Manly Men Doing Poetry

At what point did manly men surrender the art of poetry to tofu-eaters? Sure, there are exceptions of respectable men writing and reading poetry. For the most part, though, poetry is thought of as something for the artsy-fartsy, effeminate, badminton players. Manly men drive trucks, eat steak, play football, use power-tools, and kill their own venison. They don’t read poetry. Seriously, can you picture Rodney Harrison penning a quick sonnet during half-time? Or Jim from According to Jim? Or Tim the “Tool Man” Taylor?

 

This apparent disconnect between manliness and poetry has not always existed. Consider David, for instance. Here’s a guy who attacks lions, bears, and giants with sticks and stones. His future father-in-law who just threw a javelin at him asks for 100 Philistine foreskins as a dowry. So what’s David do—he brings him 200. No question—this guy is a manly man. If we’re picking teams in gym class, David goes first every time. But check out what David wrote in his down time (Ps. 29):

 Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,

ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 

² Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;

worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.

 ³ The voice of the LORD is over the waters;

the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters. 

⁴ The voice of the LORD is powerful;

the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. 

⁵ The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;

the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 

⁶ He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,

and Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷ The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. 

⁸ The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;

the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 

⁹ The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare,

and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 

¹⁰ The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;

the LORD sits enthroned ^bas king forever. 

¹¹ May the LORD give strength to his people!

May the LORD bless¹ his people with peace!

Not bad for a manly man.

Book Review: Brian Stiller’s Preaching Parables to Postmoderns

I need to start this review with a confession: I have not finished the book. And I do not plan on doing so. I don’t think that’s a problem, though, because Stiller has been doing the same thing for the last 60 pages and leafing through the last 80, he’s going to continue on until the end. So if he denies the virgin birth in the last 15 pages and I don’t comment on that…my bad.

 

Stiller devotes the first section of his book to introduce postmodernism. The second part explains what parables are and how they function. The third section goes through ten parables with exegetical and expositional discussions. The final section consists of four sample sermon manuscripts. I stopped reading most of the way through section three because I think I get his point.

 

I picked up this book hoping to gain insight into preaching to postmoderns. What I got instead was an excellent exegetical introduction to parables. I read Craig Blomberg’s Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation a year ago and was sorely disappointed. First of all, Blomberg, in my opinion, failed to disprove the one-point interpretive approach to parables in favor of a “each main character gets his own point” approach. More importantly, Blomberg dealt with parables as sealed off units rather than parts of a greater narrative in the gospels. He dealt, for instance, with the Good Samaritan as a story unto itself without asking the most important question: Why does Luke include this parable? That is why Stiller’s work was so refreshing. Part of the interpretation of each one of his parables is the question of literary context. Thus, Luke’s account of a parable will have its own flavor and purpose while Matthew’s account of the very same one might be different. This aspect alone makes Stiller’s book a must-have when purchasing resources for parable-study. And it’s cheap, too!

 

The reason I bought the book, though, was because it had “postmodern” in its title. Nice marketing ploy. Unfortunately it doesn’t live up to that aspect of its title. Stiller’s 9 page introduction to postmodernism is VERY broad and VERY general. The basic concept is: Postmoderns like stories; parables are stories; postmoderns will like parables. He gives a “preaching window for postmoderns” for each of his parables. But that’s all he does. And even that seems forced at times and filled with generalities about postmodernism.

 

Bottom line: Buy the book if you want to study parables. It’s cheaper and much better than Blomberg’s. But don’t expect suddenly to be able to connect with postmoderns in your congregation because of it.