I am trying to hone up on my preaching skills and came across the quote from a book by Thomas Long entitled, The Witness of Preaching. Using this quote to make a point about when to use quotes from famous people, I found myself intrigued about the point this quote is making and wanted to share it with you. What do you think of it?
"It is a mistake to sharpen our minds by narrowing them. It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one...The Bible is no oracle to be consulted for specific advice on specific problems; rather, it is a wellspring of wisdom about the ambiguity, inevitability, and insolubility of the human situation...The Bible makes us comfortable with struggle but uneasy in success...[T]he Bible is a signpost, not a hitching post."
quoted from William Sloane Coffin, The Courage to Love (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982, pp.7-8)
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
William Sloane Coffin has said,
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I've been reading a book by Lyle Schaller titled Discontinuity and Hope. In it he suggests that one of the primary differences between mainline denominations and evangelical denominations revolves around the issue of certainty/uncertainty. He suggests that one of the reasons for the decline of the mainline denominations is that they have overwhelmingly presented a message of uncertainty whereas the evangelical denominations tend much more toward certainty.
If we believe in an infinite God then we must allow for both mystery and uncertainty - else we make the error of thinking that we have God all figured out. At the same time, I think there are things we can be certain of in our faith and without that we have no foundation on which to rest. In the end, people need something to hang their hat on.
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