Day 32: The Three B's

I just realized yesterday that I am going to have more than forty entries, because unlike last year I am writing a post for each day of the week instead of skipping the Lent Sundays. That is kind of nice because the more I write, the more things I think of to write about on this topic.

Today I am going to mention my three B's. Not Bach Brahms and Beethoven. They are my preacher B's, who, before I ever heard of them, had already opened up doors that I used to think were a product of my own romantic wishful thinking. I have never met nor been in the pews of any of these three preachers, but they all took the time to write and publish their perspectives on the gospel and I have benefited greatly and found much comfort and encouragement in their outlook.

Frederick Buechner is the first B. I was introduced to some of his novels and autobiographical pieces in college, and in my college Shakespeare class, my professor recommended we read his book called: Telling the Truth, the Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale. It is a really short book, only 4 chapters, so I have read it over a dozen times and it has heavily influenced my perspective of gospel as cosmic story. This book rocked my world when I read it and first grasped that the gospel is not a set of doctrinal standards to get just right so much as it is the most exciting, dramatic and satisfying story to ever be told.

Jan Bonda is the second B. He was a pastor in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. A family uncle gave me a book by him in 2006, and he made mention of some Bible stories to defend his thesis, stories that I had been wrestling with also, it was very exciting to enjoy the companionship of reading his thoughts in his book, The One Purpose of God.

In 2007 I purchased and read my first book by Karl Barth, the final draft of his commentary on Romans. I had heard a little about Barth in a theology class in college and in 2007 when I was looking up some concepts in my Christian theology textbook, his name came up in one of the sections and his particular outlook on that topic seemed interesting to me. The Letter of Romans used to be my scary and intimidating Bible book, so I would read it many times to try to really understand it. And when I did, it became my favorite and most encouraging Bible book. Reading Barth's commentary also made me feel so much comfort to know that some of the ideas I was wrestling with were not craziness, because here was a talented theologian who was working through and reconciling some biblical themes in a way that I was hoping someone would do!

So I just want to give a shout out to these three people and the positive impact they have had on my life. And a thanks to the translators who brought the Dutch and the German texts into English. Each of these preachers has helped me to finally be able to get to a point where I am able celebrate the Gospel as really good news, and to feel better that I am not on my own in my personal inquiries and wrestlings and efforts to reorient cognitions on particular topics.