269: Josh Luxmoore - Exhortation: Poetry

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:13

   Welcome to Good Chris Selfie and talks. I’m Levi. And I’m Chris. And I’m Brian. Thank you for joining us this week on this podcast. We select One Talk a Week. To help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week. With the short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you’re about to listen to. And now, let’s talk more about this week’s talk. This week’s talk is an editation by brother Josh Luxmore, given at the Packeranga Ecclesia in New Zealand. In February of this year, the topic was poetry and this was really thought provoking for me.

2. 1:01

   I really benefited from the multiple angles that Josh took on this topic. I I actually usually would rule out a talk that has like a a clear, like audience participation part, which this talk has a couple, but I felt the thoughts kind of overcame that I listened to this while I was running and yeah, still thought it was worth worth sharing. So thank you to the person who sent this in as a as a suggestion.

3. 1:29

   And here is Poetry by Josh Luxmore. Good morning, everybody. I had more energy than any of you just then, but that’s fine. Keep there, right.

4. 1:49

   Who in this room has played football before for a team? I mean has George has Ron has lots of people with excellent. I’m going to pick on George. George do you watch any football as well you do what do you want what what games do you watch quite a few games. OK Do you think you appreciate football more because you’ve played it.

5. 2:14

   Excellent answer. Correct answer. Thank you very much. Who has written a song before? Love it, Jonathan. Excellent. OK. Do you think you appreciate music more because you’ve written it? Yeah. Also a correct answer. Yes, it is. If you know how a car works. I know Bean does. You probably appreciate the internal combustion engine a bit more than others if you like window joinery. Then you probably appreciate the the curves and the edges and the and the drainage of window journey. If you’re into insurance and pizza ovens, you probably appreciate when you go to someone’s house and they’ve got a really good hot pizza oven and they can also talk insurance. If you’re into windsurfing, you can probably appreciate other people that into into windsurfing can talk to them for hours about it, OK?

6. 3:19

   I want you to all put your hands up Now, everyone, one hand in the ear knot. Doesn’t have to be real high, just a little bit of a hand. All right, keep your hands up. If you have written a poem in the last six months, keep your hands up. Actually, no, let’s do it the other way around. Keep your hand up if you haven’t written a poem in the last six months.

7. 3:41

   OK, there we go. We’re back up. Keep your hands up if you haven’t written a poem in the last two years. But you people may be thinking, keep your hand up. If you haven’t written a poem for maybe 10 years or more, OK, excellent. You can all put your hands down now. Participation A poem. It’s a literary form of creativity of an it’s an illusionary type of text that brings out emotion. Where?

8. 4:15

   You don’t tell someone something. You try and make someone feel something. It can be rhythm in poetry. It can be cadence, it can be color. It can be imagery. It can be things that are pleasing, things that are jarring, things that are joyful or confronting. It can be progression in poetry or regression.

9. 4:40

   It can be a development of an idea. Or being hung up on a thought. It can be nuanced ideas or unmistakable things. Why are we talking about poetry?

10. 4:58

    God has inspired the writers of his word to poetry. Depending on how you define poetry exactly. Some people believe there’s 15% of the Bible is poetry. Some people. Say that, by the way, is 33% poetry from these obvious ones in the Bible that we know from people like Job, from the Psalms, from all those that wrote the Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon’s.

11. 5:27

    We have the Prophets. They wrote with allegory and simile. We had Moses and Miriam. We had Deborah and Barrett, Jehoshaphat, Habakkuk, the Levites. Many people wrote in poetic form. Who wrote this poem? Any answers with a donkey’s jawbone? I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone, I have killed 1000 men, Samson. Excellent.

12. 5:59

    Very good enough. You knew that. So it’s all throughout the Bible and thinking to my first few questions about. Things that we’ve done and things that we appreciate. Keep that in mind as we continue through this. Some uses of poetry that both modern day poets and perhaps the poets of the Bible. Why did they use poetry? Can you all recall a moment in your life when you were speechless?

13. 6:34

    There’s been some pretty big events in the last, say, three years, but for many of us. Or be There’s been perhaps even bigger events. Perhaps it’s something so wonderful or so heartbreaking, a moment of being incomplete, or or a moment of feeling so small, being stunned into silence or shaken into paralysis with fear, those times that you were speechless. Poetry, as someone defines it, is the expression of the facts that there are great things that are inexpressible. So to summarize that poetry helps you to express the inexpressible.

14. 7:22

    There are things that HIPS allows unspeakable words to flow. There’s a reason that maybe poetry helps us to share these things that we could not put into words. Like the fact that there’s no one-on-one. Dialogue with poetry, often something you don’t say out loud in a moment to someone. Something you carefully write down without any instant reaction from someone. No forthcoming reply.

15. 7:50

    A poem can be written with one person in mind that may never read it, or it could address one huge population, but in that there is some power. That there is nobody there to answer immediately. Let’s look at some poetry from some pretty pictures from God’s word. Let’s let’s You don’t need to turn this up.

16. 8:18

    We’ll hope you’re turning up some soon. Let’s look at Isaiah, spelled slightly strangely. Chapter 5 from verse 26. I’m going to read from here because it’s tiny. He lifts up a banner. Or the distant nations. He whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Here they come swiftly and speedily. Not one of them grows tired or stumbles. Not one slumbers or sleeps.

17. 8:43

    Not a belt is loosened at the waist. Not a sand or strap is broken. Their arrows are sharp, All their bows are strung. Their horses hooves seem like Flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind. Their roar is like bet of a lion. They roar like Young Lions. They growl as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue.

18. 9:11

    This is some poetry, essentially, by Isaiah. It’s a poem about how the Lord will use the outside nations to punish his people for their wickedness. And, he explains, like an animal trainer, the Lord will whistle. And these powerful armies of the nations come rushing to execute their judgment or His judgment on Israel.

19. 9:36

    Their army that comes is running, is running. And they are not a sloppy army. They are a well oiled machine with few with very few weaknesses. Not a single soldier is tired or stumbling or falling asleep on the way. They’re determined. Their belts are clenched tight. Meaning their robes are secured for running. So this bit of poetry here as I could have passed on it a little bit more efficiently.

20. 10:08

    He could have said Israel is an army coming and there’s nothing you can do about it. The end? You could have Bullet pointed that out really briefly and not given that much, but I’ve only explained a few verses there. And probably triple the amount of words of this poem. And I haven’t done it justice. So the interesting thing about poems is you could probably reduce them down to hits just a few words, but also you could take 30 times the words to actually explain all of the meaning behind a poem such as this. But either way, poetry has a way of making a slow down. This is not something we can rush over these words and we are in an age where we are trying to read and digest and move on quickly with information.

21. 11:02

    We don’t read a poem anymore and take time. That’s not the normal day-to-day life. We are moving on quickly with information. Here’s an example. Got a message here from King David. As I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the lights become nights around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you.

22. 11:25

    The night will shine like the day or darkness because there’s light to you, I might reply. OK, thanks for that. All good. That’s the sort of approach we take sometimes with information include read, including reading. The Bible and poetry deserves more time than that. It deserves us to really sit on it and understand it and understand the the contrast here between darkness and night and light and day, and how and how God interacts with those things.

23. 11:59

    It’s not something that we can quickly summarize with it with a short moment of thought. There’s a proverb as well, which is Oh no, that is the proverb at the bottom. This is a comment that I’ve read online which helps us to understand that this poetry isn’t necessarily easy, but it is something that we need to take the time because it is the search that God requires, not answers.

24. 12:36

    Our goals should not to be conformity and opinion, but communion with God. Sometimes we think that it’s. The answers are the most important thing, but simply searching is what God wants us to do. And perhaps sometimes the way that this words that we’ve had in front of us is written is so that we spend time with God reflecting on the poetry, reflecting on all of the individual words. We’re going to turn up two poems. Let’s turn up John and chapter 15. John, Chapter 15.

25. 13:24

    We’re going to read the 1st 8 verses. I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the words I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine.

26. 13:56

    Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. If a man remains in me, and I am him, he will bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and Withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned.

27. 14:22

    If you remain in Me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples just to show that.

28. 14:49

    Jesus spoken poetic language using. Allegory using. Similarly, using things to explain his message, they weren’t. Necessary literal, but rather poetic. Let’s also turn up Isaiah and Chapter 55.

29. 15:07

    And verse 10. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it buds and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I’ve sent it. This, these things aren’t.

30. 15:42

    Exactly literal are they? They are ways of explaining things. And God here is basically explaining the purpose of poetic messages that he wants these words to go out that they may change us. And I believe the way the Bible is written is part of this technique that God uses to actually help us to change,

31. 16:06

    right? We thought this morning had been a little interactive already. We have a challenge this morning and that is to write a poem. So many of you have not been writing poems, so we’re going to take 5 minutes to write a poem this morning. We’re here to remember the sacrifice of our Lord through bread and wine, and sometimes words don’t come easily with. What that means to us, the fact that Jesus died our king, what he has done.

32. 16:41

    So the challenge is not for the weaker hit, it’s for right now. It’s to begin this journey of understanding the poetry of the Bible better by being a creator of poetry ourselves, to learn to appreciate and find the meaning in poetry. That we might learn and appreciate and find meaning in God’s poetry. So I had a paper.

33. 17:12

    In fact, let’s start this now. George, can I get your hand hands with you? Does anyone need paper? Oh, maybe we don’t need much of your hand. Anyone need paper? You’re going to need to write. Oh, yeah, fine is fine. Anyone. His Hands up, George. I also have pins. If anyone needs pins. Everyone’s looking.

34. 17:30

    All right. I’ll leave pins here. Right now. I don’t expect that you are necessarily right in the mindset. Now, despite the facts. We’ve read some poems already and we’ve discussed a little bit about what poems are. I want to help you get there a little bit more. So as George is handing out any paper for those that need it, we’re going to have a little bit of inspiration.

35. 17:56

    To get us going to write poetry. Again, keep in mind that this helps us to draw closer to the word of God, This exercise, and again reminding you that what we very loosely maybe want to base our poem on is is the sacrifice or the redemption or the meaning of Jesus and his death and his life.

36. 18:17

    Whatever you like. I don’t want to box you into too much, but let’s quickly discuss a few things that might help you. To get going with a poem, by the way, before we start this as well, I’m not No one’s getting up to read a poem. No one’s needing to express themselves. This is just for you.

37. 18:38

    And if you get 2 lines on paper, then that’s great, That’s there is no right or wrong, no fail or pass in this in this interaction, all right? One way that we might start a poem is to think on a word. So here we have one word or one phrases of Psalm 2 words. So every now and then there.

38. 19:02

    But there are some words there on the left hand side that might inspire us that we can just sit with one of those words and hits start to explain something about Jesus and his sacrifice that he has made for us. We might want to start with a question like we talked about something before, something that is makes us a bit speechless. Maybe that’s really hard to answer. Maybe it’s a question that’s asked very often and has a few answers.

39. 19:38

    Maybe it’s a question something like what was it like? Don’t forget there are some poetry tools, and by tools I mean kind of grammatical. Ways of using words, these metaphors where we might compare the feeling of something to something else, or seeing something as like seeing something else. Think of all of your senses when you when you think of metaphors, there’s repetition.

40. 20:08

    Feel free. That’s a that’s a nice easy way to get started. Think of 1 phrase and see if you can repeat that. If we stick in line, we know there’s some Psalms written like that. It might be simply as great as our God and then align and then great as our God, something that might have some repetition that is very much poetry. You might feel like you want some structure and one classic one is going good, bad, good.

41. 20:36

    In terms of a poem, you start with a great moment and it descends, but then there is some sort of redemption or some sort of good thing at the end. And then finally, reading poems is another great way to get us to be inspired, help us to appreciate the the use of words in a certain way.

42. 20:59

    So there are some examples there of some poems, some poetry, language from God’s words that we can use. So it’s 22 and I’m going to do it by my phone. OK, cool. I’m going to give you about four minutes. I’m going to play a little bit of instrumental hymns just while you do that.

43. 21:22

    So I’ll leave you to it. All right. I’m sure you’ve got a full page of well formed poetry, but no, it can. Sometimes it can flow, sometimes it can’t, and sometimes you just need to start writing to get something out before other things start to flow. To conclude, it’s worth reflecting that God is so wildly creative himself from creation itself in the detail of His work over thousands of generations, including today.

44. 22:04

    The ways that he has called people, the way that he still calls them, the way that his plan is weaved into history. There’s so much to the story that God has added. And then we have Jesus with his parables. What amazing stories of creation. It’s creative ways of healing people. There was barely 2 healings, the same of calling people His use of language that could confound some and then could reveal so much to others. And doing this poetry exercise, we can have the opportunity to be closer to God and to Jesus by becoming more creative, being a creator ourselves in some way, having a common interest like football, and exploring things like poetry. Let’s conclude, then, with the last bit of poetry I want to share from God’s word.

45. 23:10

    But we have this treasure in jars of play to show that it’s also passing power. This from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, afflicted but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, strapped down but not destroyed. We always carry around now in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.

46. 23:55

    So then death is at work and us, but life is at work in you. Thank you for listening to the good ’cause Adelphian Talks Podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes. We are on all major podcast platforms and also on YouTube. If you enjoyed this particular talk, please share it with someone else who you think might enjoy it too. For show notes on the talk you just listened to, visit [email protected] or check out the Show Notes section of your podcast player.

47. 24:46

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48. 25:01

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