Preaching the Voices (from the Edge)

Evidently, Concordia Seminary preacher and professor David Schmitt has been listening to a lot of voices from the edge.

First, watch Eldad and Medad speak through his chapel sermon on the first lesson from a couple weeks (Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29), delivered during the Day of Exegetical Reflection, September 17, 2012:

[FMP]https://concordiatheology.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Schmitt-12-09-17.mp4[/FMP]

You’ll notice that, in addition to his words, Preacher Schmitt’s movements embody the very way the text itself moves us from center to edge and back again.

Second, check out the Advent-Christmas sermon series he has written, Voices from the Edge: Advent Encounters Preparing the Way. He invites us to invite our congregations into an encounter with prophets and apostles who were “on the edge,” who will bring us to the edge of the manger that swaddles the Christ child.

That cliche (“on the edge”) has a wide range of meanings, does it not? It connotes those who are left behind, who are “edged out.” It connotes the sharp line where things drop off, the “edge of the cliff.” It connotes technology and progress, to be “on the cutting edge.” It connotes an “edgy” state of mind that is either irritable, hip, or both.

All this, and more, in a cliche.

Leave it to David Schmitt to make the cliche holy. And to show us how the ancient edges of the Scriptures still speak today.