Matthew Jewell is a recent graduate of Luther Seminary, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree. At graduation, Matthew received both the John Milton Prize in Old Testament and the Frederick Buechner Prize for Excellence in Preaching. The Milton Prize, established in honor of John Milton, professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary from 1941 to 1967, recognizes a graduating student’s outstanding work in Old Testament. The Buechner Prize is given to an outstanding graduate to help bring the words, ideas, and works of Frederick Buechner to a new generation of clergy, with a particular emphasis on enhancing preaching and writing.
As Matthew prepares to serve the church as an ordained pastor, we took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his studies and other experiences at Luther Seminary.
Where did you grow up, what did you study in college, and what led you to pursuing theological education and ordained ministry?
I grew up in Troy, Michigan, about ten miles north of Detroit, and attended Wayne State University in midtown Detroit, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 2018. I loved that experience so much that I ended up staying for a master’s degree, also in English literature. I have known most of my life that I am called to be a teacher of some sort. I almost went down the path of pursuing a doctorate in English and becoming a college professor. But God gave me a firm nudge toward ordained ministry instead, specifically through the comments and encouragement of friends and fellow church members. Now, I get to teach all the time—from the pulpit, in personal conversations, in Bible studies, and in other contexts. It feels very fulfilling!
What are some things you experienced and learned on internship this year?
As an intern with an off-site supervisor, I have experienced what is basically solo parish ministry for the past ten months. My current site—Saint John’s Lutheran in Capac, Michigan—has gone through numerous positive transitions this year. We’ve sold some spare property to the village of Capac, engaged in a new stewardship campaign to close some financial gaps in our budget, experienced important staff transitions, and are growing rapidly. My biggest takeaway so far has been to learn my limits: there are so many things I could do all at once, but I’ve needed to slow down and remind myself there is plenty of time to work with. Each week, I have a spiritual practice of telling myself that what I’ve done is “enough for this moment.” I don’t need to have accomplished everything on my task list to “earn” rest. Rest is sacred and right, even on weeks that don’t feel productive.
Tell us about the paper you submitted for the Milton prize.
The paper I wrote for the Milton Prize comes from Cameron Howard’s Prophets and Poetry class from a few years ago. My essay argues it is God, and not necessarily Jeremiah, who is saying, “For the hurt of my poor people, I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me” (Jeremiah 8:21). If these are indeed God’s words, then we have a God who experiences the full gamut of human emotion before the incarnation in Jesus Christ. Said another way, God has always been so close to the human experience that God weeps when we weep and mourns when we mourn. This is important because I know many Christians who are convinced that God suddenly gains empathy when Jesus is born. Not so! The “Old Testament God” is just as involved with humanity and affected by what happens in the world as Jesus is. I’ve argued similar positions in other essays I’ve written, and this is also the theology I espouse from the pulpit.
And with the Buechner prize, what area of homiletics did your submission address? What place does preaching have in your ministry as you continue into your call?
For the Buechner Prize, the submission was my senior sermon that I preached in our chapel space in the spring of 2023. It is titled “Be Angry” and is based on Ephesians 4:26-27: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” The message is a reminder that anger, when rooted in God’s love, is indeed righteous and holy—it can motivate us to pursue needed change. Other anger is malicious and not rooted in love—an anger that destroys purely for the sake of destroying is not authorized in this passage. As leaders of the church, we hold in tension these two types of anger. We repeatedly face the temptation to allow rage to take over and blind us to the humanity of others. Meanwhile, our rage for what happens to, for instance, our beloved parishioners can motivate us to fight for them or be an important part of their healing journeys. In that sense, the task of preaching is essential to my ministry. I have an opportunity each time I am in the pulpit to point to truth and hope, in all their complexity. I’ve learned that people desperately need this: a space to take off baggage and rest and remember God is alive in and around us.