We might think of culture as a fire that clears away the “dry tinder” that has built up on the floor of our ecclesial forests it consumes the deadwood for the sake of the forest. Finney professor of preaching and worship at Vanderbilt Divinity School, is correct in his assessment that preachers must “rethink what it means to speak sacred words in a world that is experiencing the weakening of all of it metanarratives (even the metanarrative of living beyond all metanarratives).” (1) In particular, preaching requires a renewed imagination at the point at which theology and culture intersect with sermon-related discourse. What preaching requires is a hearty conflagration strong enough to launch the seeds of homiletical regeneration so that new crops may take root. I would argue that preaching faces a crisis akin to that of our national forests in North America: we are so scared that the purging fires will threaten our all-too-human “developments” that we douse fires before they can really begin to blaze. What, you may be wondering, does this have to do with preaching? One might go so far as to say that human advancement threatens the livelihood of a forest’s primary means of regeneration. However, with rapid deforestation by developers, fires can no longer be left to burn themselves out without seriously jeopardizing the lives of nearby inhabitants.
This devastating fire has made park superintendents wary of letting new fires follow their natural course for fear of unleashing a similar firestorm.įires are regular features of nature-as another recent Yellowstone fire attests-and they are necessary for the survival of a forest, as coniferous trees depend upon fire to heat their cones to bursting, thus spreading seeds for the next generation of trees. Unfortunately, by July of that year the fires had swelled beyond human efforts to halt them, and it was not until snow began to fall on Septemthat the fire abated. The article goes on to report that park superintendents decided against containing the fire at its early stages, relying on computer models that advocated a laissez-faire approach to seasonal forest fires in order to renew the forest. But if a forest fire goes uncontained for too long, it may grow beyond human control.” Winerip points to a difficult decision regarding forest fires, writing, “If some fires aren’t permitted to burn in the wild, dry tinder builds on the forest floors, threatening damage on a much larger scale when there is a blaze. In a recent New York Times article, Michael Winerip shares some lessons learned from the ravenous fires of 1988 that consumed nearly one third of Yellowstone National Park.
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