The Witness of Preaching...
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...whenever we include a "slice of
life" in a sermon, we are making implicit theological claims whether we know
it or not. By the kinds of experiences and images we choose to employ in
sermons, we are forming, implicitly or explicitly, specific connections
between the nature of contemporary life and the character of the gospel. A
sentimental sermon story, for example, implies that the gospel itself is
sentimental. A sermon full of experiences evolving only clergy telegraphs
the message that real faith is reserved for the ordained. Or suppose that a
preacher decides to relate in a sermon several stories of people who learned
to trust God in the midst of difficult and painful circumstances. If this
preacher is honest about these experiences, the accounts will include some
of the ambiguity and unresolved questions surely present whenever people
struggle from suffering toward faith. A truthful relating of the
experiences, in other words, carries with it the theological claim that the
"yes" of the gospel does not instantly make the "no" of human doubt and
struggle disappear. If, on the other hand, the preacher files the rough
edges off these experiences and transforms them into stories with simple,
happy and purely victorious endings, an unrealistic triumphant picture of
the gospel is conveyed, with little room for unfinished suffering and
continuing struggle.
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---Thomas G. Long in, The Witness of Preaching.
Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989.|
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...and blessings on your preaching!