Over The Top And Over A Cliff
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Dear Fellow Preacher,
Christians have always emphasized the potential power of the "living," spoken word. Words can offend, comfort, deceive, instruct, alienate, encourage, inflame, and heal - and so much more. We speak of the creating Word and the incarnate Word. But in our preaching are we clear in what we want to accomplish with our words? And is our intention obvious to our parishioners? Are we aware of the possible effect (or non-effect) of our words on those who hear?
With primary reference to the First Lesson and the Gospel of the lectionary, George Murphy reflects on the political word, the prophetic word, the incarnate Word, and the homiletical word. He alludes to current political speech and then draws on the traditional distinction between law and gospel in urging us to communicate both the demand and the grace of God to a people in need of hearing redemptive truth.
Team comments, illustrations, worship resources, a children's sermon, and a gripping response to last week's issue from a subscriber round out this issue of The Immediate Word.
OVER THE TOP AND OVER A CLIFF
Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30
by George L. Murphy
Speeches have been in the news in the past several days. There were speeches by Democratic candidates for the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Howard Dean's concession speech in Iowa, which many people have seen as over the top more because of its style than its content, got a lot of attention. There was George Bush's State of the Union address, which was seen quite generally as the beginning of his campaign for reelection. And there will be a lot more speeches in the primary and general election seasons ahead. You can count on about ten months of sound bytes on television.
A sermon that addresses current political goings-on is sometimes appropriate, but let us not forget that preachers themselves give speeches - sermons, homilies, or call them what you will - as a primary part of their calling. And while members of a congregation may have listened to many sermons, they may have never given serious thought to the question of what a sermon is supposed to be. The lessons for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (1 February) this year provide an opportunity to reflect in several ways on these topics. What are the responsibilities of speakers and of those who hear them?
Jeremiah 1:4-10 and Luke 4:21-30 both deal with speeches, and speeches that meet with antagonism. In the First Lesson, Jeremiah is called as a prophet to proclaim God's word. Even though this introduction to his ministry doesn't give us any examples of conflict, we know that they will come. Jeremiah is told not to fear those who oppose him, and plenty of opposition will materialize later in the book (Jeremiah 7:1-15 and 26:1-19 seem to be two accounts of the prophet's "Temple sermon" that nearly got him killed). Jeremiah is not unique in this regard. The prophetic message often meets with resistance and hostility.
That was also the case for John the Baptist, and it continues to be so for Jesus. In the Gospel for this past Sunday (Luke 4:14-21), we read of the beginning of his ministry when he preached in the synagogue of his hometown, Nazareth. What he said apparently impressed his hearers, and, as he continues this week, he makes his audience so angry that they want to shove him over a cliff.
There is one simple prescription politicians or preachers may follow to keep from arousing opposition: Simply tell your audience what they want to hear. But often that sounds easier than it actually is. Sometimes it's hard to gauge what the audience will like. And what one part of your audience wants to hear is what the other part rejects. (Think of the President's State of the Union address, with half the chamber applauding at some points while those in the other half sit on their hands.)
The more fundamental point, however, is that responsible politicians and preachers aren't just to tailor their words to the wishes of their hearers. A political leader of any quality is to show some leadership, which means sometimes telling people what they need to hear but at the moment don't want to. The prophet is called to proclaim God's word, not a word determined by the latest opinion survey. Isaiah speaks contemptuously of the people who said in effect to their leaders in a time of crisis, "Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions" (Isaiah 30:10). There are important differences between politicians and preachers, but both are called to speak the truth.
It has been said that the task of the preachers is "to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." To put it more formally, God's Word that is to be proclaimed is law and gospel. Law is God's demand and, while it has several functions, we will always find that we come up short when measured against this standard. On the other hand, the gospel (in the narrow sense) is pure promise. It offers a gift - most importantly, salvation in Christ, which only needs to be accepted. Both can arouse opposition.
It's easy to see why the proclamation of God's law can do that: We don't like to be told that we're sinners. We don't want to hear that what we're doing is wrong, that our expectations are unrealistic and our hopes are misplaced. Criticism of a culture with which we've identified ourselves makes us uncomfortable, and we resent the suggestion that we benefit from systemic injustices. Someone who speaks "smooth things" will get a more friendly hearing.
It may be harder to see why a proclamation of good news should anger people, but that's in fact what happened in Nazareth. The congregation there seems to be puzzled by the acclaim given to the hometown boy who never seemed all that special to them, but they really get mad when Jesus reminds them of the extent of God's care for people. In the story of Elijah it was a foreign woman who was kept alive during the famine, and the Syrian commander Naaman - an enemy of Israel! - who had been healed by Elisha.
If God loves everybody, then God doesn't love me any more than anyone else. Our reaction to the blessing of someone we consider unworthy may be like that of the older son in the story of prodigal. There is a tendency to consider life a zero-sum game, so that if somebody else wins we have to lose. Good news for others is bad news for us.
Even though I've couched this in theological terms, it has a good deal of relevance to the political situation. After all, the situations that both Jeremiah and Jesus had to confront had political components, and neither was concerned solely with the relationship between the individual and God. It would be helpful, as Americans prepare for months of political campaigning, to reflect on the responsibilities both candidates for office and voters have in the light of this call to speak - and to look for - the truth, whether the news is good or bad. Some speeches will criticize tax cuts and their effect on the economy, but how many will contain straightforward calls for tax increases? We may forgive mistakes that were made in going to war and in the conduct of that war, but will those who made mistakes be willing to admit them?
But this is preeminently a concern for preachers and their hearers. The preacher is called to proclaim law and gospel in real-world situations, and should not flinch at that because a particular application of law or gospel will be unpopular. But members of congregations also have responsibilities to hear the Word with discernment: to call the preacher to account if he or she is off base, but to be self-critical when the Word shows them to be off base.
Just what is going on when a preacher gets into the pulpit on Sunday morning?
Is this supposed to be instruction, cheerleading, or entertainment? Why do we do this as part of Christian worship? Is it just tradition? We can begin with the story of Jesus' sermon in Nazareth (including the readings for both last Sunday and this one) in order to get some answers to those questions.
Jesus begins by reading from the scriptures - from Isaiah 61:1-2 in particular - and then speaks about the significance of what he's read. So far that's what we're used to (or should be used to!) in preaching. But then there's a big difference. Jesus says, "What you've just heard is fulfilled by me and what I'm doing." Jesus himself is the sermon! His claim that the prophetic word points to him is justified by his designation as Son of God at his baptism and his testing in the wilderness. It is significant that Jesus never uses the prophetic formula "Thus says the LORD," because he is not simply a messenger. He is the message.
No sensible preacher today would or should claim that some biblical passage has her or him specifically in mind. (Some overly imaginative Lutherans have thought that the angel of Revelation 14:6 was Luther, but the reformer himself never said anything like that!) Any preacher who said something like that would immediately be suspect as the likely leader of a cult.
But let us not be too hasty. Jesus is indeed unique because he is God's unique (only begotten) self-communication. "Jesus Christ, as he is being attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death," said the Barmen Declaration of 1934.1 Neither Jesus Christ nor Holy Scripture is under the control of the preacher who is, on the contrary, supposed to be a servant of the Word.
But with all the appropriate emphasis on Christ as the eternal Word of God and on the Bible as the Word of God, we must forget that the proclamation of Christ, based on the biblical witness to Christ, is the Word of God.2 It is in that proclamation of Christ that people encounter him and are brought to faith (Romans 10:8-15). And it is precisely to that ministry of proclamation that preachers are called. The preacher is not the message, as in Jesus' case, but the message the preacher is to deliver is Christ.
Put it another way. Philip Hefner has proposed that the human can be considered theologically as "the created co-creator,"3 an idea that seems especially relevant when we are considering the use and effects of our technology. But in a special sense the woman or man who steps into the pulpit is to be a co-creator because she or he is to proclaim the creative Word by which "the heavens were made" (Psalm 33:6), the Word that brings about new creation in those who hear it in faith.
This is a tremendous privilege as well as a tremendous responsibility. It means, on the one hand, that the preacher has liberty in speaking: In some traditions "the freedom of the pulpit" is language used is describing the call of a pastor. This is fundamentally a consequence of the fact that God's word is free: One prayer of the church is that it "may not be bound but be preached to the joy and edifying of Christ's holy people."4 The proclamation of law and gospel is not to be limited simply because people don't like it.
On the other hand, the preacher is not free to preach anything he or she wishes.
Social, political, cultural, and scientific issues are all part of the situation to which preaching is addressed, and they can all be dealt with legitimately in a sermon. But if all the preacher is doing is offering her or his opinion on gun control, the Super Bowl, or the theory of evolution, then it is not the Word of God that is being proclaimed, and the people who expect to be hearers of the Word are being shortchanged. Paul said, "An obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). The person who has accepted a call to preach should not remain silent but also should be quiet if she or he cannot have some confidence that what will be said is God's Word.
So what is to be said about all this? Preaching about preaching could be a kind of odd self-referential project, but it is important that people understand what preaching is supposed to be. Understanding how Christ encounters us is itself an aspect of encountering Christ. This Sunday, when our lessons concentrate on this task of proclamation and the dangers that it can encounter would be a good time to do this.
One way to begin would be to ask, "What are you here for?" Those who are relatively new to the Christian church, and in some cases even long-time members, may well wonder, "What am I supposed to get out of this?" when the preacher starts into a sermon. "Is this supposed to be an inspirational or motivational talk? Am I going to be entertained? Is this person going to tell me what I should do or not do?" Probably not a lot of unchurched people (and, truth to tell, hardly all churched ones) think of a sermon as the offer of God's gift of acceptance and hope in Christ. Of course if that's going to be stated as the purpose of sermons, the preacher had better craft her or his homiletic efforts with that purpose in mind.
"What am I doing up here?" might be an attention-getting way to start. And the focus of the sermon should not be the preacher's own struggles in dealing with the homiletic task, although they might be alluded to. But again the focus should be on what preaching is supposed to be, not on one's difficulties or satisfactions in doing it.
The congregation should not just be told about the responsibilities and privileges of the preacher. They should also be told about their responsibilities and privileges as hearers of the Word. In particular, they have a right to expect that it is Christ who is preached on the basis of the biblical witness. And if that is consistently not happening, they have a responsibility to express their concerns to the preacher.
It might also be helpful to accompany such a sermon with an educational opportunity in which the actual development of a sermon, starting with a biblical text and a current concern, is discussed. This could put some flesh on what might otherwise be an abstract doctrine.
Another approach would be to consider reasons why God's Word encounters resistance. The people of Jerusalem objected to Jeremiah's words because they wanted to be told that they were safe from the Babylonians, and the people of Nazareth wanted to think that God cared more for them than for Naaman and the widow of Zarephath, but those issues are of little concern to people today. What are the obstacles today? A careful mixture of objections by society in general and those more specific to a particular congregation may enable the preacher to hit close enough to home to get a hearing - but not too close.
(Is that disingenuous? Notice how Amos [chapters 1 and 2] starts out by announcing judgment on Israel's neighbors. His hearers would agree - "Right, those foreigners have got it coming!" Then after he's got them on his side, he proclaims God's judgment on - Israel!)
A final point that might be worth some reflection is the length of speeches. In previous generations both political speeches and sermons might last a couple of hours: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was noted for its brevity, but is far too long for one of today's TV sound bytes. A preacher in colonial America would just be getting warmed up in the time it takes many preachers now to preach a whole sermon.
We might bemoan today's short sermons which, to be realistic, are constrained by the short attention spans of today's audiences. A ten to fifteen minute homily doesn't really allow for any sustained development of ideas. But there is also some value to being concise. If the basic purpose of the sermon is proclamation of news in distinction from transmission of information (which can take place in an educational setting or a newsletter), then it can be brief and still achieve its purpose. One old German preacher said, "I have but one sermon: Come, sinners, and look on Christ." While that shouldn't literally be true, it can remind us that whether a sermon "works" or not will now be determined by how much there is of it.
Notes
1. Rolf Ahlers, The Barmen Declaration of 1934: The Archeology of a Confessional Text (Lewiston, Canada: Edwin Mellen Press, 1986), p. 40.
2. Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936), 1.1, section 4. It is important to add that - to paraphrase the Athanasian Creed - "And yet there are not three Words, but one Word." We would also have to include here the sacraments as "visible words," a term that Augustine ("Tractate LXXX on John," in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol.7 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978], p. 344) used of Baptism.
3. Philip Hefner, The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).
4. Lutheran Book of Worship (Philadelphia: Board of Publication; Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1978), p. 137.
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: George, your illuminating comments on the act of preaching are of value as a communication to preachers concerning our common task. As a resource for a sermon itself, however, they seem to me rather limited.
I question the value, generally, of preaching about preaching. Speaking to a committed congregation of regular attendees - folks who see the act of listening to sermons as an important part of their lives - maybe, just maybe, a preacher could occasionally get away with such a topic. On a typical Sunday morning in my church, however, I look out upon a significant portion of worshipers who are (1) not regular in their attendance, (2) fairly new to worship (or perhaps recently returned after a long absence), or (3) hurting in one way or another to such an extent that they're desperate to hear a message of consolation and hope. The approach of this week's resource - which seems to me to be a kind of meta-message - could very well miss folks like these.
I do think, though, that a current-events emphasis on recent political speeches can provide a springboard to a sermon about (1) the importance of speaking in such a way that we mean what we say, or (2) the nature of truth in general. Either of those directions are ones I could consider, based on Jesus' sermon in the Nazareth synagogue.
The truth, it seems, is becoming something of an endangered species in politics. In recent years we've come to see a blatant and unapologetic style of political lying that goes beyond the broken campaign promises of the past. In Washington, the "spin doctors" rule. Gone are the forthright statesmen of the past: the leaders who developed their own positions and wrote their own speeches. Gone are the likes of Harry Truman, who once responded to the nickname, "Give 'em hell Harry," by saying, "I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell...."
Replacing those sometimes rough-edged leaders of the past are the carefully coifed politicians of the present, surrounded by their attentive corps of "handlers" - the assistants who tell them what to say and when. The handlers listen intently to the polls, holding a moistened finger to the political wind. The truth? Why bother with that, the handlers whisper, when you can mouth a lie that plays well on the evening news?
Some politicians' attempts at evading the truth can be rather pathetic. Take former New York Mayor David Dinkins. He found himself in trouble with the IRS. "I haven't committed a crime," Dinkins told reporters. "What I did was fail to comply with the law."
Someone confronted President Bush's former budget director, Richard Darman, about why the President hadn't kept a campaign promise to preserve wetlands. "The President didn't say that," the budget director shot back. "He read what was given to him in a speech."
The classic slick political line comes from former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry: "Outside of the killings," he explained, "Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."
And of course, former President Clinton's energetic attempt - at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal - to exegete the word "is" will be long remembered as an egregious example of word-spinning.
In contrast to all this is former New York Mayor Ed Koch. Back in 1980, when he was Mayor, Koch was holding a press conference. Somebody asked him about a bike-lane construction program he'd favored - a program that had proved to be a total disaster, as New Yorker drivers ignored the new lanes. "Mayor," a reporter asked, "in light of the financial difficulties New York City is facing, how could you possibly justify wasting $300,000 on bike lanes?"
The room fell silent, prepared for a confrontation. But the Mayor disappointed the circling sharks of the press corps. "It was a terrible idea," he admitted. "I thought it would work, but it didn't. It was one of the worst mistakes I ever made."
The silence continued. Finally, one reporter made a feeble attempt at a follow-up: "But, Mayor Koch, how could you do this?"
"I already told you," the Mayor replied. "It was a stupid idea. It didn't work."
They say it was quite a considerable time before any of the reporters recovered enough from their shock to ask another question. Such candor from a politician - and with the TV cameras running!
How did Jesus sound that day? Was he pacing up and down, pumping his fist in the air with Howard Dean-style fervor? Or was he speaking in the slow, measured tones of an incumbent president, delivering his State of the Union address: with all the assurance of a man who knows the "bully pulpit" belongs to him? Luke gives us few indications of what Jesus' presentation was like: focusing instead on the meaning of his words (although Luke does supply some tantalizing details such as how Jesus stands up, receives a scroll from some unnamed person, unrolls it, and finds the place to begin reading). Did Jesus choose the passage himself, or did he commence reading at a predetermined point, perhaps the place where the previous reader had left off? No one can say for sure.
What is sure is the reaction of his fellow Nazarenes. They consider Jesus' interpretation of Isaiah to be blasphemous. They reject this neighbor, whom most of them have known all their lives. They seem to threaten his very life until, with prophetic panache, he boldly walks through the crowd that can do no other than part before him.
All Jesus does in the Nazareth synagogue is tell the truth. We could do a lot worse in life than strive to do the same: to speak plainly and truly. The word "true" has a very ancient sense; it can mean "level." When carpenters build a wall correctly, or lay a foundation properly, their new creation is said to be "true." The mark of a "true" wall or foundation is the perpendicular plumb line or the little bubble centered in the window of the level. The prophet Amos knew this, as he envisioned his ministry as that of holding a plumb line up to his nation.
The truth to which we Christians bear witness is more than a mere proposition: it is a person. His name is Jesus. He is our Lord and master.
Carter Shelley responds: George, I appreciate the way you let neither the preacher nor the listener off the homiletical hook. You move very well between the political contexts Jeremiah and Jesus faced and the challenges contemporary Christians and ministers face in our own political context. You place strong emphasis upon the Word's power both rhetorically and incarnate. Along the same line of thought, all who utter the Word of God, whether from mountaintop, hometown synagogue, or a pulpit this coming Sunday, must first be listeners before they can become preachers. Jeremiah had to hear God's call before Jeremiah could serve as God's prophet and, earlier in this year's lectionary, Luke describes Jesus as a youngster of twelve or so asking probing questions about both Word and Law of the Temple elders who are amazed by his acumen. Jesus in his human form must study, ponder, and listen for God's Word before he can begin to live out his fulfillment of it. As for the rest of us, preachers and congregants alike, it is easier to talk than to listen, yet it is our hearing of God's call that establishes our vocational call and commitment.
What makes the minister call unique in 2004 is our call to preach and to administer the sacraments. Almost every other task we are called upon to perform as ministers (teaching, visiting, counseling, administering, worship planning, helping the poor, caring for the sick, inspiring, lobbying, protesting, etc.) can be performed as well or better by persons in other professions. Yet we are often so overwhelmed with those particular tasks that we do not have time to listen and hear what God's Word and God's will require of us in sermon preparation and delivery. I, for one, find myself all too often repeating particular phrases and concepts I've spoken many Sundays before, because I haven't worked hard enough to grasp the theological significance or the laity's circumstances to best express what God would have me say.
In the Reformed tradition, the notion of "freedom of the pulpit" is understood differently from Luther's powerful notion of the Gospel as freeing and liberating for the Christian. Reformed congregations vote to call a specific ordained clergyperson to become their minister. In so doing the congregation agrees to pay the minister a fair wage and to trust him or her with the spiritual guidance and nurture of the congregation. That means preaching the Word of God as he or she hears it and understands it as an immediate Word intended to guide the lives of the congregation. The minister does not become a member of the local church. He or she becomes a member of the presbytery in the church's geographical region. A minister is free to preach God's Word as he or she understands it to a specific congregation and a specific situation. Consequently, it was not unusual in the early 1960s for Presbyterian ministers serving congregations in the Southern part of the U.S. to preach against racial segregation to congregants hostile to integration. Church members could express their anger and disagreement with their minister's position by not attending church, direct verbal confrontations, or a withdrawal of church pledges, but they could not fire the minister. Preaching God's Word with fear and trembling wasn't any easier then than it was when Jeremiah first tried to turn down the call. (Jeremiah's confessional passages demonstrate just how lonely and painful such theological candor can be for the preacher.) The conscience of a Reformed minister must guide the sermons he or she preaches, which means proclaiming a Word God would have us hear and not the word that people might prefer to hear.
Your reflections this week raise some provocative questions preachers may wish to explore:
How might our government be different if political leaders did what they thought was best instead of what they thought constituents wanted to hear?
What obstacles do we ministers face when we preach God's Word in 2004?
What do we need to hear in 2004?
What do we want to hear?
What don't we want to hear?
Finally, ministers are called to serve God, to follow Christ, to be open to the inspiration of the Spirit, and to lead. One can almost hear God booming from the burning bush to Moses, "Lead them, Moses, don't poll them. Otherwise, you'll never get them out of Egypt!"
Related Illustrations:
The following poem by pastor and metaphysical poet George Herbert appears at the beginning of chapter 2, "Ethos in the Homiletical Tradition," in Andre Resner's book Preacher and Cross: Person and Message in Theology and Rhetoric (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999):
Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?
He is a brittle crazy glass;
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window, through thy grace.
But when thou dost anneal in glass thy story,
Making thy life to shine within
The holy preacher's; then the light and glory
More rev'rend grows, and more doth win:
Which else shows wat'rish, bleak, and thin.
Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one
When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and awe; but speech alone
Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
And in the ear, not conscience ring (39).
***
Religion has, admittedly, been a powerful force for social stability, supporting indirectly the regime that offers free exercise to all beliefs; but it has also been a prophetic voice of resistance to power when that is unchecked by moral insight. The cleric in jail is an American tradition, the conscientious objector, the practitioner of civil disobedience. The Quaker Anthony Benezet denounced slavery to Patrick Henry, war to General Howe, and the treatment of Arcadians to his local Philadelphia rulers.
-- Gary Wills, Under God: Religion and American Politics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 384
***
The following list, which has been circulating on the Internet for some time, may have something to say about the role of brevity in making an influential speech:
Pythagorean theorem: 24 words
The Lord's Prayer: 66 words
Archimedes' Principle: 67 words
The Ten Commandments: 179 words
The Gettysburg Address: 286 words
The Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words
U.S. government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words
***
The seal of Harvard University displays an open book, with the motto "Veritas," Latin for "Truth." This, however, is not the seal Harvard has always used. The original university crest showed three open books, one of them facedown, to show the limitations of human knowledge. The motto underneath was not simply "Veritas" or "Truth" but "Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae"-"Truth for Christ and the Church." It is interesting to note how one of the greatest universities in the land, founded originally for the purpose of training young men for the ministry, has strayed so far from its theological roots. Is there such a thing as truth without a divine truth in which it is grounded?
***
"What is worst of all is to advocate Christianity, not because it is true but because it might prove useful ... To justify Christianity because it provides a foundation of morality, instead of showing the necessity of Christian morality from the truth of Christianity, is a very dangerous inversion ... It is not enthusiasm, but dogma, that differentiates a Christian from a pagan society."
-- T. S. Eliot
***
"In downtown Honolulu our historic Kawaiaha'o Church where many descendants of the native Hawaiian monarchy and their people worship, the preacher is expected to remove his or her shoes before entering the pulpit. It is a tradition that evokes the biblical injunction to remove one's shoes when standing on holy ground. It also invites us to feel the ground beneath our feet, to be sensitive to even the slightest thing that causes hurt."
-- John H. Thomas, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ, from the UCC web page
***
It is useful for preachers to examine whether the nineteenth-century words of Herman Melville are still true in our time. Describing the notable pulpit in the New Bedford, Massachusetts, seamen's church in Moby Dick, Melville observes that it is configured so as to simulate the prow of a ship. Then he continues,
"What could be more full of meaning? - for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favorable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow."
-- Moby Dick (1851; reprint, New York: Norton, 1967), chapter 8, pp. 43-44.
***
"The theologian's job is not to make the gospel credible to the modern world, but to make the world credible to the gospel."
-- Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
***
"The most feared event in life is public speaking, followed by death. So it is less stressful during a funeral to be in the casket than to deliver the eulogy."
-- Martin E. Marty, Context, 1 March 1994, p. 4
Worship Resources
by Chuck Cammarata
CALL TO WORSHIP (Option 1, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)
You may be wondering how the "Love Chapter" attaches to a sermon on preaching. Good question! My thinking on this is that ultimately every word of God, be it a word of encouragement, appreciation, challenge, or judgment, is rooted in God's central characteristic, love! Whether we speak law or grace from the pulpit, we speak love.
LEADER: God is love!
PEOPLE: Love is patient and kind,
LEADER: It does not envy or boast,
PEOPLE: It is not arrogant or rude.
LEADER: Love does not insist on its own way,
PEOPLE: It is not irritable or resentful.
LEADER: Love does not celebrate the wrong,
PEOPLE: But rejoices in the right.
LEADER: Love bears all things,
PEOPLE: Believes all things,
LEADER: Hopes all things,
PEOPLE: Endures all things.
LEADER: Love never ends.
PEOPLE: God is love!
CALL TO WORSHIP (Option 2)
If you have a tolerant congregation (or if you will be moving to another church soon!) you might try this one. Have three or four cheerleaders rush out into the chancel area and do the following cheer.
Give me a "G" --- "G"
Give me an "O" --- "O"
Give me an "S" and a "P" --- "S & P"
Give me an "E" --- "E"
Give me an "L" --- "L"
What does it spell?
What does it spell?
Gospel! Gospel!
We've come to hear the Gospel. Yeah!
CALL TO WORSHIP (Option 3)
Because option 2 is not likely to be used by many of you, this week - and this week alone - we offer a third option absolutely free.
LEADER: A little whisper here,
PEOPLE: In the hushed descent of the snow.
LEADER: An attention-getting shout there,
PEOPLE: As bombs explode and people die in Iraq.
LEADER: A chord struck,
PEOPLE: When a certain song plays on the radio.
LEADER: A nerve hit,
PEOPLE: When a friend loving points out a destructive flaw.
LEADER: Insight gained,
PEOPLE: From a simple Sunday school lesson.
LEADER: Inspiration received,
PEOPLE: From a humble preacher's faithful efforts.
LEADER: God still speaks!
PEOPLE: Come, let us listen!
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (Option 1)
A note on the use of the word "men" in the prayer of confession: Obviously it is easily changed to "humans" or something else (you could also use my alternate translation below), but I left the old RSV language in because many people have put this passage to memory using that particular translation (OK, it's because I memorized it that way) and it speaks to them in the old language. My alternate translation is "If I speak eloquently in human or angelic tongues ..."
LEADER: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
PEOPLE: I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
LEADER: If I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
PEOPLE: If I have a faith that can move mountains,
LEADER: But have not love,
PEOPLE: I am nothing.
LEADER: If I give all I own to the poor,
PEOPLE: And give my body to burned,
LEADER: But have not love,
PEOPLE: I gain nothing.
LEADER: God of love,
PEOPLE: We have failed at love.
LEADER: We have mastered knowledge, languages,
PEOPLE: Technologies, polities,
LEADER: Prayers, and scriptures,
PEOPLE: But we have neglected the heart of it all:
LEADER: Love!
PEOPLE: Forgive our focus on the facades of faith,
LEADER: And turn our attentions to the heart,
PEOPLE: To love!
LEADER: For we pray it in the name of Jesus Christ,
PEOPLE: Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
Where there is love there is forgiveness, an abundant, ever-refreshing stream of forgiveness. Come, all you who wish to be renewed. Come, all you who desire to repent and begin again. Come, all you have been broken on the rocks of self, and you will be healed by the waters of forgiveness.
This is the good news of the gospel. Amen!
PASTORAL PRAYER
As we are entering full force into the political campaign for the presidency, this might be a good week to pray about political speech.
Let us pray,
Lord, we use words so continuously and casually in this culture that we forget their power. You spoke all of creation into existence. "Let there be light!" Boom! "And there was light." Help us to attend to our words, to speak the truth, but only in love. And where there is no love, help us to hold our tongues.
And we pray for our political leaders. May they be men and women of such character that they too speak truth with compassion. And when and where they stoop to character assassination, when they seek only to injure, let us turn a deaf ear that we might not become part of the great mob that becomes increasingly less civil with each passing year.
Instead make us lights in the way we use words. That others may see that truth can be spoken in love, and that only loving language has the power to ennoble and redeem.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, The Word of God. Amen.
HYMNS AND SONGS
All the hymns and choruses below can be found in Hymnal for Worship and Celebration 1986 (Word Music)
O Word of God Incarnate
Wonderful Words of Life
Standing on the Promises
Holy Bible, Book Divine
To Be God's People
Thy Word
Send the Light
Two Children's Sermon
by Wesley T. Runk
Learning to Listen
Luke 4:21-30
"They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff." (v. 29)
Object: Form 2 lines of children based upon what options you offer them. Have someone read all of the number 1's and you read the number 2's.
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know that there are men and women talking about being the president of the United States? (let them answer) Do you know the names of anyone who wants to be president? (let them answer) Very good! These people make a lot of promises to the American people that they say they will keep if they are elected. They promise to win the war or bring the soldiers home. They promise to make it a better country to live in by getting rid of crime, having better jobs, making more money, and a lot of other promises. Americans have to listen very carefully to what they hear.
Let me show you what I mean. I want you to listen to me and (name the person who will read the first options) while we make you some promises.
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you will only have to eat ice cream and hot dogs and drink coca-cola.
2. I promise you that if you will let me be your leader you will have to drink milk and eat cereal, vegetables and fruits.
If you want to follow (name the person who reads #1), you stand in his line and if you are going to follow me, then you must stand in my line. (Repeat with each question)
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you can watch any TV program that you want to watch.
2. I promise you that if you let me be your leader I will check out the programs on TV and make sure that you will only see the kind of programs that are good for children.
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you can stay up as late as you want to stay up.
2. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you will go to bed at the proper time a child of your age should be in bed and not a minute sooner or later.
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you will only have to go to school when you want to go to school and stay home when you want to stay home and watch TV.
2. I promise you that if you let me be your leader I will get you up in the morning and see that you get to school on time.
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader I will pick up all of your toys, clean your room, take care of your pets, and let you take baths only when you want.
2. I promise you that if you let me be your leader I will teach you how to pick up your own toys, show you how to keep your room clean, make you responsible for your own pets and see that you are clean every day of your life.
We all have to make choices, don't we? This is nothing new. When Jesus was beginning his ministry he had to say things that everyone did not want to hear. He could have told them what they wanted to hear and would have been pretty popular. But instead the people said that he should watch what he said because he was no better than they were. As a matter of fact, they became so angry with him that they tried to throw him off of a cliff.
Sometimes the things we want to hear are not the best things for us. We need to listen very carefully and choose the harder way rather than the easy way. That is what makes us believers and followers of Jesus.
The next time someone promises you something that sounds like fun but you know it is not good for you, I want you to think about what makes a real leader and what makes a bad leader. Thank you for being here today and God bless you. Amen.
Alternative Children's Sermon
Jesus In The News
Luke 4:21-30
He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.' " (v. 23)
Object: a newspaper
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have read the newspaper that was delivered to your house yesterday? (let them answer) Tell me what you have read. (let them answer) You read the funnies and what else? (let them answer) Most of you do not read the rest of the paper yet, but before long you will. When you do, you will read about some very interesting people and the things that they have done. You also will read some interesting things about people who live in other towns and cities. When someone does something that is very interesting in another city, the newspaper prints it in our town and we read about the things that person has done. (read such an article in the newspaper that you brought with you)
This is the way that it was with Jesus. When Jesus came into a town, the people had already heard about the things that he had done in other places. They wanted him to do the same things for them. The news traveled fast.
But Jesus was not just doing things so that people could write about him in the newspaper, or talk about him to friends and neighbors. That was not the reason. Jesus did what he wanted to do for people who were ill because they were ill, and because they believed in the power of God to make them well. Jesus called that kind of belief "faith."
When Jesus came to his hometown, the people did not believe that he was the Son of God. Instead, they thought that he was just like all of the other boys who had grown up there, but with some special magic. They knew him as the son of Mary and Joseph, and not as the Son of God. They did not have faith or believe that God wanted to make them well. Because the people did not believe Jesus, he could not cure them. He could not cure someone who did not believe that it was God who was doing the healing.
We have read a lot about Jesus and talked a lot about Jesus. You can find something in your newspaper almost every day about him. If you do not believe that his power comes from God, then Jesus is not something special to you. Reading about him, or talking about him doesn't make him our Savior. Believing in him does, and that is what the people of Nazareth did not do.
We want to believe in Jesus and believe that he can do what he says, so we must have faith that Jesus is the Son of God and that he has great power. When you read about him in your newspaper, then you can say that you also know him in your heart. God bless you.
A Subscriber's Response to The Immediate Word for January 25, 2004
Subject: Luke 4:14-30; crime and reaction
As I was preparing this week's message (I combined the Gospel passages for this week and next), I was struck by what Jesus omitted (the day of vengeance) and how apropos the Scripture is to my life this past week. You see, last Monday at 1:45 in the afternoon in the church parking lot, the church secretary and I were carjacked at gunpoint. God blessed me with the calmness, wisdom, and words we needed so we were unharmed even though the thieves got her SUV, purse, and cell phone.
But the reaction of family, church members and others who claim the name of Christ has been very disturbing. It seems that a call for vengeance, use of racial epithets, and talk of carrying guns and killing someone has been the response of a significant number of persons. I fear that we have forgotten the one who proclaimed healing, deliverance, and freedom and, most of all, love for one's enemies and those who wrong us in favor of being those who look forward only to the day when God will wreak vengeance on the ungodly.
The Jesus who read the Scripture in Nazareth that day is the Christ of restoration, not retribution. The incident this week has reminded me of that in a mighty way. It's not easy, but we are called to stand on the edge of the cliff with our Lord, not be one of the angry mob seeking to push him off! Blessings and peace.
-- Rev. Carole L. Elrod, Sandusky United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Alabama
* * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 1, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
Christians have always emphasized the potential power of the "living," spoken word. Words can offend, comfort, deceive, instruct, alienate, encourage, inflame, and heal - and so much more. We speak of the creating Word and the incarnate Word. But in our preaching are we clear in what we want to accomplish with our words? And is our intention obvious to our parishioners? Are we aware of the possible effect (or non-effect) of our words on those who hear?
With primary reference to the First Lesson and the Gospel of the lectionary, George Murphy reflects on the political word, the prophetic word, the incarnate Word, and the homiletical word. He alludes to current political speech and then draws on the traditional distinction between law and gospel in urging us to communicate both the demand and the grace of God to a people in need of hearing redemptive truth.
Team comments, illustrations, worship resources, a children's sermon, and a gripping response to last week's issue from a subscriber round out this issue of The Immediate Word.
OVER THE TOP AND OVER A CLIFF
Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30
by George L. Murphy
Speeches have been in the news in the past several days. There were speeches by Democratic candidates for the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. Howard Dean's concession speech in Iowa, which many people have seen as over the top more because of its style than its content, got a lot of attention. There was George Bush's State of the Union address, which was seen quite generally as the beginning of his campaign for reelection. And there will be a lot more speeches in the primary and general election seasons ahead. You can count on about ten months of sound bytes on television.
A sermon that addresses current political goings-on is sometimes appropriate, but let us not forget that preachers themselves give speeches - sermons, homilies, or call them what you will - as a primary part of their calling. And while members of a congregation may have listened to many sermons, they may have never given serious thought to the question of what a sermon is supposed to be. The lessons for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (1 February) this year provide an opportunity to reflect in several ways on these topics. What are the responsibilities of speakers and of those who hear them?
Jeremiah 1:4-10 and Luke 4:21-30 both deal with speeches, and speeches that meet with antagonism. In the First Lesson, Jeremiah is called as a prophet to proclaim God's word. Even though this introduction to his ministry doesn't give us any examples of conflict, we know that they will come. Jeremiah is told not to fear those who oppose him, and plenty of opposition will materialize later in the book (Jeremiah 7:1-15 and 26:1-19 seem to be two accounts of the prophet's "Temple sermon" that nearly got him killed). Jeremiah is not unique in this regard. The prophetic message often meets with resistance and hostility.
That was also the case for John the Baptist, and it continues to be so for Jesus. In the Gospel for this past Sunday (Luke 4:14-21), we read of the beginning of his ministry when he preached in the synagogue of his hometown, Nazareth. What he said apparently impressed his hearers, and, as he continues this week, he makes his audience so angry that they want to shove him over a cliff.
There is one simple prescription politicians or preachers may follow to keep from arousing opposition: Simply tell your audience what they want to hear. But often that sounds easier than it actually is. Sometimes it's hard to gauge what the audience will like. And what one part of your audience wants to hear is what the other part rejects. (Think of the President's State of the Union address, with half the chamber applauding at some points while those in the other half sit on their hands.)
The more fundamental point, however, is that responsible politicians and preachers aren't just to tailor their words to the wishes of their hearers. A political leader of any quality is to show some leadership, which means sometimes telling people what they need to hear but at the moment don't want to. The prophet is called to proclaim God's word, not a word determined by the latest opinion survey. Isaiah speaks contemptuously of the people who said in effect to their leaders in a time of crisis, "Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions" (Isaiah 30:10). There are important differences between politicians and preachers, but both are called to speak the truth.
It has been said that the task of the preachers is "to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." To put it more formally, God's Word that is to be proclaimed is law and gospel. Law is God's demand and, while it has several functions, we will always find that we come up short when measured against this standard. On the other hand, the gospel (in the narrow sense) is pure promise. It offers a gift - most importantly, salvation in Christ, which only needs to be accepted. Both can arouse opposition.
It's easy to see why the proclamation of God's law can do that: We don't like to be told that we're sinners. We don't want to hear that what we're doing is wrong, that our expectations are unrealistic and our hopes are misplaced. Criticism of a culture with which we've identified ourselves makes us uncomfortable, and we resent the suggestion that we benefit from systemic injustices. Someone who speaks "smooth things" will get a more friendly hearing.
It may be harder to see why a proclamation of good news should anger people, but that's in fact what happened in Nazareth. The congregation there seems to be puzzled by the acclaim given to the hometown boy who never seemed all that special to them, but they really get mad when Jesus reminds them of the extent of God's care for people. In the story of Elijah it was a foreign woman who was kept alive during the famine, and the Syrian commander Naaman - an enemy of Israel! - who had been healed by Elisha.
If God loves everybody, then God doesn't love me any more than anyone else. Our reaction to the blessing of someone we consider unworthy may be like that of the older son in the story of prodigal. There is a tendency to consider life a zero-sum game, so that if somebody else wins we have to lose. Good news for others is bad news for us.
Even though I've couched this in theological terms, it has a good deal of relevance to the political situation. After all, the situations that both Jeremiah and Jesus had to confront had political components, and neither was concerned solely with the relationship between the individual and God. It would be helpful, as Americans prepare for months of political campaigning, to reflect on the responsibilities both candidates for office and voters have in the light of this call to speak - and to look for - the truth, whether the news is good or bad. Some speeches will criticize tax cuts and their effect on the economy, but how many will contain straightforward calls for tax increases? We may forgive mistakes that were made in going to war and in the conduct of that war, but will those who made mistakes be willing to admit them?
But this is preeminently a concern for preachers and their hearers. The preacher is called to proclaim law and gospel in real-world situations, and should not flinch at that because a particular application of law or gospel will be unpopular. But members of congregations also have responsibilities to hear the Word with discernment: to call the preacher to account if he or she is off base, but to be self-critical when the Word shows them to be off base.
Just what is going on when a preacher gets into the pulpit on Sunday morning?
Is this supposed to be instruction, cheerleading, or entertainment? Why do we do this as part of Christian worship? Is it just tradition? We can begin with the story of Jesus' sermon in Nazareth (including the readings for both last Sunday and this one) in order to get some answers to those questions.
Jesus begins by reading from the scriptures - from Isaiah 61:1-2 in particular - and then speaks about the significance of what he's read. So far that's what we're used to (or should be used to!) in preaching. But then there's a big difference. Jesus says, "What you've just heard is fulfilled by me and what I'm doing." Jesus himself is the sermon! His claim that the prophetic word points to him is justified by his designation as Son of God at his baptism and his testing in the wilderness. It is significant that Jesus never uses the prophetic formula "Thus says the LORD," because he is not simply a messenger. He is the message.
No sensible preacher today would or should claim that some biblical passage has her or him specifically in mind. (Some overly imaginative Lutherans have thought that the angel of Revelation 14:6 was Luther, but the reformer himself never said anything like that!) Any preacher who said something like that would immediately be suspect as the likely leader of a cult.
But let us not be too hasty. Jesus is indeed unique because he is God's unique (only begotten) self-communication. "Jesus Christ, as he is being attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death," said the Barmen Declaration of 1934.1 Neither Jesus Christ nor Holy Scripture is under the control of the preacher who is, on the contrary, supposed to be a servant of the Word.
But with all the appropriate emphasis on Christ as the eternal Word of God and on the Bible as the Word of God, we must forget that the proclamation of Christ, based on the biblical witness to Christ, is the Word of God.2 It is in that proclamation of Christ that people encounter him and are brought to faith (Romans 10:8-15). And it is precisely to that ministry of proclamation that preachers are called. The preacher is not the message, as in Jesus' case, but the message the preacher is to deliver is Christ.
Put it another way. Philip Hefner has proposed that the human can be considered theologically as "the created co-creator,"3 an idea that seems especially relevant when we are considering the use and effects of our technology. But in a special sense the woman or man who steps into the pulpit is to be a co-creator because she or he is to proclaim the creative Word by which "the heavens were made" (Psalm 33:6), the Word that brings about new creation in those who hear it in faith.
This is a tremendous privilege as well as a tremendous responsibility. It means, on the one hand, that the preacher has liberty in speaking: In some traditions "the freedom of the pulpit" is language used is describing the call of a pastor. This is fundamentally a consequence of the fact that God's word is free: One prayer of the church is that it "may not be bound but be preached to the joy and edifying of Christ's holy people."4 The proclamation of law and gospel is not to be limited simply because people don't like it.
On the other hand, the preacher is not free to preach anything he or she wishes.
Social, political, cultural, and scientific issues are all part of the situation to which preaching is addressed, and they can all be dealt with legitimately in a sermon. But if all the preacher is doing is offering her or his opinion on gun control, the Super Bowl, or the theory of evolution, then it is not the Word of God that is being proclaimed, and the people who expect to be hearers of the Word are being shortchanged. Paul said, "An obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). The person who has accepted a call to preach should not remain silent but also should be quiet if she or he cannot have some confidence that what will be said is God's Word.
So what is to be said about all this? Preaching about preaching could be a kind of odd self-referential project, but it is important that people understand what preaching is supposed to be. Understanding how Christ encounters us is itself an aspect of encountering Christ. This Sunday, when our lessons concentrate on this task of proclamation and the dangers that it can encounter would be a good time to do this.
One way to begin would be to ask, "What are you here for?" Those who are relatively new to the Christian church, and in some cases even long-time members, may well wonder, "What am I supposed to get out of this?" when the preacher starts into a sermon. "Is this supposed to be an inspirational or motivational talk? Am I going to be entertained? Is this person going to tell me what I should do or not do?" Probably not a lot of unchurched people (and, truth to tell, hardly all churched ones) think of a sermon as the offer of God's gift of acceptance and hope in Christ. Of course if that's going to be stated as the purpose of sermons, the preacher had better craft her or his homiletic efforts with that purpose in mind.
"What am I doing up here?" might be an attention-getting way to start. And the focus of the sermon should not be the preacher's own struggles in dealing with the homiletic task, although they might be alluded to. But again the focus should be on what preaching is supposed to be, not on one's difficulties or satisfactions in doing it.
The congregation should not just be told about the responsibilities and privileges of the preacher. They should also be told about their responsibilities and privileges as hearers of the Word. In particular, they have a right to expect that it is Christ who is preached on the basis of the biblical witness. And if that is consistently not happening, they have a responsibility to express their concerns to the preacher.
It might also be helpful to accompany such a sermon with an educational opportunity in which the actual development of a sermon, starting with a biblical text and a current concern, is discussed. This could put some flesh on what might otherwise be an abstract doctrine.
Another approach would be to consider reasons why God's Word encounters resistance. The people of Jerusalem objected to Jeremiah's words because they wanted to be told that they were safe from the Babylonians, and the people of Nazareth wanted to think that God cared more for them than for Naaman and the widow of Zarephath, but those issues are of little concern to people today. What are the obstacles today? A careful mixture of objections by society in general and those more specific to a particular congregation may enable the preacher to hit close enough to home to get a hearing - but not too close.
(Is that disingenuous? Notice how Amos [chapters 1 and 2] starts out by announcing judgment on Israel's neighbors. His hearers would agree - "Right, those foreigners have got it coming!" Then after he's got them on his side, he proclaims God's judgment on - Israel!)
A final point that might be worth some reflection is the length of speeches. In previous generations both political speeches and sermons might last a couple of hours: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was noted for its brevity, but is far too long for one of today's TV sound bytes. A preacher in colonial America would just be getting warmed up in the time it takes many preachers now to preach a whole sermon.
We might bemoan today's short sermons which, to be realistic, are constrained by the short attention spans of today's audiences. A ten to fifteen minute homily doesn't really allow for any sustained development of ideas. But there is also some value to being concise. If the basic purpose of the sermon is proclamation of news in distinction from transmission of information (which can take place in an educational setting or a newsletter), then it can be brief and still achieve its purpose. One old German preacher said, "I have but one sermon: Come, sinners, and look on Christ." While that shouldn't literally be true, it can remind us that whether a sermon "works" or not will now be determined by how much there is of it.
Notes
1. Rolf Ahlers, The Barmen Declaration of 1934: The Archeology of a Confessional Text (Lewiston, Canada: Edwin Mellen Press, 1986), p. 40.
2. Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936), 1.1, section 4. It is important to add that - to paraphrase the Athanasian Creed - "And yet there are not three Words, but one Word." We would also have to include here the sacraments as "visible words," a term that Augustine ("Tractate LXXX on John," in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol.7 [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978], p. 344) used of Baptism.
3. Philip Hefner, The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).
4. Lutheran Book of Worship (Philadelphia: Board of Publication; Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1978), p. 137.
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: George, your illuminating comments on the act of preaching are of value as a communication to preachers concerning our common task. As a resource for a sermon itself, however, they seem to me rather limited.
I question the value, generally, of preaching about preaching. Speaking to a committed congregation of regular attendees - folks who see the act of listening to sermons as an important part of their lives - maybe, just maybe, a preacher could occasionally get away with such a topic. On a typical Sunday morning in my church, however, I look out upon a significant portion of worshipers who are (1) not regular in their attendance, (2) fairly new to worship (or perhaps recently returned after a long absence), or (3) hurting in one way or another to such an extent that they're desperate to hear a message of consolation and hope. The approach of this week's resource - which seems to me to be a kind of meta-message - could very well miss folks like these.
I do think, though, that a current-events emphasis on recent political speeches can provide a springboard to a sermon about (1) the importance of speaking in such a way that we mean what we say, or (2) the nature of truth in general. Either of those directions are ones I could consider, based on Jesus' sermon in the Nazareth synagogue.
The truth, it seems, is becoming something of an endangered species in politics. In recent years we've come to see a blatant and unapologetic style of political lying that goes beyond the broken campaign promises of the past. In Washington, the "spin doctors" rule. Gone are the forthright statesmen of the past: the leaders who developed their own positions and wrote their own speeches. Gone are the likes of Harry Truman, who once responded to the nickname, "Give 'em hell Harry," by saying, "I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell...."
Replacing those sometimes rough-edged leaders of the past are the carefully coifed politicians of the present, surrounded by their attentive corps of "handlers" - the assistants who tell them what to say and when. The handlers listen intently to the polls, holding a moistened finger to the political wind. The truth? Why bother with that, the handlers whisper, when you can mouth a lie that plays well on the evening news?
Some politicians' attempts at evading the truth can be rather pathetic. Take former New York Mayor David Dinkins. He found himself in trouble with the IRS. "I haven't committed a crime," Dinkins told reporters. "What I did was fail to comply with the law."
Someone confronted President Bush's former budget director, Richard Darman, about why the President hadn't kept a campaign promise to preserve wetlands. "The President didn't say that," the budget director shot back. "He read what was given to him in a speech."
The classic slick political line comes from former Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry: "Outside of the killings," he explained, "Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."
And of course, former President Clinton's energetic attempt - at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal - to exegete the word "is" will be long remembered as an egregious example of word-spinning.
In contrast to all this is former New York Mayor Ed Koch. Back in 1980, when he was Mayor, Koch was holding a press conference. Somebody asked him about a bike-lane construction program he'd favored - a program that had proved to be a total disaster, as New Yorker drivers ignored the new lanes. "Mayor," a reporter asked, "in light of the financial difficulties New York City is facing, how could you possibly justify wasting $300,000 on bike lanes?"
The room fell silent, prepared for a confrontation. But the Mayor disappointed the circling sharks of the press corps. "It was a terrible idea," he admitted. "I thought it would work, but it didn't. It was one of the worst mistakes I ever made."
The silence continued. Finally, one reporter made a feeble attempt at a follow-up: "But, Mayor Koch, how could you do this?"
"I already told you," the Mayor replied. "It was a stupid idea. It didn't work."
They say it was quite a considerable time before any of the reporters recovered enough from their shock to ask another question. Such candor from a politician - and with the TV cameras running!
How did Jesus sound that day? Was he pacing up and down, pumping his fist in the air with Howard Dean-style fervor? Or was he speaking in the slow, measured tones of an incumbent president, delivering his State of the Union address: with all the assurance of a man who knows the "bully pulpit" belongs to him? Luke gives us few indications of what Jesus' presentation was like: focusing instead on the meaning of his words (although Luke does supply some tantalizing details such as how Jesus stands up, receives a scroll from some unnamed person, unrolls it, and finds the place to begin reading). Did Jesus choose the passage himself, or did he commence reading at a predetermined point, perhaps the place where the previous reader had left off? No one can say for sure.
What is sure is the reaction of his fellow Nazarenes. They consider Jesus' interpretation of Isaiah to be blasphemous. They reject this neighbor, whom most of them have known all their lives. They seem to threaten his very life until, with prophetic panache, he boldly walks through the crowd that can do no other than part before him.
All Jesus does in the Nazareth synagogue is tell the truth. We could do a lot worse in life than strive to do the same: to speak plainly and truly. The word "true" has a very ancient sense; it can mean "level." When carpenters build a wall correctly, or lay a foundation properly, their new creation is said to be "true." The mark of a "true" wall or foundation is the perpendicular plumb line or the little bubble centered in the window of the level. The prophet Amos knew this, as he envisioned his ministry as that of holding a plumb line up to his nation.
The truth to which we Christians bear witness is more than a mere proposition: it is a person. His name is Jesus. He is our Lord and master.
Carter Shelley responds: George, I appreciate the way you let neither the preacher nor the listener off the homiletical hook. You move very well between the political contexts Jeremiah and Jesus faced and the challenges contemporary Christians and ministers face in our own political context. You place strong emphasis upon the Word's power both rhetorically and incarnate. Along the same line of thought, all who utter the Word of God, whether from mountaintop, hometown synagogue, or a pulpit this coming Sunday, must first be listeners before they can become preachers. Jeremiah had to hear God's call before Jeremiah could serve as God's prophet and, earlier in this year's lectionary, Luke describes Jesus as a youngster of twelve or so asking probing questions about both Word and Law of the Temple elders who are amazed by his acumen. Jesus in his human form must study, ponder, and listen for God's Word before he can begin to live out his fulfillment of it. As for the rest of us, preachers and congregants alike, it is easier to talk than to listen, yet it is our hearing of God's call that establishes our vocational call and commitment.
What makes the minister call unique in 2004 is our call to preach and to administer the sacraments. Almost every other task we are called upon to perform as ministers (teaching, visiting, counseling, administering, worship planning, helping the poor, caring for the sick, inspiring, lobbying, protesting, etc.) can be performed as well or better by persons in other professions. Yet we are often so overwhelmed with those particular tasks that we do not have time to listen and hear what God's Word and God's will require of us in sermon preparation and delivery. I, for one, find myself all too often repeating particular phrases and concepts I've spoken many Sundays before, because I haven't worked hard enough to grasp the theological significance or the laity's circumstances to best express what God would have me say.
In the Reformed tradition, the notion of "freedom of the pulpit" is understood differently from Luther's powerful notion of the Gospel as freeing and liberating for the Christian. Reformed congregations vote to call a specific ordained clergyperson to become their minister. In so doing the congregation agrees to pay the minister a fair wage and to trust him or her with the spiritual guidance and nurture of the congregation. That means preaching the Word of God as he or she hears it and understands it as an immediate Word intended to guide the lives of the congregation. The minister does not become a member of the local church. He or she becomes a member of the presbytery in the church's geographical region. A minister is free to preach God's Word as he or she understands it to a specific congregation and a specific situation. Consequently, it was not unusual in the early 1960s for Presbyterian ministers serving congregations in the Southern part of the U.S. to preach against racial segregation to congregants hostile to integration. Church members could express their anger and disagreement with their minister's position by not attending church, direct verbal confrontations, or a withdrawal of church pledges, but they could not fire the minister. Preaching God's Word with fear and trembling wasn't any easier then than it was when Jeremiah first tried to turn down the call. (Jeremiah's confessional passages demonstrate just how lonely and painful such theological candor can be for the preacher.) The conscience of a Reformed minister must guide the sermons he or she preaches, which means proclaiming a Word God would have us hear and not the word that people might prefer to hear.
Your reflections this week raise some provocative questions preachers may wish to explore:
How might our government be different if political leaders did what they thought was best instead of what they thought constituents wanted to hear?
What obstacles do we ministers face when we preach God's Word in 2004?
What do we need to hear in 2004?
What do we want to hear?
What don't we want to hear?
Finally, ministers are called to serve God, to follow Christ, to be open to the inspiration of the Spirit, and to lead. One can almost hear God booming from the burning bush to Moses, "Lead them, Moses, don't poll them. Otherwise, you'll never get them out of Egypt!"
Related Illustrations:
The following poem by pastor and metaphysical poet George Herbert appears at the beginning of chapter 2, "Ethos in the Homiletical Tradition," in Andre Resner's book Preacher and Cross: Person and Message in Theology and Rhetoric (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999):
Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?
He is a brittle crazy glass;
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window, through thy grace.
But when thou dost anneal in glass thy story,
Making thy life to shine within
The holy preacher's; then the light and glory
More rev'rend grows, and more doth win:
Which else shows wat'rish, bleak, and thin.
Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one
When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and awe; but speech alone
Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
And in the ear, not conscience ring (39).
***
Religion has, admittedly, been a powerful force for social stability, supporting indirectly the regime that offers free exercise to all beliefs; but it has also been a prophetic voice of resistance to power when that is unchecked by moral insight. The cleric in jail is an American tradition, the conscientious objector, the practitioner of civil disobedience. The Quaker Anthony Benezet denounced slavery to Patrick Henry, war to General Howe, and the treatment of Arcadians to his local Philadelphia rulers.
-- Gary Wills, Under God: Religion and American Politics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 384
***
The following list, which has been circulating on the Internet for some time, may have something to say about the role of brevity in making an influential speech:
Pythagorean theorem: 24 words
The Lord's Prayer: 66 words
Archimedes' Principle: 67 words
The Ten Commandments: 179 words
The Gettysburg Address: 286 words
The Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words
U.S. government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words
***
The seal of Harvard University displays an open book, with the motto "Veritas," Latin for "Truth." This, however, is not the seal Harvard has always used. The original university crest showed three open books, one of them facedown, to show the limitations of human knowledge. The motto underneath was not simply "Veritas" or "Truth" but "Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae"-"Truth for Christ and the Church." It is interesting to note how one of the greatest universities in the land, founded originally for the purpose of training young men for the ministry, has strayed so far from its theological roots. Is there such a thing as truth without a divine truth in which it is grounded?
***
"What is worst of all is to advocate Christianity, not because it is true but because it might prove useful ... To justify Christianity because it provides a foundation of morality, instead of showing the necessity of Christian morality from the truth of Christianity, is a very dangerous inversion ... It is not enthusiasm, but dogma, that differentiates a Christian from a pagan society."
-- T. S. Eliot
***
"In downtown Honolulu our historic Kawaiaha'o Church where many descendants of the native Hawaiian monarchy and their people worship, the preacher is expected to remove his or her shoes before entering the pulpit. It is a tradition that evokes the biblical injunction to remove one's shoes when standing on holy ground. It also invites us to feel the ground beneath our feet, to be sensitive to even the slightest thing that causes hurt."
-- John H. Thomas, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ, from the UCC web page
***
It is useful for preachers to examine whether the nineteenth-century words of Herman Melville are still true in our time. Describing the notable pulpit in the New Bedford, Massachusetts, seamen's church in Moby Dick, Melville observes that it is configured so as to simulate the prow of a ship. Then he continues,
"What could be more full of meaning? - for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favorable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow."
-- Moby Dick (1851; reprint, New York: Norton, 1967), chapter 8, pp. 43-44.
***
"The theologian's job is not to make the gospel credible to the modern world, but to make the world credible to the gospel."
-- Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
***
"The most feared event in life is public speaking, followed by death. So it is less stressful during a funeral to be in the casket than to deliver the eulogy."
-- Martin E. Marty, Context, 1 March 1994, p. 4
Worship Resources
by Chuck Cammarata
CALL TO WORSHIP (Option 1, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)
You may be wondering how the "Love Chapter" attaches to a sermon on preaching. Good question! My thinking on this is that ultimately every word of God, be it a word of encouragement, appreciation, challenge, or judgment, is rooted in God's central characteristic, love! Whether we speak law or grace from the pulpit, we speak love.
LEADER: God is love!
PEOPLE: Love is patient and kind,
LEADER: It does not envy or boast,
PEOPLE: It is not arrogant or rude.
LEADER: Love does not insist on its own way,
PEOPLE: It is not irritable or resentful.
LEADER: Love does not celebrate the wrong,
PEOPLE: But rejoices in the right.
LEADER: Love bears all things,
PEOPLE: Believes all things,
LEADER: Hopes all things,
PEOPLE: Endures all things.
LEADER: Love never ends.
PEOPLE: God is love!
CALL TO WORSHIP (Option 2)
If you have a tolerant congregation (or if you will be moving to another church soon!) you might try this one. Have three or four cheerleaders rush out into the chancel area and do the following cheer.
Give me a "G" --- "G"
Give me an "O" --- "O"
Give me an "S" and a "P" --- "S & P"
Give me an "E" --- "E"
Give me an "L" --- "L"
What does it spell?
What does it spell?
Gospel! Gospel!
We've come to hear the Gospel. Yeah!
CALL TO WORSHIP (Option 3)
Because option 2 is not likely to be used by many of you, this week - and this week alone - we offer a third option absolutely free.
LEADER: A little whisper here,
PEOPLE: In the hushed descent of the snow.
LEADER: An attention-getting shout there,
PEOPLE: As bombs explode and people die in Iraq.
LEADER: A chord struck,
PEOPLE: When a certain song plays on the radio.
LEADER: A nerve hit,
PEOPLE: When a friend loving points out a destructive flaw.
LEADER: Insight gained,
PEOPLE: From a simple Sunday school lesson.
LEADER: Inspiration received,
PEOPLE: From a humble preacher's faithful efforts.
LEADER: God still speaks!
PEOPLE: Come, let us listen!
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (Option 1)
A note on the use of the word "men" in the prayer of confession: Obviously it is easily changed to "humans" or something else (you could also use my alternate translation below), but I left the old RSV language in because many people have put this passage to memory using that particular translation (OK, it's because I memorized it that way) and it speaks to them in the old language. My alternate translation is "If I speak eloquently in human or angelic tongues ..."
LEADER: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
PEOPLE: I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
LEADER: If I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
PEOPLE: If I have a faith that can move mountains,
LEADER: But have not love,
PEOPLE: I am nothing.
LEADER: If I give all I own to the poor,
PEOPLE: And give my body to burned,
LEADER: But have not love,
PEOPLE: I gain nothing.
LEADER: God of love,
PEOPLE: We have failed at love.
LEADER: We have mastered knowledge, languages,
PEOPLE: Technologies, polities,
LEADER: Prayers, and scriptures,
PEOPLE: But we have neglected the heart of it all:
LEADER: Love!
PEOPLE: Forgive our focus on the facades of faith,
LEADER: And turn our attentions to the heart,
PEOPLE: To love!
LEADER: For we pray it in the name of Jesus Christ,
PEOPLE: Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
Where there is love there is forgiveness, an abundant, ever-refreshing stream of forgiveness. Come, all you who wish to be renewed. Come, all you who desire to repent and begin again. Come, all you have been broken on the rocks of self, and you will be healed by the waters of forgiveness.
This is the good news of the gospel. Amen!
PASTORAL PRAYER
As we are entering full force into the political campaign for the presidency, this might be a good week to pray about political speech.
Let us pray,
Lord, we use words so continuously and casually in this culture that we forget their power. You spoke all of creation into existence. "Let there be light!" Boom! "And there was light." Help us to attend to our words, to speak the truth, but only in love. And where there is no love, help us to hold our tongues.
And we pray for our political leaders. May they be men and women of such character that they too speak truth with compassion. And when and where they stoop to character assassination, when they seek only to injure, let us turn a deaf ear that we might not become part of the great mob that becomes increasingly less civil with each passing year.
Instead make us lights in the way we use words. That others may see that truth can be spoken in love, and that only loving language has the power to ennoble and redeem.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, The Word of God. Amen.
HYMNS AND SONGS
All the hymns and choruses below can be found in Hymnal for Worship and Celebration 1986 (Word Music)
O Word of God Incarnate
Wonderful Words of Life
Standing on the Promises
Holy Bible, Book Divine
To Be God's People
Thy Word
Send the Light
Two Children's Sermon
by Wesley T. Runk
Learning to Listen
Luke 4:21-30
"They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff." (v. 29)
Object: Form 2 lines of children based upon what options you offer them. Have someone read all of the number 1's and you read the number 2's.
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know that there are men and women talking about being the president of the United States? (let them answer) Do you know the names of anyone who wants to be president? (let them answer) Very good! These people make a lot of promises to the American people that they say they will keep if they are elected. They promise to win the war or bring the soldiers home. They promise to make it a better country to live in by getting rid of crime, having better jobs, making more money, and a lot of other promises. Americans have to listen very carefully to what they hear.
Let me show you what I mean. I want you to listen to me and (name the person who will read the first options) while we make you some promises.
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you will only have to eat ice cream and hot dogs and drink coca-cola.
2. I promise you that if you will let me be your leader you will have to drink milk and eat cereal, vegetables and fruits.
If you want to follow (name the person who reads #1), you stand in his line and if you are going to follow me, then you must stand in my line. (Repeat with each question)
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you can watch any TV program that you want to watch.
2. I promise you that if you let me be your leader I will check out the programs on TV and make sure that you will only see the kind of programs that are good for children.
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you can stay up as late as you want to stay up.
2. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you will go to bed at the proper time a child of your age should be in bed and not a minute sooner or later.
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader you will only have to go to school when you want to go to school and stay home when you want to stay home and watch TV.
2. I promise you that if you let me be your leader I will get you up in the morning and see that you get to school on time.
1. I promise you that if you let me be your leader I will pick up all of your toys, clean your room, take care of your pets, and let you take baths only when you want.
2. I promise you that if you let me be your leader I will teach you how to pick up your own toys, show you how to keep your room clean, make you responsible for your own pets and see that you are clean every day of your life.
We all have to make choices, don't we? This is nothing new. When Jesus was beginning his ministry he had to say things that everyone did not want to hear. He could have told them what they wanted to hear and would have been pretty popular. But instead the people said that he should watch what he said because he was no better than they were. As a matter of fact, they became so angry with him that they tried to throw him off of a cliff.
Sometimes the things we want to hear are not the best things for us. We need to listen very carefully and choose the harder way rather than the easy way. That is what makes us believers and followers of Jesus.
The next time someone promises you something that sounds like fun but you know it is not good for you, I want you to think about what makes a real leader and what makes a bad leader. Thank you for being here today and God bless you. Amen.
Alternative Children's Sermon
Jesus In The News
Luke 4:21-30
He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.' " (v. 23)
Object: a newspaper
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have read the newspaper that was delivered to your house yesterday? (let them answer) Tell me what you have read. (let them answer) You read the funnies and what else? (let them answer) Most of you do not read the rest of the paper yet, but before long you will. When you do, you will read about some very interesting people and the things that they have done. You also will read some interesting things about people who live in other towns and cities. When someone does something that is very interesting in another city, the newspaper prints it in our town and we read about the things that person has done. (read such an article in the newspaper that you brought with you)
This is the way that it was with Jesus. When Jesus came into a town, the people had already heard about the things that he had done in other places. They wanted him to do the same things for them. The news traveled fast.
But Jesus was not just doing things so that people could write about him in the newspaper, or talk about him to friends and neighbors. That was not the reason. Jesus did what he wanted to do for people who were ill because they were ill, and because they believed in the power of God to make them well. Jesus called that kind of belief "faith."
When Jesus came to his hometown, the people did not believe that he was the Son of God. Instead, they thought that he was just like all of the other boys who had grown up there, but with some special magic. They knew him as the son of Mary and Joseph, and not as the Son of God. They did not have faith or believe that God wanted to make them well. Because the people did not believe Jesus, he could not cure them. He could not cure someone who did not believe that it was God who was doing the healing.
We have read a lot about Jesus and talked a lot about Jesus. You can find something in your newspaper almost every day about him. If you do not believe that his power comes from God, then Jesus is not something special to you. Reading about him, or talking about him doesn't make him our Savior. Believing in him does, and that is what the people of Nazareth did not do.
We want to believe in Jesus and believe that he can do what he says, so we must have faith that Jesus is the Son of God and that he has great power. When you read about him in your newspaper, then you can say that you also know him in your heart. God bless you.
A Subscriber's Response to The Immediate Word for January 25, 2004
Subject: Luke 4:14-30; crime and reaction
As I was preparing this week's message (I combined the Gospel passages for this week and next), I was struck by what Jesus omitted (the day of vengeance) and how apropos the Scripture is to my life this past week. You see, last Monday at 1:45 in the afternoon in the church parking lot, the church secretary and I were carjacked at gunpoint. God blessed me with the calmness, wisdom, and words we needed so we were unharmed even though the thieves got her SUV, purse, and cell phone.
But the reaction of family, church members and others who claim the name of Christ has been very disturbing. It seems that a call for vengeance, use of racial epithets, and talk of carrying guns and killing someone has been the response of a significant number of persons. I fear that we have forgotten the one who proclaimed healing, deliverance, and freedom and, most of all, love for one's enemies and those who wrong us in favor of being those who look forward only to the day when God will wreak vengeance on the ungodly.
The Jesus who read the Scripture in Nazareth that day is the Christ of restoration, not retribution. The incident this week has reminded me of that in a mighty way. It's not easy, but we are called to stand on the edge of the cliff with our Lord, not be one of the angry mob seeking to push him off! Blessings and peace.
-- Rev. Carole L. Elrod, Sandusky United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Alabama
* * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 1, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
