Comments on: Heralds of the King: Christ-Centered Sermons in the Tradition of Edmund P. Clowney http://nathanlewis.org/2009/07/02/heralds-of-the-king-christ-centered-sermons-in-the-tradition-of-edmund-p-clowney/ living the gospel Mon, 21 May 2012 23:53:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.7 by: David Bruner http://nathanlewis.org/2009/07/02/heralds-of-the-king-christ-centered-sermons-in-the-tradition-of-edmund-p-clowney/#comment-122805 Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:09:00 +0000 http://nathanlewis.org/2009/07/02/heralds-of-the-king-christ-centered-sermons-in-the-tradition-of-edmund-p-clowney/#comment-122805 Pastor Lewis, Hi there! Its David Bruner from WSCal yet again. I just wanted to tell you that your little book on Ecclesiastes rocks! I totally agree, and it has been my firsthand experience, that Ecclsiastes is a key Biblical point of contact with folks of a postmodern persuasion (or lack of persuasion). The year before last when I was doing campus ministry in CO, I was able to participate in a Schopenhauer and Nietzsche seminar. Everyone in the seminar had to give a presentation on a section of Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche's great literary work) and the postmodern atheist fellow who presented on the chapters where Nietzsche introduces ideas of eternal recurrance structured his presentation around showing the similarities between Nietzsche and the book of Ecclesiastes. I was amazed how immediately Ecclesiastes anticipates Nietzsche (debatably the seminal postmodern) and yet still expresses truly postmodern angst from a God fearing perspective. The other day I was talking with this gal who's been coming to our church, who grew up in a Christian environment but who has been disillusioned by the outcomes of her parents' faith. She has faced some failures and negative relationships and struggles greatly with Christ's claims of exclusivity as redeemer. She can be rather flighty at times and was exasperatedly laying out for me a bunch of frustrations with life's disorganized wash of difficulties. Finally, unsolicited and unprompted she just exclaimed, "My life is Ecclesiastes." There goes God's Word again, anticipating what would seem to be its antithesis. What would the Bible be without Ecclesiastes? Well, probably an incomplete record of God's special revelation that didn't anticipate as explicitly the skeptic's question, "what about when all this seems like a bunch of bull." I think you're onto a really good thing emphasizing the suitability of this portion of God's Word for striking chords in the hearts of our present society's suspicious skeptics. Have you ever preached through Ecclesiastes? I don't think I have ever heard a sermon on any part of the book, and I guess I've thought for some time that I would love to. Anyway, I must go. Do take care, and God bless you all to the utmost in Christ! Cheers, David Pastor Lewis,

Hi there! Its David Bruner from WSCal yet again. I just wanted to tell you that your little book on Ecclesiastes rocks! I totally agree, and it has been my firsthand experience, that Ecclsiastes is a key Biblical point of contact with folks of a postmodern persuasion (or lack of persuasion).

The year before last when I was doing campus ministry in CO, I was able to participate in a Schopenhauer and Nietzsche seminar. Everyone in the seminar had to give a presentation on a section of Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Friedrich Nietzsche’s great literary work) and the postmodern atheist fellow who presented on the chapters where Nietzsche introduces ideas of eternal recurrance structured his presentation around showing the similarities between Nietzsche and the book of Ecclesiastes. I was amazed how immediately Ecclesiastes anticipates Nietzsche (debatably the seminal postmodern) and yet still expresses truly postmodern angst from a God fearing perspective.

The other day I was talking with this gal who’s been coming to our church, who grew up in a Christian environment but who has been disillusioned by the outcomes of her parents’ faith. She has faced some failures and negative relationships and struggles greatly with Christ’s claims of exclusivity as redeemer. She can be rather flighty at times and was exasperatedly laying out for me a bunch of frustrations with life’s disorganized wash of difficulties. Finally, unsolicited and unprompted she just exclaimed, “My life is Ecclesiastes.” There goes God’s Word again, anticipating what would seem to be its antithesis.

What would the Bible be without Ecclesiastes? Well, probably an incomplete record of God’s special revelation that didn’t anticipate as explicitly the skeptic’s question, “what about when all this seems like a bunch of bull.” I think you’re onto a really good thing emphasizing the suitability of this portion of God’s Word for striking chords in the hearts of our present society’s suspicious skeptics. Have you ever preached through Ecclesiastes? I don’t think I have ever heard a sermon on any part of the book, and I guess I’ve thought for some time that I would love to.

Anyway, I must go. Do take care, and God bless you all to the utmost in Christ!

Cheers,
David

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