Through the preaching of Frank Gonzalez, at a recent General Conference week of prayer, the Spirit touched our souls, mine included This is not something that happens automatically, of course, especially among groups of people who have been hearing so much from so many for so long!
Partway through the week, Frank and I had lunch together and, true to form, talked about what preaching is all about and what, in fact, makes any particular preaching event extraordinary. Frank's insights were especially stimulating.
He described the sense he had of how easily preaching can become and even has become an end in itself, the fulfillment of an occupational role critical to a pastor's declared job description and contributing to his or her professional career track a thing we must do because it's the thing that's done.
Most of us preach or speak on spiritual topics a number of times each week. Each time we speak, we have to decide on a topic and search for good material. So we read broadly, combing through familiar and unfamiliar sources, sacred and secular. We settle upon relevant parts of Scripture, exegete the text, and use the classic tools required by our task. We "homiletize" and illustrate, we analyze, organize, and note-take. We think and pray, search ing, sometimes a little desperately for ways to make our message worthwhile.
But for what reason?
When we stand up to preach we use voice inflections, pauses, gestures, and body language. We quote our sources and cite our authorities. We are sure to say things that are sensitive to the particular intellectual, social, political, and ecclesiological realities that predominate in our congregations. In fact, the unpleasant truth is that a great deal of what drives us in our preaching, and causes us to say this or that in such and such a way and with a particular emphasis, is the strong motivation we all possess to impress the most impressive among our listeners with our preaching skill and homiletical acumen. All this becomes second nature to us. We do what's expected of us; that which is to be done at the right place, the right time, and in the right way.
But for what reason?
Has preaching or for that matter, any aspect of our leadership ministry become an end in itself? In the final analysis, what is supposed to happen when a Christian minister stands up, opens his or her Bible, and begins to speak on Sabbath morning? Most pointedly perhaps, What are we preachers actually expecting, and what specifically are we seeking to accomplish?
John said that he wrote his Gospel "that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31, NRSV).
It's significant that this verse comes right after a description of the experience of an angry, disillusioned Thomas, who had said that if he did not put his finger into the wounds in Jesus' hands, or his hand into the speared side of the Lord, he would not believe. My guess is that Thomas never thought such a thing would or could actually happen.
But he had no sooner made this rash but hugely significant demand, when Jesus stood before him and told him to do just what he'd said he needed to do. Incredulously, he reached out his hand, felt the configuration of the wounds, believed (verse 29) and cried out, "My Lord and my God."
We preach in order to reach not just impress the hearts of agonizing, searching, disillusioned people; that they may put forth their hands, touch the living Christ, believe, and find life in His name. What even we might not expect to happen is always on the cusp of happening anyway, especially if we know why we preach, what we preach and especially who we preach.
It's not just the sermon. . . . It's an immensely significant thing we do as pastors and evangelists. Viewing our preaching and ministry this way will revolutionize the way we view ourselves and our work. It will invest each day with purpose and meaning.
