Speaking in the Name of God

As a professional theologian it was my task to dig as deeply into the meaning of the Word of God as I possibly could. However, I always knew that theology is meant to facilitate the proclamation of the Word of God, rather than an academic pastime or the means to satisfy the ambitions of a few colleagues. I have preached countless times over the last half century. I have listened to many more sermons preached by others – virtually every Sunday of my adult life. I have been impressed and deeply struck many times, but I have also been bored, even appalled by what I heard. These are my credentials. Have I become a star preacher? Not at all! Do I have all the answers? No ways! Did I always follow the suggestions contained in this book? Alas, no! However, I am haunted by the urgency of the matter. Preachers speak in the name of God and in the authority of God. This is serious! God is the One from whom our own lives, our communities and reality as a whole proceed and to whom they will ultimately return. We are accountable to this God. But this God offers us participation in an authentic life – ‘free of charge’ as it were. There can be no higher dignity and no deeper responsibility than proclaiming the message entrusted to us. But then our output must become commensurate with our task. We are in this together! I would have wanted to tackle this task together with others on a regular basis. Apart from groups of students in training, I have not experienced such cooperation very often among preachers. But it can happen! And for the sake of God’s Word it should happen! Most preachers work in splendid isolation. When they prepare their sermons they sit in their lonely offices and depend on their own insight and ingenuity. They are not checked by others, do not cooperate with others, and receive no input from others. They are also not exposed to critical and constructive feedback. Listeners do not dare to express their expectations and disappointments. They may believe that this would impair the dignity of the office, or the sanctity of God’s Word. They may also be wary of offending a touchy preacher. Why not share our insights and experiences, discuss our strengths and weaknesses, help each other to prepare for, construct, and deliver our sermons? Why not ask our colleagues or a few trusted lay people to check our sermons before we deliver them? Why not conduct a short ‘post mortem’ of our sermons after they have been preached? Just think how many engineers are involved in designing a subway in a great city! How many architects are involved in designing a modern skyscraper! How scrupulous are the efforts to cut out risks and deficiencies in designing an airliner! How many checks are performed to make certain that nothing goes wrong when a mission is sent into outer space! At a spiritual level the Word of God is way more profound and fundamental than the subway and much higher than the skyscraper. There is no reason to be touchy in a matter of such importance. We are not perfect. According to the New Testament, the Spirit is granted to the community; individuals do not have it in their pockets or in their private studies. Cooperation can perhaps happen, even in a modest way, through this book. As we go, I will ask you to articulate your insights, experiences and opinions first. Then I offer mine as clearly as I can. Then I prompt you to respond and come to your own conclusions. Then you can apply them, change them, ignore them, or replace them with better alternatives. Surely this is second best. It would be better to sit around a table and do it together. Perhaps you can gather a few colleagues or parishioners and do it without me. And perhaps the points I make in this book can trigger fruitful discussions, rekindle enthusiasm and generate more profound, more lucid and more powerful sermons through a common effort. That would be wonderful! So what can you expect in this book? In this book I share with you my own take on the gift of preaching the Word of God. I limit my theological reflections and convictions to the minimum of what I consider to be essential. I prompt you to agree or disagree with my contentions and come to your own conclusions. I encourage you to explore your own experiences and mobilise your own resources to proclaim our priceless message to the best of your ability. My aim is to join you on your pilgrimage. This is not a text book. It is not to be read and studied from cover to cover but used like a road map. Just start walking from where you are right now. Take a small bite at a time. I know that you have no time to read a book like this, let alone absorb its contents all at once.