Preach Magazine Issue 1 - Creativity and innovation in preaching | Page 48
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FEATURE
Equally important in a rhetorical
consideration of the discourse of
Jesus are the subjects, the details
and the local colour. He told stories
about bread and yeast and mustard
seeds, lost sheep and lost coins,
money (paying, investing and taxing
it), jealousy and covetousness,
squabbling brothers, managers
and tenants, slaves and owners,
Pharisees and tax collectors,
impoverished widows and arrogant
judges, children and rich young
rulers, wedding banquets and
bridesmaids and husbands and
wives. In short, he drew widely from
the tapestry of first-century rural
Palestinian life, with images that
are arresting and immediate. They
are almost visceral, by which I mean
they are heard ‘in the body’, because
they speak of things that are seen,
heard, touched, tasted, or smelt.
They are about the everyday felt
experiences of his listeners, while
lofty abstraction and conceptualising
is kept to a minimum. This is too
easily given a nodding but noncommittal assent by preachers who
have had to reach their ministerial
ordination through a university
education. If only preachers today
would use more ‘vulgar’ language,
with fewer Latinate words and
more Anglo-Saxon words. Oral
speech for preaching, if it is to follow
the innovations of Jesus, needs
to be spiced with down-to-earth
metaphors, language that evokes
the five senses, and engaging stories
from the time and culture of the
listeners.4
Next there are the innovative
contexts for the preaching of
Jesus. The accounts tell of a range
ORAL SPEECH FOR PREACHING, IF IT IS TO FOLLOW THE
INNOVATIONS OF JESUS, NEEDS TO BE SPICED WITH DOWNTO-EARTH METAPHORS, LANGUAGE THAT EVOKES THE FIVE
SENSES, AND ENGAGING STORIES FROM THE TIME AND
CULTURE OF THE LISTENERS.
of situations and locations, from
synagogues and hillsides, to rooms so
jammed that one importunate was
lowered through the roof, and lakeside
crowds so large and so pressing that
the best pulpit was a boat rowed out
from the shore. But the teaching he
gave in individual encounters tells us
something else: it speaks of penetrating
insight and spiritual discernment
combined with gut level compassion
and unbounded mercy. His encounters
with Nicodemus, Nathaniel, the
Samaritan woman at the well, the rich
young ruler and others have given
us teaching that is not only validated
by the man who gave it, but made
accessible for listeners 2000 years
later by the immediacy and details of
the story. The implication for sermons
today is clear: by all means preach
precepts, but search tirelessly for the
story or illustration of the individual
grasping or being transformed by the
precept you are trying to teach – and
then tell that story skillfully.
Can contemporary preachers usefully
seek to emulate the innovations of
Jesus? In informal surveys of preachers
and their formative influences, Jesus
is often cited as a role model. Which
is fine in a way, except that preachers
today do not normally accompany their
preaching with miraculous healings
and deeds of power, and or have a
corpus of teaching that is powerfully
validated by their rising from the
dead. Nor is my focus on the rhetoric
of Jesus very useful if considered in
isolation. Jesus was not a wandering
rabbi with a vital message and some
especially effective communication
methods, but the Word of God
incarnate, a breathing, speaking,
listening, doing being whose ethos
validated his logos in ways that are
unique in history. His words and
his works rippled out in space and
time through a group of previously
unlearned but Spirit-led disciples.
An innovator unique in history
is a tough act to follow, but the
exciting challenge to preachers
today is clear enough: words and
deeds go together. Preaching must
be embodied and integrated with
effective ministry, but thankfully,
not all in the lone man or woman.
The Body of Christ preaching in
the world today is composed of
differently gifted diverse members
who need to share the family
likeness, and who need to be
demonstrably and vitally relationally
connected. Of course the preacher
must ‘walk the walk’, but not alone:
the church preaches and walks
with words and works that together
speak of the glory and redemptive
purposes of Jesus, the Great
Innovator.
Geoffrey Stevenson
1. Wilson, Paul Scott (2004) Preaching and Homiletical Theory. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press.
2. Rohr, Richard. Hierarchy of Truths: Jesus’ Use of Scripture (CAC Webcast, December 2013)
Accessed 28 August 2014.
3. Stein, Robert H. (2000) ‘The Genre of the Parables’ in Longenecker, Richard N, The Challenge of Jesus’
Parables. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., pp 30–50.
4. See especially Day, David (2005) Embodying the Word. London: SPCK.
LWPT8173 - Preach Magazine - Issue 1 v3.indd 48
Geoffrey Stevenson teaches homiletics at
New College, Edinburgh and Cranmer
Hall, Durham. Before his PhD
at Edinburgh he was Director
of the Centre for Christian
Communication at St John’s
College, Durham. He was
the editor of The Future of
Preaching and the coauthor with Stephen
Wright of Preaching
With Humanity.
17/10/2014 12:54:09