Proclaiming the Good News
The Good News is all around us. The wisdom of God is proclaiming itself on street corners, in human connection, in nature and in so much more. This is the Good News that Jesus has conquered death and is re-establishing his heavenly Kingdom here on earth. How often do we actually see this though. Can you hear God as he speaks in the coming storm? Can you see God as the wind moves through the trees? Can you understand how God is working through your closest relationship? Can you feel the God that surrounds you beyond any physical thing? We probably don’t, yet, God’s good news, his presence and work is in all of these. This is why we need preachers and teachers to help us. We need someone to show us the good news that surrounds us and we need someone to call us to live into it. Today, we are talking about the purpose of preaching. So, today I want to talk about three things
The Role of A Preacher
Sharing an experience that must start from Scripture
The Measuring Stick of The Creed
So first, I love to preach. I love that God has entrusted me to share him with a group of people that, usually, want to hear about him. I love that I very often feel the Holy Spirit work through me in both the writing and delivering of a sermon. As someone that had a speech impediment, has dyslexia and almost failed English in elementary school, my standing up here and doing this is nothing short of a miracle. Even when I struggle with a hard message, or I wrestle with Scripture I am so thankful that God has done this work in me, because there is nothing like sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and seeing it take root in people.
That being said, I don’t think there is anything more intimidating than preaching. Here I am charged with sharing God and the truth. Who am I that I think I know enough to do this? Who am I that I think I can communicate the God that is bigger than the universe? Who am I to think that somehow I can speak truths to you and others that they can’t hear when the universe itself is speaking to them? The truth is that I’m not good enough for the task. None of us are. No wonder I get nervous, I am approaching a task that is far bigger than me.
Yet, this lack is actually where true preaching and the proclamation of the gospel come in. It is in my weakness, my lack that the Holy Spirit makes himself known. If I am so big that I fill the whole space of this church, I won’t have left room for God. Preachers, just like every Christian can’t help being a conduit or an image for Jesus, as people see in all of us a bit of the character of God but the best way we do that is in humility. In humility we serve as mirrors for God, or sign posts or a messenger for God. In this way we can be like musical instruments. We may be even beautiful on our own, but once you hear the virtuoso make music with us you realize that we have such potential and beauty in the hands of our skilled God. Whether you stand up here or not, we are all called to reflect God in our words and deeds, we can all make beautiful music in God’s hands.
This reminds me of when I first started preaching. There is this interesting experience that I have heard from many preachers. Someone will come up to you after the service and tell you what they got out of the sermon and how it affected them in a Godly way. Almost always, what a listener shared was profound, beautiful and exactly what they needed. Yet, the ironic thing on the side of the preacher is that this is not what we intended to say - sometimes I couldn’t even perceive how someone would get such a revelation out of the words I said. But the truth of that moment is that the Holy Spirit speaks beyond our words, beyond our capacity. When we breathe the word of God, we introduce or re-introduce the Spirit of God to all the spirits of all those that are listening with open ears and minds.
So preaching or sharing the good news in any moment should be a humbling act, where we recognize the grandness of the task before us and yet we trust God to do the work when we step out in faith - knowing that we can’t do it on our own.
As such, the good news can’t just come out of our heads. It needs to be based on something that is beyond our weakness. It needs to be based on the Holy Spirit speaking to us through Scripture. As we mentioned before, we are too little for the task, so are our minds, so are our voices. I spend a lot of time praying over and reading Scripture as I create sermon series and I write a sermon. I will often fall asleep with the passages and possibly a theme rattling around in my mind, because I know, as we all should, that my words need to be based on God’s wisdom - the truth. The wisdom of the world is fickle, my version of truth is limited and often corrupted. I need God’s vision and truth - Scripture and prayer is the centre of our finding it, the source, the foundation. That’s why preaching should always be preceded by Scripture - if we can do that in our daily conversations that is great too. As Jesus says, anyone who hears my words and lives by them is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. Though the storms may come, his house will not fall. I need to base my words off Jesus’ and second, I need to equip you and urge you to also build your lives upon Jesus’ words. There is no other sure foundation.
Yet, this isn’t the only important part of preaching: the next step is to make it personal and communicate it. As such, it is our task to understand, take in and communicate what Jesus is saying. In one way or another God’s word has to become personal, contextual, relatable - if it wasn’t it would be like me speaking Urdu to you. You might get something, but it would be very limited. So, I will also spend a lot of time praying about how to communicate with you personally - a few of you will come in and out of my head as I write and I may have to pray about how to speak this to you personally. This sermon posed an interesting challenge that way because here I am looking at the liturgical moment of preaching, yet most of you may never preach. Yet, God reminded me again and again, that what I am doing is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ as I have personally read, heard, met, and experienced it again and again. The truth is that we are all meant to do this. Every Christian wherever they are in their faith journey, no matter how little they think they are or how limited their understanding is called to share the good news of Jesus Christ as they have personally read, heard, met and experienced it. And as it is a personal experience founded in Scripture we must trust what God has given us and at the same time we must also trust what he has not yet given us. As such my role is to share with you my relationship with God, both my challenges and revelations.
This speaking God contextually isn’t quite like translating, but more about seeing where God’s truth is already making itself known. Our proverb talks about how wisdom is calling out from the streetcorners. This means that God’s truth and wisdom is written into our every moment. A Christian’s role, just like a preacher, is to discern where and how God is already speaking that wisdom in a way that people can see and understand. In the context of preaching or sharing the good news: Mary Anne and I were watching the news on Wednesday and she commented “It is just bad news after bad news, why do we watch this?” People need good news, even our news is telling us, we need something better than this world order. Or look at our conversations, so often our little good news isn’t enough. The Jays are doing well - great - what does that mean for my life? I watched a new exciting movie - great - what is that doing for the world? I got over a sore throat - great - what is that doing for everyone else who is sick? We need a better good news. The world needs a better good news. Guess what, we have the best news in Jesus Christ. The good news that God’s Kingdom is close at hand, all we have to do is reach out grab hold and live in it. We can all help people do just that - even if it happens slowly.
This brings me to my last point, a small but important one. What we share as preachers or Christians must fit within the creed. Our creeds are the central reality of God and our faith - if what we say doesn’t fit in the creed then we aren’t being faithful to God. In that way, I love that the creed comes right after the sermon. It means that whatever I or anyone else has said, there is a safety net, a measuring stick, and a test for my words. Hopefully, if I am not being faithful and humble before God, you will hear the creed and you will know it. Preaching at its best can be a kind of restatement of our creeds. The same should go for how we live and speak. If it doesn’t fit with how God has revealed himself, especially in the creed then we should relook at what we are doing and saying. Instead, just as wisdom proclaims itself in the streetcorners, our whole lives and words are meant to be a proclamation of God’s good news, the truth that his Kingdom is close at hand. AMEN
The world needs good news, but not just any good news, it need good news that will change the world. It needs a good news that doesn't just last for a moment, but gives us something for the moment while we look with hope for the future. We as Christians have that good news. Jesus Christ has conquered sin, evil and death and now he is coming to establish his Kingdom. He is not a long way off either, so His Kingdom is already taking shape.
We carry this good news, but with all good news we are called to share it, to bring others in and enjoy it. This Sunday as we explore the liturgical moment of preaching, we explore God's call on all of our lives to share his good news.
