Preach Magazine Issue 1 - Creativity and innovation in preaching | Page 46

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FEATURE

Theological innovation
Firstly, most obviously and yet also most
profoundly, Jesus’ preaching of the good news
was theological news: ‘Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven has come near’ (Matthew 4:17). It must
have been the best news, I can’t help adding, to
those who had not heard it before; revolutionary,
innovative, and even now endlessly worthy of the
contemporary preacher’s closest attention.
The kerygma – this good news message of
salvation, of healing, of release that he promised
to the poor, to the oppressed, to the prisoner – this
good news message forms the content and focus
and the drive of every Christian sermon worthy of
the name. It is the Christian preacher’s foundation
stone, the sine qua non. If we are not preaching
the good news, we are not preaching. However,
innovation, at least for us, doesn’t come into it.
Jesus was ‘innovative’, theologically speaking, but
our charge as followers is not to ‘innovate’ a new
gospel. It is rather to bring the old, old story to
twenty-first-century listeners inside and outside of
the church. Where you stand on the conservative –
liberal – radical spectrum will of course determine
how much you think theological innovation is
possible and necessary in postmodern cultures
with pluralistic and relativistic worldviews. It is
well beyond the scope of this article to enter that
debate. Jesus was theologically innovative, but
that does not give us license or permission to
attempt to do the same. (If you find an effective
way to preach Don Cupitt’s non-realism or Paul
Tillich’s ‘ontological ground of our being’ as good
news, by all means let me know.)

Hermeneutical innovation
The second way in which Jesus could be
considered an innovator is in his hermeneutical
approach to his own Scriptures. How did he read
and interpret the Old Testament? Jesus believed
in the authority of the Scriptures, certainly (see
Matthew 4:4) and his intention was often to lead
people to a truer understanding of the meaning
of the Scriptures (as in Matthew 23:23). The
interpretation of his own scriptures leads him into
theological innovation, of course, and had a direct
bearing on the kerygma, above. The Matthean
‘You have heard that it was said’ pericopes are
a striking example. We are rarely if ever able to
interpret