A Sermon on Preaching
The Rev. Dr. Leah Schade
January 12, 2014
Text:
John 1:1-18
[This sermon was part of Teaching Liturgy Sunday, Part One, which focused on The Word within the Gathering-Word-Meal-Sending order of Lutheran worship. The video of the sermon can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s44FIAoeXuA&feature=share]
Remember
that sermon you heard one time that touched your heart so deeply, you felt that
the pastor was talking directly to you?
Or how about
the time when you heard a pastor preach and you felt your mind open in a way
that freed you to think differently. It
just changed your whole perspective on things.
Do you know
what was happening in those sermons? God
was communicating with you. God was
talking to you, working on you, inviting you into a new way of feeling,
thinking, and acting. Isn’t it amazing
that God uses ordinary human words - ordinary human beings – to speak to us?
When we talk
about “The Word of God,” preaching is part of that. The Word of God is a
multivalent phrase, which means that it points to many different things. For one, it means the actual “word” that God
spoke in the beginning. As we read in the first two verses of John’s
Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with
God.” Thus “the Word of God” is also
Christ, the Word incarnate, made flesh among us. And more, “the Word” is also Scripture. We proclaim that in and through these words
in the Bible inspired by the work of the Holy Spirit and written by humans, as
imperfect as they are, we can encounter God.
Preaching,
too, can be a means by which you encounter God.
In the preaching event we see all aspects of the Word come
together. God’s Word in Scripture is
incarnated once again in the interpretation of the preacher and in his or her
relationship with the congregation, which is yet another manifestation of the
Spirit of Christ. You and I are God’s
Word, because we were spoken into existence as a Christian community by the
words of Baptism and Holy Communion. And
when we gather around the font and table, and around words of Scripture, two
things happen. We read them, but they
also read us. They shape us as
individuals and as a gathered people of God.
These Words
in the Bible are not dead words of ancient times that have no meaning
today. This is not a museum book. It is meant to be the living Word of God. And it
is through the ongoing, fresh and contemporary work of preaching that the Word
comes alive in the speaking and the hearing.
Good
preaching should feel like a good meal, like you’ve been fed. It should nourish your soul and your mind and
your heart in some way. Sometimes in a
sermon you’ll be offered a taste of something you’ve never tried before, or
something that is a little hard to chew.
You’ll need to trust that the preacher has the best intentions and your
best interests at heart. And good
preaching over a period of time should offer a Word from God on many different
topics, Bible passages, and theological themes.
Not every sermon is going to be a gourmet meal, or a bowl of your
favorite ice cream. But if it’s
nourishing and has at least a little good flavoring, it will do wonders for
your appetite for God’s Word.
As one
churchgoer said to another, “I may not remember every meal my spouse made over
the years. But I know I was fed
nourishing food that sustained me day to day.
In the same way, I may not remember every sermon in detail. But I know I was fed on the nourishing Word of
God that sustained me week to week.”
Over time, a
preacher develops a relationship with his or her parishioners that should help
them develop their relationship with God.
Sometimes God’s Word, spoken by
and through the preacher, will make your squirm by holding a mirror up to you
and our world to show you how things really are. That’s what Luther called “Law.” But ultimately the purpose of preaching is to
proclaim God’s presence, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy
Spirit working in our midst. You should
hear Good News in just about every sermon.
That’s called “Gospel.”
Homilitician John McClure says that in the preacher’s
proclamation of grace “God's will and power are identified not with what . . . is but with what will be.” [1] This means that preaching engenders hope and cultivates faith, which is trust in God. God’s Word in and through preaching helps us
to imagine a new future and gives us the means and motivation to live as if
that future is already happening now. As
McClure says, “Anticipation of a new
future grounded in faith in God conditions and motivates life. The Christian life is one of hope,
consciousness-raising, learning from and suffering with the oppressed . . . , hope
for and involvement in the work of social transformation, and joy in the
present, rooted in faith's hope for and vision of the future." [2]
That future has already been started in the cross and
resurrection of Jesus. It is the promise
of the resurrection that gives us the commission and power to preach. “Go and make disciples,” says Jesus. “Feed my sheep,” says Jesus. “I am sending you,” says Jesus.
Come to God’s Word.
Be fed with God’s Word. Be filled
with hope and faith in God’s Word. And
be sent with God’s Word, the light of the world. Amen.
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