Preach Magazine Issue 3 - Preaching and the Holy Spirit | Page 22

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FEATURE

I

n another church, the church
steward prayed with me before
the service began. In his prayer he
asked “that she will be inspired by
the Holy Spirit as she preaches your
word and that we will be open to the
message.” There was no doubt that
the Holy Spirit would be present as
we worshipped. The prayer was that
I would be inspired as I preached
and that the congregation would be
ready to hear. We prayed that the
Holy Spirit would help us to see and
respond to Jesus.

INSPIRED IN PREPARATION
The steward’s prayer and appeal
to the Holy Spirit was affirming,
sincere, helpful and appropriate. But
the activity of the Holy Spirit was
not confined to the preaching of my
sermon, it had also been essential
in the preparation. A sermon is not
crafted to be an isolated event but
to be one part of an act of worship
in a particular context, shared with
a group of God’s wonderfully and
challengingly diverse people.
My normal practice is to preach on
the readings set in the lectionary.
I find that this discipline liberates
me to be open to the Word of God
in a wider variety of texts than I
would otherwise be likely to select.
However, there are some occasions
when I feel strongly drawn to a
particular passage of scripture
or theme or need to respond to

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significant events in a community.
On these occasions I may move away
from the lectionary.
However I come to choose the
texts and theme, I carry them
with me for at least a week before
a preaching appointment. At an
early stage I refer to commentaries,
because the Holy Spirit works
through careful preparation and
the application of reason as well
as through prayer and reflection
on events and experiences. Usually,
by the end of the week, I can work
with the material and ideas that
have surfaced, relating them
to the context in which I will be
preaching. The Holy Spirit as divine
interpreter helps me to recognise
God’s gracious presence in Christ,
through Scripture, through reason
and through experience.

GATHERED FOR WORSHIP
The preacher is prepared, the people
have gathered and the worship
begin