather than as literal historical accounts.

As I pondered this, and considered whether to mention this point in the sermon, I decided not to, as it could cause confusion if I just made a brief passing reference, with no further explanation, and it would have taken too much time to explain the background of the literature (which could have distracted attention away from the main points I was wanting to make in the sermon).

After the service, a member of the congregation who is a retired minister, raised this with me... and gently suggested that it might have been helpful if I had been able to find a way to include this particular insight about the book of Genesis. He said that for many people in the pews who don't have the opportunity to do any in-depth theological study, the only way they will ever hear about the different approaches to scripture, or theological insights, is through the teaching that comes from the pulpit; and that when he was in a parish, he always tried to ensure he included some elements of 'teaching' in his sermons.

This has really given me something to think about, when it comes to preparing my sermons... whilst at one level, I don't want to inundate the congregation with minute details of the latest academic and scholarly insights that might excite me personally (because, Gentle Readers, I'm sure you have already worked out that there are lots of things which cause me great excitement, but wouldn't' necessarily have the same effect on others)- and I have been told that trying to dazzle with too much academic brilliance has been a pitfall for many theological students in the past- there is obviously a need to give them some of this kind of meaty material.

Hmm... it's a good thing I am only half-way through my training, so I still have plenty of time to think on this (and still plenty of time with the luxury of "Professors on Tap" to discuss and argue the pros and cons of it all).

Can you tell that I am still really enjoying being in this place of learning? :-) ... I'm also very grateful for the generosity of people (like the dear retired Rev at Hastings) who are willing to give me the benefit of their experience and wisdom through such well-timed feedback.