The Old Testament Is Directed to Israel
Another person whom we should hear briefly is Elizabeth Achtemeier. Achtemeier has written a helpful book for preachers: Preaching from the Old Testament. But, like Bright, she takes the position that the Old Testament is pre-Christian. She writes, "The fact is ... that apart from the New Testament, the Old Testament does not belong to the Christian church and is not its book. The Old Testament is the word of God to Israel ...."25 Or, as she puts it elsewhere, "The ... basic presupposition that we must hold as we preach from the Old Testament is that the Old Testament is directed to Israel .... Unless we therefore have some connection with Israel, the Old Testament is not our book, and it is not revelation spoken to us."26
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Happily, there is such a connection with Israel through Christ. "As Ephesians 2 states, Christ 'has made us both one' and the Church now has become a member of the 'commonwealth of Israel.' Or, as in Romans 11, we wild gentile branches have been grafted into the root of Israel."27
Yet this connection with Israel alone is not sufficient for us to receive a Christian message from the Old Testament. Achtemeier states, "It must be emphasized that no sermon can become the Word of God for the Christian church if it deals only with the Old Testament apart from the New. In every sermon rising out of an Old Testament text there must be reference to the New Testament outcome of the Old Testament's word."28 So how can we preach a Christian message from the Old Testament? In contrast to Bright's hermeneutical struggles with this issue, Achtemeier has a simple homiletical solution: "If the preacher chooses an Old Testament text first, then he must also choose a New Testament text to go with it."29 Elsewhere she reiterates, "We must never preach only from an Old Testament text, without pairing that text with one from the New Testament."30
The Requirement of "Pairing"
Homiletically, "pairing" is a valid option, of course. Although there are many good reasons for "textual preaching" (that is, preaching on a single text), there is no law that restricts preachers to only one text. Yet "pairing," in my opinion, is not a good option. For one, it adds several complications to the preacher's task: preachers will have to do justice to expositing not one but two texts in two entirely different historical cultural settings.31 Also, sermons will tend to be dualistic, with an Old Testament part and a New Testament part.
What is more, the significance of the Old Testament text is presented through the lens of a single New Testament text instead of the entire New Testament. If the New Testament text is not well chosen, this procedure can distort the message of the Old Testament text.
For example, for Epiphany 4B the lectionary pairs the healing of Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-14) with Jesus' healing of a leper (Mark 1:40-45) -- a rather superficial parallel at the level of two lepers being healed. But the message of 2 Kings 5:1-27 (the whole story) has to do with God's free healing (grace) of a Gentile being hindered by an Israelite (Gehazi). This specific message is not carried through in Mark 1:40-45. A more supportive New Testament passage would be Jesus' sermon in Nazareth in which He recalls this incident of God's grace for Gentiles, and "all in the synagogue were filled with rage" (Luke 4:27-30).
