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. August 29, 1971

The Word an Search of Words
John 6246-513; 59-65

Week after week, year ai ver year, indeed centuxy after century, in thousands
upon thousands of parishes, men have stood up and, for twenty minutes, half
an hour, sometimes longer, done what I am about to do = preach a sermon to 2
congregation of Christian people. It is surely no overstatement +0 suggest
that in the entire history of humanity, no project has received such a torrent
of rhetoric as the preaching of the Gospel. And yet I am not at all certain
that this major undertaking is fully understood by those who participate in it,

preacher and listeners. I sometimes feel that the sermon, like a lot of other

ina that beomse we have no common understanding of what it is that is happen-
ing, we have a very low expectation level, with the predictable result that
the outcome of this time-consuming endeavor is minimal. This is not to say that vie
we expect nothing of a sermon. In fact, it is painfully obvious that a lot of
people have rather artioulate expectations, which often are at variance with
the preacher's understanding of bis task. Thus the listener can go home oon
plaining that the preacher didn't preach the Gospel, while he is confidently
assuming that that is precisbly what he did.

ina po - this moming ~ 6 sermon about sermons “The Word in Search of
Words.” Paul Scherer, great preacher, master of the art, professor of Hamiletios
at Princeton Seminary; begins a book on preaching with this obnervation:
wpefore the Word of God can get itself lived, it needs to get itself believed -
and what is believed is not always lived. But before it can set itself believed, ~
it~ has to get iteelf heard - and what is heard is not always believed. Farther
back than that, however, ip the hurdle which is to be our chief concern: before
the Word of Cod can get itself heard, i+ mot get ideelf said - and what is said

is not always hearde” [The Word God Sent, P 3)

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Paul Scherer contends that Protestant preaching has not always "said" the
Word of God ~ for a mumber of reasons, moat of which we will think about this
morning. ‘The sermon, Scherer feels, is the place where the Gospel of Jesus
Christ gete emasculated, where the demand is softened to make it more palatable,
where the cutting edge is smoothed over, where the exclusiveness is mace
general ana broad and inoffensive. tt is also the place in the life of the
church where the Cospei ia moat vigorously rejected ~ where people either fail
or refuse to hear the Word that is addressed to them, Scherer quotes a leading
Roman Gatholie theologian to the effect that if Protestantiam ever dies, {he
degger in its back will be the Protestant sermon.

Now, that kind of talk makes me a little uneasy and more than a Llittic
@€efensive, But 1 sense ite truth — and I worry about it - and I often yonder
shout the meaning of this exercise which consumer ® majox portion of my time
and energy, this weekly witual in which I talk at you for twenty minutes. /nd
1 am presuming this moming to talk about it with you infthopos that the exercise
ney be \Blpfel to ali of us.

In the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, part of which we heard thie moming,
Jesus is preaching. ‘The Greek word for it is kerygme - prodlaimationf# - the
simple, straightforward holding up of truth. “1 am the bread of life." And
the response of his listeners ig very interesting: “This ie more than we can
stomach! Why listen to such words?" Wheve it ie in a nutshell, The exclusive
claim of Christianity: ‘the unbending, wunvarnished integrity of our Lord: and
the horrified respouse of those who heard it.

That’s the model thet sets out the perimeters of our dilemma when we begin
to think avout preaching and listening to sermons. In our time — in our cul ture
the Christian Religion appears te have vexy little to do with proclaimation of

anything. In stead, religion is the source of easy answers to life's questions.

«3

in the popular mind the Gospel of Jesus Chriet can be reduced, to "good advice
for good living"; Tow to be successful: How to be happy: How to find peace:
Hew to overcome anxiety: how te de this and do that.

4nd within that context, the sexmon that deals with those particular kinds
of concerns is guaranteed a certain success. People will like it. Many Pickford
wrote a book onee wider the title "Why Not Try God? And Halford Imeoock, e
brilliant preacher wrily answered, “Why not Txy Aspivin?’ God is not a cosmic
agpidin tublet ~ the Cod who stalke the pages of the Bible cannot be bottled
and marketed as a pallative to the gheartburn and headaches of modern life.
Integrity won't allow it.

But something move inportant will - namely suecess. ow, the people who
preach sermons ava mon - ne more, no less. ‘They ~ we - like te be liked,
enjoy popularity and esteem, It's very good for the ego to feel that poople
ave coming to heay what you heve to say. Given the institutional nature of
Christianity, it's also very good for the budget and family and carger. And so -
preacher and people ~ inevitably do a little selling out. Some ~ 1 know ~ oll
the time, All - I an convinced ~- some of the time. ‘the formula is quite clear.
Suecese ~ whether you are a preacher involved vocationally, or a layman who
loves the church and wants its pews and benk account full ~ happens when the
gexmons ave liked end enjoyed. And sermons are liked and enjoyed when they
ave superficial esxseys on “how te succeed in business with Jasuse”

fhe trouble is thet there ien't much of that in the Bible. While preachers
try to offer ways out of life's predicaments, the Bible keeps confronting men
with the ratical natuxe of their predicament. While preachers try to comfort
the distressed, a major portion of the Bible is devoted to distressing the
comfortable. While preachers try to answer questions, the Bible sets out time

and time again to provoke questions.

and

when Jesue preached « when he procleimed the Good News that God reigns ~
he always dug very deeply to the heart of the matter, His listeners had religion,
plenty of religion. They had religious rules and customs and rituals. What
they did not have was Cood News: Saivation: New Life. And the orux of their
problem was that thay weren't aware of the depths of their own need, 50 he
probed and probed deeply. When the guilty adultress was about to be stoned
aecording to religious law he probed by suggesting that the men without guilt
might throw the first atone. And that probing went deeper inte their hearts
than anything had before. Guilt was no longer simple guilt, but a deep and
intense and wmivereal malady that everyone of them would have to deai with.

That kind of preaching is not the kind that wine a man a raise next year.
It is not very uplifting, nor comforting, But it is the Word of God having
found human words that get it eaid.

Someone has cowmented that you haven't heard the Gospel of Jesue Christ,
until you've been made wmeasy by it. Thus, the first problem with preaching
and ligtening to sexmons. If they are honest ~ if they commmicate the Word ~
they aren't always going to be pleasant, and they aren't ever going to be
light.

The second impact of our dilemma has to do with the use of words. One
way to deseribe whet happens in the life of a church is that people learn te
use a certain vocsinmiary. And the kinds of words in the vocabulary depends
on the kind of oluvwrch it is. If you had attended a fumdamentalict church this
morning you would have heard words like hell, heaven, saved, blood, conversion,
smmetification, Holy Ghost. The sermon would have included them: the people
would heve been comfortable using them. If you had attended a Unitarian-
univergaliat Church you might have heard words like, neurosis, anxiety, self—

awareness, self~actmalisation. As it is you are in a Presbyterian Church and

ia

our words follow the lines of providence, reconciliation, justification, form
giveness and go On.

And in all three inetances there is a certain assumption that we have
avvived where we con be comforteble with the same vocabulary: that if we say
the vight words ~ we have reached the sonith of our particular brand of faith.
Sermone exe word etudies. In our particular tradition theological word studies.
We make the very dawerous assumption that if a sermon teaches the meaning of
a word, traces ite linguistic derivation, supplies Hebrew and Greek synonyms,
that if all wnderstand, somehow we've accomplished something significant.

Tpouble with thot is that is ien't very Biblical either. Preaching is
not an intel&ectual exercise, no matter how erudite and stimulating. Preach~
ing ought to be the commmication of the Word ~ the idea ~ the idea that
comects with our feelings and attitudes and behavior. Preaching has intellec~
tual content to be pure, but if it hes no emotional content it is sterile ad
dxy and without life. You and I can talk and think about words like love and
forgiveness and joy $111 we've blue in the face, But it deegn't amount to
much until here, in thie commmity of believers, those words and ideas become
venlities. Joy - just e word until it gete itself expressed here. Love ~ an
empty succession of letters, until it is felt and realised here.

Preaching and Lictening to sermons, then, involves the flow of ideas and
feelings between people, not the teaching of concepts or theories. Our common
tagk ig not to develop theological thinkers, but people who are growing into a
theological way of perceiving all of life: people who kmow what it feels like
to be loved by God and other people, and who become the incarnation ox that
good news evexywhere they go.

I've indulged myself this morning, which according to the standards
implioit in what I've been saking, ie not necessarily to have preached a
sermon. I've dene it becamse I deeply believe that the prerequisite to any

significant sermon experience is « common understanding between people and

preacher, Occanionally we need - simply to blow out the system - and discover
if, in fact, we are starting from the same position as this weekly exercise
begins.

4nd in conclusion, allow me to preach, Behind it all ~ behind this preswap—
wuous gesture of one man standing before a congregation week after week to
talk - to be heard ~ is an assumption about God himself, and the nature of the
Christian Gospel. We believe that the phrase “The Word of God" is not a
document - not the Bible ~ not an utterance ~ but a way of deseribing God's
nawire. We believe it is the nature of Ged to be communicating with men: that
becouse his natuzwe is to communicate we are talking about a living reality
wheme we talk about his word. We believe God has spoken in the histexy of his
people and in the voices of their prophets. We believe he speaks through the
words of a book ~ a book of history, lus, poetry, prophetic writings, and
little tracts called Gospels. We believe that book contsina his word ~ his
commnication.s We believe God spoke in Jesus Christ ~ in his life, teaching,
death and resurrection. And because of that last - that resurrection ~ we
believe God continues to speak through the Rigen Christ in our midst.

We believe that God addresses us in the common life: that he uses the
words of another to speak to us: the ramblings and meanderings of our own mind:
the experiences that wenve their way in and out of our lives.

We believe also, aid thie ie the essence of the Reformed tradition, that
Cod speaks to his poople whenever, in the context of worship, a man stenda up
and puts his intellect, emotions, skills and understandings on the line:
whenever he loves his people and has listened for the word and tries to apeak
we believe "The word finds words:, and God does communicate, sometimes in
spite of what he sayae

We believe that the word ie alive and accessible: that it comes to us as

“ ~~"

ale

judgement and domand and forgiveness and love: that it tells us who we really
are and what we could become: that it comes at the point of our deepest
needs ~ needs we sometimes aren't ready to acknowledge,

our tank then - weekly as preacher and people ~ but daily as Christion
disciples together ~ ie to listen to God speaking through each others to
share in open and honest dialogue: to support each other as attempt to live

what we hear.

Our father, you have spoken to men in generations past. So speak to us,
as we gather here - week in and week out. Give us ears to hear. Through
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

as Se Oe — be