Each man, to show off, strains at some absurd
invented truth; and it is these the preachers
make sermons of; and the Gospel is not heard.
. . .
Christ did not say to his first congregation:
‘Go and preach twaddle to the waiting world.’
He gave them, rather, holy truth’s one foundation.
That, and that only, was the truth revealed
by those who fought and died to plant the faith.
They made the Gospel both their sword and shield.
Now preachers make the congregation roar
with quips and quirks, and so it laugh enough,
their hoods swell, and they ask for nothing more.
But in their tippets there nests such a bird
that the people, could they see it, would soon know
what faith to place in pardons thus conferred.
(XXIX, 94-96, 109-120)
From a May 11, 2009 blog entry on The Dali-ization of the Gospel and Bible:
“Take a moment and reflect on Salvador Dali’s . . . depiction of the watches. What strikes you? For me (and I am no art critic), I am taken by the limpness of the watch cases. Something that I know is supposed to be sturdy and house intricate mechanisms that mark time aren’t really limp like deflated balloons.
“The way Dali depicts watches is how USAmerican evangelism depicts the gospel of Jesus Christ. What the Bible, and the Gospels in particular, depict as a sturdy, captivating reality, the USAmerican Church has made as appealing as a banana peel. A revelation in Jesus Christ of dynamic energies driving the missional story of God’s redemptive actions can’t get most Christians off their couches. Why? Oh, I know that many Christians go to church and some do some ‘convenient-to-their-schedules’ servant-like stuff, but overall a majority in the USAmerican church limps along waiting for Jesus to come back so they won’t be ‘left behind.’
“Just imagine USAmerican Bibles. . . . I’d love to see a skilled artist paint Bibles the way Dali painted the watches. Bibles might be best sellers, but they aren’t read much. They lie limp on the bedroom dresser or backseat of the car waiting until next Sunday. What is sturdy reading for USAmerican Christians? . . . The Bible is the wholesome meal; all other writers are mere vitamins, even N.T. Wright and Scot McKnight. And these two men would agree.”
That image of limp Bibles would be a useful tool to begin any course in homiletics, I think. And there would be so much to talk about concerning the image – how to restore our integrity in approaching the text and strengthen thereby the integrity of our parishioners who encounter it and endeavor to live authentically in response to it.