Missed this book when it first came out but have just finished reading it. In a series of 14 relatively short chapters the authors engage with Anabaptist (read Mennonite) preaching. From their own christo-centric ('when two texts disagree Jesus is the referee') biblical, discipleship concerned, radical reformed tradition. In doing so their work is informed, if not at times derivative of the developments in homiletics (the practice of preaching) associated with the North American Academy of Homiletics. As a consequence such as Fred Craddock, Thomas Long, and Barbara Brown Taylor are cited among others, as issues of contemporary hermeutics and homiletics such as narrative, collaborative, and phenomelogiocal approaches to preaching are discussed. In addition to these streams of Mennonite practice, and current homiletical theory, the work also engages readily and explicitly with the post modern situation and here it is noticeable that Brian McLaren writes the foreword. This matrix of connections, tempered in the post 9/11 American context, (published in 2003) results in an interesting, informative, and in places practical aproach to preaching. Perhaps above all the value of this work is the strength placed upon the participative role of the congregation as the 'hermeutical community' whose participation goes beyond even attentive listening to active engagement in the Anabaptist tradition of 'Zeugnis' which refers to the practice of offering verbal response after the sermon. This approach ensures that preaching is given an important role in the worship of a congregation but that the preacher is not exalted as superior to the congregation among whom they serve. There is good stuff here for those willing to take on board and experiment with new ideas in relation to preaching in a post modern context while holding to a high view of Scripture, the work of the Spirit, the presence of Christ, and a practised doctrine of the priest hood of all believers.
Spent Saturday afternoon at a house party in Inverurie, then Sunday
morning at a morning worship service in Aberdeen. Both celebrating the
same thing, a fiftieth Anniversary since Ordination. That's 50 years of
living faithfully towards promises made about the care of the flock of God, the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and the surrender of secondary priorities in the interests of the Kingdom of God.
Derek Murray (the taller one in the photo!) was ordained 50 years ago. As minister in Paisley, Kirkcaldy and edinburgh, as Lecturer in the Scottish Baptist College full time 1961-66, as Hospice Chaplain for 15 years, and as part time lecturer in our College for 46 years, his service to Christ, and to our denomination in Scotland is justly to be celebrated. And so it was.
A house party, a worship service, and a sermon by the Rev Dr Ruth Gouldbourne on the text from the woman who anointed Jesus, 'She did what she could', as well as a couple of sizeable 50th Anniversary cakes shared with the congregation, enabled us to do what we too seldom do - honour and celebrate pastoral ministry as life well lived, and as a vocation that is secretly transformative and life enhancing.
Derek was also presented with a scrap book of memories, greetings and photographs. My own contribution was personal, and goes back to my own experience of Derek as teacher, and my knowledge of him as a man, and as my friend. With Derek's (very reluctantly given) permission I'm including it here, both as an appreciation of Derek's contribution to our College and the theological education of our ministry, and as a glimpse of the qualities that give pastoral ministry its enduring values as an expression of the love of God. ....................................................................................................
“A long obedience in the same direction”
By October 1974, at the
Baptist Theological College of Scotland, I was plunged into the deep end of the
Old Testament by Derek Murray, and taught how to swim. He was teaching Old
Testament exegesis following the retirement of The Rev J Allan Wright, and the set book
was Daniel. The Sunday school stories seemed straightforward enough – big
statues, even bigger furnaces, a lions’ den and a grass eating king recently
turned vegetarian, and in the background the God of Israel who wasn’t to be
messed with.
But what about the beasts, the horns, the eyes, the Ancient of
Days, the secret numbers of weeks and all the other symbolic images of politically
subversive apocalyptic? One of the clear memories of those conversations around
the table, supported by standard commentaries such as Heaton and Porteous, was
the humility and gentle questioning of Dr Derek. It wasn’t that he was the
authoritative, Hebrew- breathing, biblical specialist – it was that he was one
of the learners who taught us a great deal about how to learn together, and how
to open a Bible, and to read, mark and learn with open and valid questions. For
preachers, there are few more liberating discoveries than that the Bible not
only welcomes our questions, but gives us the kinds of answers that help us
question our world, ourselves and even the ways of God.
When some years later Derek
was the preacher at the College Valedictory service, he spoke about the
pastorally disastrous and spiritually damaging impact of ministers who
specialise in guilt-making. He was referring to the commonly held belief, then
and now, that what Christians need is challenge, and challenge equates to being
told the gap between aspiration and performance, the gulf between what we want
to be for God, and what we know we are. Guilt, he argued, may be a powerful
motivator, but nothing like as powerful as gratitude; and a sense of
unworthiness may at times be a healthy astringent, but we are most galvanised
into costly acts of love by the knowledge we are loved. It was an address that
avoided the more popular or apparently more important questions of church
growth, effective leadership, missional drivenness – and in doing so recalled
us to the classic discipline of love fuelled by a redeeming and reconciling
Gospel.
These two personal memories,
significant as they are for me, demonstrate two pervasive Christian graces; reverent
curiosity about life and faith, and grace-informed optimism about people. As a
pastor, a teacher, a chaplain and a friend, Derek has quietly, unobtrusively,
faithfully and in ways he himself might never take time or trouble to imagine,
lived out a life of pastoral vocation that has touched many of us with decisive
reminders of what pastoral care can be when it is the natural outflow of a
humanity that is itself the gift. In the end what Derek the husband, father,
scholar, pastor, writer, preacher, has brought to the vocational trajectory of
his life, is a deep faith in God, a gently persistent faith in people, and an
enviable capacity for unaffected self-forgetfulness. It has been a long
obedience in the same direction.
Whereas most of us can
occasionally come pretty close to false modesty about our abilities, I have
never sensed anything other than genuine surprise in Derek Murray when good
things are said of him in his hearing. These things are written then, so that
he might have the chance to feel genuinely pleased with what others say about
him!
Fifty years of ordained
ministry, and such ministry, is a special gift to the church, and one to be
celebrated. I am very happy to be personally included amongst those whose
memories and experiences help to celebrate the gift of such a ministry. Shalom,
and thank you
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