 | Good Preaching |
Wed, 29 Jan 1997
Clergy/Leaders' Mail-list No. 353
The latest offering on our home page and mail-list...
Shalom! Rowland Croucher
Director, John Mark Ministries - resources for pastors/leaders.
(Bookroom, library, and worldwide F.W.Boreham Trading Post)
Home Page: http://www.pastornet.net.au/jmm
WHAT IS GOOD PREACHING?
Christianity is par excellence the religion of the Word. When we
speak, we disclose ourselves: so does God. God has spoken in
various ways - nature, history, conscience, prophets and
ultimately in his Son (Hebrews 1:1,2). Jesus Christ IS God's word
to us. God also speaks through the written word, the Bible. And
the word of the Lord comes to us in the living voice of the church
as it proclaims, preaches and teaches.
'Going to worship' is more than 'going to preaching'. The
question we Protestants hear from someone who missed church was,
'What did the preacher say?'
Preaching is not done well in many churches. Homilies in many
'liturgical' churches are polite sermonic essays which won't
offend - or change - anybody. Well-educated preachers in some
mainline churches fill their sermons with theological
abstractions. Pentecostal preaching is often a loud reiteration
of exhortations lacking theological substance. And other churches
which may have better preaching often don't know how to be 'lost
in wonder, love and praise' in their worship.
Good preaching on its own will not fill churches anymore, but bad
preaching will empty them...
There are three essential characteristics of authentic preaching:
1. GOOD PREACHING IS DRAMATIC (See our home page for these,
2. GOOD PREACHING IS DIDACTIC together with bibliography)
3. GOOD PREACHING IS PROPHETIC
This is hardest for pastors. This week I have been re-reading
Reinhold Niebuhr's 'Leaves from the Notebooks of a Tamed Cynic'.
If ever there was a twentieth century prophet par excellence it
was Niebuhr. About prophets he writes that they're likely to be
itinerants ('we preachers are afraid to tell the truth because we
are economically dependent upon the people of the church' p.74).
And 'the church does not seem to realize how unethical a
conventionally respectable life may be' (p.118). So it's easier
for pastors to preach about charity than justice. But it's
difficult for a pastor to be prophetic without being cynical ('I
don't want anyone to be more cynical than I am' p.158). If you
have to choose between bitterness and blandness, choose the
former; but 'speaking the truth in love' is always our aim...
To understand all this, let's take a short excursion into the
sociology of institutions. Max Weber used the term 'prophetic' in
opposition to the terms 'tradition' and 'institution'. All
institutions, said sociologist Robert Merton, are inherently
degenerative. In the church, only prophets can really 'see' it -
which is why they're sometimes called 'seers'. Over time, a
representative institution will see people inhabit, roughly one of
four stances if they have to face institutional change. On the
left, radicals want to change everything (they're mostly driven by
anger). On the right, traditionalists want to change nothing
(they're driven by fear). Next to the radicals, progressives want
to change some things, and to the right of them are conservatives,
who are prepared to change very little. Now if you're going to
lead this motley group, you have to be somewhere in the middle: if
you're too radical the traditionalists/conservatives (who have the
power mostly) will throw you out. But if you're not 'with it',
you'll be left behind in an irrelevant backwater. So pastors, for
example, to survive, must appear to be not too radical and not too
traditionalist.
But prophets are always radical. There's the rub. Remember Woody
Allen's movie about Leonard Zelig? Filmed in documentary style,
Zelig purportedly recounts the life and times of a 'chameleon man'
who was so completely compliant that his physical appearance
changed to accomodate his companions. Talking to some Orthodox
rabbis, he sprouts a beard and side curls. In a Chinese laundry
his features become Asian. To psychiatrists he utters much
psychobabble...
Good preaching has both heat and light: heat without light leaves
us scorched and brittle; light may help us 'see' (and as Horace
Bushnell once said, there can be no preaching worth the name if
there is no thinking), but knowledge without faith won't save
anybody. W B Yeats in his poem 'The Second Coming' says 'the best
lack all conviction' while 'the worst are full of passionate
intensity.' We must search for the dividing line between
enthusiasm and fanaticism...
Good preaching touches mind and heart and will: we learn, we
love, and we change. It goes without saying that good preaching
is not constantly negative, opposing anything and everything. We
shepherds sometimes spend too much time mending fences rather than
feeding sheep. There ought always to be a prophetic dimension to
our preaching, calling us to repentance.
The ministry of prophets was very important in New Testament
times. Paul regarded it highly, urging the Corinthians to seek
this highly prized spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 14:1, 39). Paul
wanted them all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.
Why? Because tongues helps the individual; prophecy helps the
church. In the three lists of church ministries (Romans 12, 1
Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4) only one ministry is mentioned in
all of them - the prophetic.
Prophecy is a direct communication from God for a particular
people at a particular time and place, for a particular purpose.
Prophecy gives the church fresh insights into God's truth
(Ephesians 3), of guidance about the future (Acts 11:27ff), or
encouragement (1 Corinthians 14:3; 1 Timothy 1:18), or inspiration
or correction. It either edifies the church or brings it under
judgment ('God is in this place!' - see 1 Corinthians 14:25). The
biblical prophets combined judgment with hope. Their messages
were sometimes very challenging: prophets 'disturb the
comfortable' while pastors 'comfort the disturbed'! Prophets 'tell
it like it is'.
Paul told the Thessalonians not to despise prophesyings ('inspired
messages' 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22) but 'put all things to the
test: keep what is good and avoid every kind of evil.'
Hans Kung has written: '[A church in which the prophets are not
heard] 'declines and becomes a spiritless organization; outwardly
everything may seem all right, things run smoothly, according to
plan and along ordered paths... but inwardly it will be a place
where the Spirit can no longer blow when and where he wills.' (The
Church, London: Burns and Oates, 1968, p.433)
In true worship God speaks, we answer, God speaks again, we
respond. 'The Lord said to [Jeremiah]'... 'I answered...' 'But
the Lord said to me...' (Jeremiah 1:4-7). 'I heard the Lord say,
"Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?" I answered, "I
will go! Send me!" So he told me to go...' (Isaiah 6:8-9).
Over and over in the Bible God tells us he is not pleased with
worship that's just words or formulas, and does not lead to a
changed life. Indeed if worship does not change us it is not true
worship. As Jesus, God's Word, was totally obedient to the will
of his Father, so we must respond with our total selves (Romans
12:1,2).
Being 'saved' is more than 'receiving Jesus as your personal
Saviour' (an expression, incidentally, that's not in the Bible).
Biblical salvation/wholeness includes justice and mercy as well
(Matthew 23:23, Luke 11:42). 'Take away from me the noise of your
songs! ...But let justice roll down like an ever-flowing stream.'
(Amos 5:24). 'I cannot tolerate your... festivals. When you lift
your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. Though you
offer countless prayers I will not listen... Cease to do evil and
learn to do right. Pursue justice and champion the oppressed...'
(Isaiah 1:14ff. see also Mark 7:6-8).
To sum up: good preaching 'exalts Christ': our response is not
'what great oratory!' but 'what a great Saviour!' In a moving
article in The Christian Century (August 24, 1994) Martin
Copenhaver describes his last sermon to his congregation. He
preached on the text 'Who do people say that I am...? But who do
you say that I am?'
'The first question is as easy for us as it was for the Twelve. As
Casey Stengel used to say, "You could look it up". And you can
answer a question like that without offending anyone... A scholar
can answer that question historically or sociologically. A
preacher can answer it with a sermon packed with quotes from
Schillebeeckx and Crossan. It does not ask for commitment of any
kind. But then comes the second question: "Who do you say that I
am?" Only one word is different, but that one word makes all the
difference. There is no escape into comfortable objectivity. This
question demands not so much the insight of our minds as the
allegience of our lives...'
Copenhaver mentioned a conference when evangelist Michael Green
asked all the clergy: 'When was the last time you told your
congregation what Jesus means to you?' The question haunted him.
So he told his people, on the last day of his ministry with them.
'At the conclusion of that sermon I stood at the door and shook
hands with the congregation. One woman, a beloved saint of the
church, came to the head of the line but was so overcome with
emotion that she could not speak and went to the back of the line.
I assumed that she simply did not know how to say goodbye. But
when she finally reached me again, her voice cracked slightly as
she asked, "Why didn't you tell us this before?"' Well...?
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