How Does Your Text for This Sunday Function for the Church?

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You and I Practice Theological Interpretation Every Week!

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading, A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation, edited by Bartholomew and Thomas. It’s important for our preaching because of the way in which they define TI (or TIS, theological interpretation of scripture):

“…we define broadly as interpretation of the Bible for the church…” (p. ix.)

The question is, what do they mean “for the church”?

I usually expand the definition a little bit by saying that TI/TIS is interpreting Scripture so it functions for the church.

But, then, what do I mean by “function”?

Think of the function of Scripture in terms of what God intends for Scripture to do to His readers. You might recognize that this meaning of TI closely resembles what we’ve always known as the application of Scripture. Christopher Wright wrote describes this as applying life to the Bible (I think he wrote this in his book, The Mission of God).

On page 17 they define TI as:

“…theological interpretation reads Scripture to hear God’s address, so that the church might be transformed into the image of Christ of the sake of the world.”

With those definitions in mind, our pressing question is, how does the text signal its intention?

I’ve been preaching through Matthew’s gospel since returning from my sabbatical so here’s an example from this morning’s study time. My preaching portion is Matthew 15:1-9. The religious leaders question Jesus about His disciples breaking “the tradition of the elders” (they don’t wash their hands!). Jesus replies by challenging them about their habit of breaking God’s commandments by the way they keep their traditions (they don’t care for their parents because they give the money to God).

In vv. 7-9 Jesus insults them (calling them “hypocrites”) and announces to them that Isaiah prophesied about them.

So, it’s fairly clear to me after my Monday morning study session that this text is designed to make sure all professing Christians do not follow the example of the religious leaders. They function as a “go and do otherwise” example.

If you have your text for this coming Sunday, can you identify early on how it functions for the church?

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we practice theological interpretation each week.

Randal

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Categories: application, intention, interpretation, meaning, narrative, pastor, pastor/theologian, pastoral preaching, preacher, preaching, preaching NT narratives, purpose, relevance, sanctification, sermon development, speech act theory, theological exegesis, worship
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Your thoughts?

2 thoughts on “How Does Your Text for This Sunday Function for the Church?”

  1. Thank you my Prof sharing about TIS – something I happen to do several Sundays a year. Yes, I totally agree that the right view of every evangelical preach is to handle every bible passage every Sunday morning with the intention of making his/her people hear God’s address (message), for the church’s transformed living into the image of Christ. My text for last Sunday was James 1:19-2:26). This was broken into four portions. 1. Be swift to hear (James 1:19-20); 2. Do not be hearers only, but also doers (James 1:21-27); 3. Do not show personal favoritism (James 2:1-13); 4. Faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26). While dealing with these portions of the passage, it was clear to me that through James, the church of his day were hearing several imperatives for practical living of encompassing what they were told to do, and what they were stopped from doing. It is interesting to hear the battle between Paul & James in vv. 17 & 26; scriptually not contradicting but fulfilling each other as Paul is settling forth the doctrine of Christian faith, whereas James is settling forth the principles of daily living. Thank you for these thoughtful engagements.

    Best regards

    Godfrey

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