Part 3 can be read here.
I've been sketching my theology of preaching as a Trinitarian event. It remains to be seen how the Spirit is present in the preaching moment.
To begin, I want to take us back to Genesis 1. Scripture says the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. With a word, God separates the waters from the waters. Space is created in the midst of the waters of chaos. It is space where life can flourish. This creating or opening of space to make room for life where death or barrenness or non-existence was the only possibility is the work of the Spirit. Numerous instances, particularly in the Old Testament, show God peeling back the waters to create space where life can happen.
The Spirit opens up the necessary space where life can occur. I believe the Church is one such space (though not relegated to a particular locale). As one of my professors used to say: "Where the Spirit is, there is the Church; where the Church is, there is the Spirit" (Fred Norris). We are gathered together in worship to hear God's Word for us. And, that gathering is a creation of space, an opening up the "barren womb" in our collective lives, so that we might be re-created.
To go even a little further with the analogy, the Spirit is not merely God's driving and pushing us into the future from behind like a cattle herder. Rather, the Spirit is God's future coming into our present in order that we might be wooed (and changed) toward God's future. Now, Robert Jenson would qualify that God's future comes to God's Self and then to us (think Incarnation here). But, I find it helpful to see the Spirit's work as the invasion of God's future coming into our present and "incarnating" itself in our midst (i.e., Jesus and the Church).
If preaching is to be theologically coherent and Trinitarianly centered, then the Spirit is essential. For it's the Spirit that is capable of opening the necessary space within our lives, both personally and socially, for life to happen. I find this to be happening in at least two ways. First, in the life of the preacher, sermon preparation is a sort of opening up. Study, prayer, listening, and careful learning create space within the preacher's life to hear a new word and to be transformed in the process. Pastors who preach without study have a poor theology of the Spirit, not a stronger one. Secondly, the Spirit opens up space in the infinitesimally small moment between the preacher's speech and the hearers' ears; this is Bonhoeffer's point in his lectures on preaching about the sermon as the incarnation of Christ among us. I find this to be true because at that point of speech, the preacher no longer has control over that word. It becomes the space in which the hearer and the Spirit wrestle together (this is why I believe that it is also possible for the Spirit to speak, even during a poor sermon).
It is also with the intent of incarnating God's future in us that we have been gathered together by the power of the Spirit and a space made open for us to hear God’s speak (this happens throughout worship). After all, a sign of true worship is whether or not we are embodying God's Kingdom politics here and now (Jeremiah and Jesus both call for worship that enacts justice for the widow, orphan, poor, and foreigner). Preaching, by the Spirit's power, enables us to imagine God's future, not as a distant event, but as an already present reality (though not fully consummated yet). Where the Spirit is present, God's future is present. Faithful preaching orients us to the future-making work of God in the present, which cannot be about escaping the present but living into it more fully and faithfully.
I think one thing needs to be clarified about the work of the Spirit in preaching. There are some who would understand the Spirit's work to be an ecstatic possession of the preacher and congregation. Maybe we would be a little more ecstatic if we understood the nature of the Spirit's work. But, the ecstatic nature of the Spirit's work has often been over-done and forced. The emotional manipulation that results is often more damaging than it is productive. Nor does this notion of ecstasy prove that extemporaneous preaching is faithful or more faithful than preaching with a manuscript. Both methods have their benefits and problems, but neither determines the faithfulness of the message. Rather, it is the Spirit which testifies to the Truth by pointing us toward, not an ecstatic experience, but an encounter with the living God in which we are birthed into God's future now opening up to us presently.
I've been sketching my theology of preaching as a Trinitarian event. It remains to be seen how the Spirit is present in the preaching moment.
To begin, I want to take us back to Genesis 1. Scripture says the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. With a word, God separates the waters from the waters. Space is created in the midst of the waters of chaos. It is space where life can flourish. This creating or opening of space to make room for life where death or barrenness or non-existence was the only possibility is the work of the Spirit. Numerous instances, particularly in the Old Testament, show God peeling back the waters to create space where life can happen.
The Spirit opens up the necessary space where life can occur. I believe the Church is one such space (though not relegated to a particular locale). As one of my professors used to say: "Where the Spirit is, there is the Church; where the Church is, there is the Spirit" (Fred Norris). We are gathered together in worship to hear God's Word for us. And, that gathering is a creation of space, an opening up the "barren womb" in our collective lives, so that we might be re-created.
To go even a little further with the analogy, the Spirit is not merely God's driving and pushing us into the future from behind like a cattle herder. Rather, the Spirit is God's future coming into our present in order that we might be wooed (and changed) toward God's future. Now, Robert Jenson would qualify that God's future comes to God's Self and then to us (think Incarnation here). But, I find it helpful to see the Spirit's work as the invasion of God's future coming into our present and "incarnating" itself in our midst (i.e., Jesus and the Church).
If preaching is to be theologically coherent and Trinitarianly centered, then the Spirit is essential. For it's the Spirit that is capable of opening the necessary space within our lives, both personally and socially, for life to happen. I find this to be happening in at least two ways. First, in the life of the preacher, sermon preparation is a sort of opening up. Study, prayer, listening, and careful learning create space within the preacher's life to hear a new word and to be transformed in the process. Pastors who preach without study have a poor theology of the Spirit, not a stronger one. Secondly, the Spirit opens up space in the infinitesimally small moment between the preacher's speech and the hearers' ears; this is Bonhoeffer's point in his lectures on preaching about the sermon as the incarnation of Christ among us. I find this to be true because at that point of speech, the preacher no longer has control over that word. It becomes the space in which the hearer and the Spirit wrestle together (this is why I believe that it is also possible for the Spirit to speak, even during a poor sermon).
It is also with the intent of incarnating God's future in us that we have been gathered together by the power of the Spirit and a space made open for us to hear God’s speak (this happens throughout worship). After all, a sign of true worship is whether or not we are embodying God's Kingdom politics here and now (Jeremiah and Jesus both call for worship that enacts justice for the widow, orphan, poor, and foreigner). Preaching, by the Spirit's power, enables us to imagine God's future, not as a distant event, but as an already present reality (though not fully consummated yet). Where the Spirit is present, God's future is present. Faithful preaching orients us to the future-making work of God in the present, which cannot be about escaping the present but living into it more fully and faithfully.
I think one thing needs to be clarified about the work of the Spirit in preaching. There are some who would understand the Spirit's work to be an ecstatic possession of the preacher and congregation. Maybe we would be a little more ecstatic if we understood the nature of the Spirit's work. But, the ecstatic nature of the Spirit's work has often been over-done and forced. The emotional manipulation that results is often more damaging than it is productive. Nor does this notion of ecstasy prove that extemporaneous preaching is faithful or more faithful than preaching with a manuscript. Both methods have their benefits and problems, but neither determines the faithfulness of the message. Rather, it is the Spirit which testifies to the Truth by pointing us toward, not an ecstatic experience, but an encounter with the living God in which we are birthed into God's future now opening up to us presently.