I began sharing last Monday about Julian of Norwich. Julian was a fourteenth-century Benedictine nun. Through a bodily illness that resulted in a near-death experience, her life was profoundly changed, her commitment and service to Christ grew deeper, and her awareness of God’s grace became greater.
I’d like to share with you today about Julian’s hazelnut vision and how that vision touched the life of the man who has had a greater impact on my preaching and teaching ministry than any other. Dr. Joel Gregory was a preaching professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary when I was a student. He was a rising star in the Southern Baptist Convention, and he was and is to this day a gifted and inspiring biblical preacher.
But after a few years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Gregory resigned due to what he described as “intolerable confusion” as to who was the pastor of the church. At the time. Dr. W.A. Criswell had served for many years as Senior Pastor. Dr. Gregory was brought on during a transition period, which, due to his resignation, was never finalized.
For years, this gifted expositor of God’s Word sold cemetery plots door to door. I can only imagine the feelings of loss and loneliness he experienced during these days. But he tells a story of how one day, he tagged along with his wife to the local grocery store. While there, he saw a container of hazelnuts for sale. Never having eaten a hazelnut, he bought them, took them home, and sat down in his reclining chair to read.
As he read Julian of Norwich’s, “Revelations of Divine Love,” he came across these words -
“And in this (vision) he (God) showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand . . . I thought that because of its littleness, it would suddenly have fallen into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding: it lasts and always will, because God loves it . . . In this little thing, I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second thing is that God loves it, and the third is that God preserves it.”
Can you imagine what this one-time pastor and preacher thought as, with hazelnut in hand, he read these words? And do you understand that while reading this Christian mystic, Dr. Gregory himself experienced a mystical experience as God spoke to him through the words of Julian of Norwich?
One day, while having lunch with an African American pastor, Dr. Gregory was invited to speak at a gathering of Black pastors at a hotel in Dallas. He accepted the invitation, drove to the hotel, and when he entered the conference room, realized that this “little” gathering hosted more than a thousand Black pastors. “Gregory,” he said to himself, “you better preach!”
And he did. From that time on, God restored Joel Gregory, raising him to a place of prominence, not only in Black churches but as a beloved professor at Baylor University. He has also preached the Easter sermon in what was at one-time Charles Spurgeon’s church in London.
God loves the little hazelnuts! God loves you and me.
This was the primary message of Julian of Norwich’s life, and her words live on to this day to remind us of the tender, loving God we serve.
In Christ,
Dan
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