Preach Magazine Issue 4 - Preaching in the digital age | Page 26
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FEATURE
PURPOSE
It is important to be able to
articulate what we understand to be
the purpose of preaching, regardless
of what form the final sermon takes
or what medium it uses. Preaching
seeks to facilitate encounter between
the hearer and God. It may come
with a sharp prophetic edge or a
comforting pastoral encouragement.
It is always about enabling new
seeing, facilitating the disclosure
moment when the penny drops and
we see anew. Preaching is concerned
with helping the hearers (which
includes the preacher) envisage
new possibilities, re-imagining the
world in the light of the love and
transformative power of God. It is
about feeding the people of God,
drawing them closer to the Bread
that sustains and heals. Whatever
it’s form, preaching is always
about drawing the people of God
into deeper insight and authentic
worship in word and action.
REVELATION
The third foundation of preaching
is theological confidence in the
God who communicates with his
people. The Scriptures record God’s
revelatory impetus, communicating
in a breathtaking array of genres
and symbols, through many different
people and ultimately in the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus.
In the sermon the Word is taken,
broken, blessed and given, perhaps
by one person, perhaps by a team,
perhaps in real time, perhaps online.
Laden with sacramental potential,
it is potentially the place of the ‘aha
moment’, when new insight is born.
The final shape of the sermon should
reflect something of the infinite
communicative creativity of God.
While there is nothing wrong with
a three-point monologue, there are
many other ways of cutting and
shaping the sermon. In his teaching,
Jesus implicitly communicates a
call to think creatively about the use
of story, anecdote, resonant image,
and subverted expectation. He takes
the familiar images of his everyday
context – coins, bread, neighbours,
sheep, fields, vineyards, fish, nets, and
so forth, speaking the astonishing
universal into the specific, the
ordinary, and the mundane. Earthing
the abstract idea is a task of the
imagination in all its functions. This
brings us to the fourth foundation
stone of preaching.