Here Comes the POET!

Every summer God seems to move among the internship program. Not only does He move in the lives of the interns, but He moves in my life as well. This summer has been no different. God has flipped a switch in me, and I am learning to walk in what He created me for. I realize that I am a pastor, and a poet. Not a poet in the typical sense of the term such as one who writes poetry, because I cannot write a lick of poetry. But a poet in the terms of how Walter Bruggemann talks about in his book Finally Comes the Poet: Here is an excerpt from his book:

"The preacher listens to the bibilical text, which is a long-standing conversation. The preacher listens to the life of the people, which is always an ongoing conversation, even if often reduced. The preacher does the imaginative act of rendering words the conversation for both parties. 'Finally comes the poet.' The preacher does not simply report the old conversation between God and Isreal as though submitting an old verbatim. Rather the preacher offers a conversation now to be imagined, evoked, and shaped in this moment of speaking and hearing. It is words we never knew until we heard them spoken. It is speech we never before dared to utter until we witness this daring utterance. This speaking breaks the rage. This speaking ends the isloation. This speaking evokes the sovereign one to a new response. The preacher speaks for the community. The preacher then dares to speak for God."

"Such preaching permits a new conversation of candor, a new abandonment in doxology, and finally the reality of communion, which is our chief end. The new permits of candor, doxology, and communion depend up the poet. By the poet, life begins afresh - only by the poet."