Proclaimer Blog
Old and New
I’ve just finished watching the BBC documentary Inside the Commons, Michael Cockerill’s unparalleled insight to the workings of the UK Parliament. I confess to mixed feelings. On the one hand, I have a vague sense of history and nostalgia and quite like quirks, like the Speaker marching through the Palace every day with someone in front of him singing (yes, singing) “Speak-ker.” But there’s another part of me that thinks “That is completely and utterly bonkers.” Indeed, from the point of view of democracy there are plenty of moments when the whole system seems somewhat dysfunctional. Moreover, holding Old and New together seems, at best, difficult, at worst, impossible.
I do worry about some OT preaching I hear. I do worry about some reactions to my own OT preaching. I find a nostalgia about the Old Covenant which is misplaced and ignores the sweep of Bible history. I find hearers who explicitly say things like “Wouldn’t it have been amazing to live in the Old Covenant?” and I find preachers who seem to imply that to be the case.
Profoundly we do that when we fail to preach Christ. For Christ does not belong in the Old Covenant; rather the Old anticipates him. It is not then, that we cannot preach from the Old Covenant. But we mustn’t preach the Old Covenant itself.
To do so would be completely and utterly bonkers. You may feel that you do not do so. Great. But let me ask you what the people hear?