№ 3: What is preaching for?
Newsletter: Reflections of the purpose and place of preaching | Laying the Joshua series to rest | Other recent writing
Dear Followers and Supporters,
Upon an encouraging nudge from my minister, I attended a preaching conference a few weeks ago, run by the Expository Preaching Trust and hosted here in Armidale at St Peter's Cathedral. The various conference sermons walked through chapters 1 through to 12 of the book of Acts. (That this occurred in the days leading up to Ascension Day was, I believe, not intentional.)
All delegates were placed in preaching groups, each with six people plus one overseer. Over the two days of the conference, each of us preached to our group for feedback. I was in a preaching group with David Cook, which was a delight. I found him very gracious and warm, with many great pointers for my sermon and those of the others. (Grace or no grace, though, preaching to a small group of other preachers makes one quite a bit more nervous than ordinary preaching to a congregation!)
An aspect of preaching that was assumed throughout the conference, but not expressly touched upon, was how the sermon interacts with the rest of the liturgy. The prevailing advice for composing and presenting a sermon seemed to suggest that nothing has happened to the congregation for the last half an hour that might prepare them.
It seems to me quite obvious that the context in which some oratory takes place would greatly change how it is composed and presented. If a congregation has just spent half an hour singing songs of adoration, confessing their sins, reciting a creed together, et cetera, why is it so necessary to warm them up for another five to ten (precious) minutes with various illustrations, pop culture references and stories about your kids to get them engaged?
Jeffrey Meyers helpfully articulates the implicit understanding of the rest of the liturgy on this model:
The sermon becomes the big event. All kinds of stuff is placed before the sermon (announcements, solos, hymns, testimonies, dramas, etc.) with little or no thought to the question “why?” The order in which these events occur is meaningless; they simply fill up the time so that everybody has a chance to get settled in by the time the sermon begins. It doesn’t matter if we come in a little late, as long as we hear the sermon. Everything else is superfluous. [The Lord's Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship, 204]
In answering the question of what preaching is for, we also need to account for where preaching happens in the course of the liturgy.
I have found most helpful remembering that the sermon is not a self-contained service-unto-itself, but is a movement in an overall liturgy of sacrifice. We have entered into God's gates, we have confessed our sins, and we have ascended up the heavenly mountain to behold the God of Israel. When we hear the sermon preached, we are being addressed from heaven by the Word of God himself, who cuts us up as a sharp two-edged sword. We are being prepared to be living sacrifices, pleasing and acceptable to God. The sermon needs to have sharp edges to achieve this task.
Recent writing
Laying the Joshua series to rest
Though I did not set out to do this at first, it now seems appropriate to conclude my series of explorations in the book of Joshua with a seventh entry discussing whether Joshua indeed gave Israel rest in the land:
The story of Abraham and his seed is concerned with God's forming a new firstborn son of God. Having called him out of Egypt, and formed him in the wilderness, what remains is for God to bring him into a new garden, and so bring his son into his own divine rest.
If you've missed any of the previous entries or would like to revisit them…
- Joshua as a prophet like Moses
- Redeeming Rahab
- Drawing a line under the past
- Joshua son of Joseph
- Dan's pseudo-conquest
- Conquest and un-conquest of Jericho
More
Jemimah has mused on her blog on about how, in the context of modern life's tendencies to de-particularise us and render us interchangeable, we each now seek out overt and performative ways to assert our uniqueness and individuality. I have replied with some reflections about the implications for the commonly-heard exhortation to find one's identity in Christ.
St Cyril of Jerusalem presents a wonderful little biblical theology of water in his On Baptism: "Water is a grand thing".
Andrew McGowan shows how the Eucharistic banquet is in the background of Paul's admonition about drunkenness in Ephesians: Drinking songs.
I reflect on Richard Baxter's claim that concern for the glory of God is the highest concern of the civil magistrate: Don't be an infidel.
God bless,
Sean
