Normal routines are of course up in the air at present. Saturday morning would normally be a time of final preparation for the Lord’s Day. Not starting from scratch you understand (usually!) but pulling things together, making sure that the message is as clear as it can be and, just as important, praying that the message has made an impact on me. There can be no true preaching unless you are speaking out of your own experience of the Living Word and this means being open to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
This is where preaching is ultimately beyond us. At the beginning of the twentieth century James Black wrote a book entitled The Mystery Of Preaching and there is so much about the preaching experience that is beyond the expertise and control of the preacher. The novelist Stephen King was once doing a ‘Q&A’ after a talk. One lady said that her daughter wanted to be a writer so what advise would Stephen give her? His response was: ‘Read a lot of books.’ He then followed this up by saying: ‘You can learn how to write but I’m not sure you can teach it.‘ You can put this another way. You can learn how to write but you can’t be taught how to write. And it’s the same with preaching. You can master techniques and maybe even get brilliant grades in a homiletics class. I’ve been involved in teaching a few of those myself. But there is something indefinable, perhaps even inexpressible, involved in the flow of eternal truth through a human personality.
Another writer Richard Russo says in an essay about writing: ‘Most of the stuff an aspiring writer needs to learn about point of view and plotting and character development and dialogue can be learned.’ He goes on however: ‘What can’t be taught is indispensable.’ It’s the same with preaching.
This does not mean that there is no need to work at it. Mozart practiced six hours a day, Dickens wrote himself to a standstill, Johann Cruyff had to be dragged off the training ground. But others have worked just as hard who did not have that indefinable quality which Russo would say is ‘indispensable.‘ With regard to preaching, what we are moving towards is the Biblical view of preaching as a ‘charism’ or gift, something given out of the grace of God. Paul says: ‘Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophesy.’ (I Corinthians 14: 1) Prophesy being the proclamation of revealed truth to the community of Christ.
This does not place preachers on a moral eminence in relation to other Christians. If a preacher has any knowledge of his or her brothers and sisters in Christ and any spiritual sensitivity he/she will be aware of many people who listen to them and embody Christ-like qualities that elude them. Preaching can be a humbling experience. But the preacher is called to a task that ‘edifies’ or ‘builds up’ the Church through the sharing of eternal truth. Paul again: ‘He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.’ (1 Corinthians 14: 4)
There is a sense of course in which all Christians are called to be preachers. There are many Greek words in the New Testament which can be translated as ‘preaching’ and in some cases they point to an informal sharing of faith one person to another or a spontaneous response to an opportunity which arises. But the gift remains which edifies the Church and given to those called and recognised by the Church.
In case this might seem to be dangerously exclusive let’s go back to Paul and his perception of the impact of preaching. Put simply he saw preaching as producing more preachers:
‘So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.‘ (Ephesians 4: 11-13)
Going back to Stephen King and his advise to budding writers: ‘Read a lot of books’, it is as part of the community of faith, worshipping with other Christians, under the authority of the preached Word, that preachers emerge for the future strengthening of the Church. It may be said that this is not happening, at least in the Western Church at this time. Well, maybe that is a subject for another blog. For the moment let’s concentrate on the great need of the hour for the emergence of more preachers who will have as their priority ‘quarrying’ for the truth in order to share it with God’s people in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Someone, obviously in morbid mood, once said to me that I should have Jesus words, ‘I will build my church . . .’ inscribed on my grave-stone. Apparently I quote them quite a lot. However, it has only just struck me that I haven’t given a lot of thought to how He will build. Does Paul have have the answer when he speaks of preaching edifying or building up the Church? I really do believe it is as important as that. So, faithful reader, pray that tomorrow throughout the nation the Word will go out in power and touch men and women at the deepest level and that others will emerge to continue the greatest building project ever conceived.
