"Do the Gospel to the people!"

This week the eminent preaching professor, Rev. Dr. Paul Scott Wilson, of the United Church of Canada, roused the local community of seasoned and yet-to-be preachers with an exhortation to reclaim passionate proclamation.

Here are some paraphrases I wrote down during his lecture, and my explanatory comments below them:

Only if God gets in the text is it truly Scripture.

Dr. Wilson urged the preacher to find God's action in the Scriptural text.  Even the story of David and Goliahth, in which the Lord does not feature as a prominent figure, explicitly, only belongs in the Bible if it was God who guided the stone that David threw.  Preachers intent on Scriptural accuracy can bog themselves down in commentaries, to the point that they tend to lecture on the Scripture rather than preach it. 

The preacher is authorized to do the deed, not to explain it.

Scripture becomes the living Word of God in our proclamation.  There is more to preaching than teaching.  Preaching does require a certain amount of teaching, but it must also be complemented by proclamation, else the homily may feel stale.  What's the point of a mere lecture on the scripture text for Sunday?  The Lord is ready to jump out into the congregation through the preacher's proclamation, so why hold back?  The Scriptures do something, and our proclamation of the Gospel is one way that God may act in the world.

Proclamation is sacramental:  Jesus speaks his word to the people - so, do the Gospel to the people!

Preaching changes lives, even when the preacher him/herself falls short of the ideal.  The Word of God spoken and proclaimed in the assembly makes God powerfully present to the people.  Sacraments, and sacramental actions, effect the saving action of God in the world.  Don't just tell people what the Gospel says, but make it happen here and now for us. 

 Preach God, not the people - preach the Gospel, preach Grace.

Look for God's action in the text, and God's action in our world today.  It's plenty easy to find trouble in the Bible and in the world.  (Trouble is Wilson's special word for human predicament and human need, e.g. our moral failures and our inability to save ourselves).  Most sermons stop at the trouble.  The preacher will tell us what's wrong, and then tell us what we should do to fix it.  God's people are starving, so give alms and volunteer at the food pantry!  But, this message falls short and usually adds a burden to the people, rather than offering them the Gospel. 

God's action, however, transcends and perfects our human situations and abilities.  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Even in the midst of the war, God was reconciling fathers and sons, mothers and daughters.  Finding and proclaiming God's action lifts us up and empowers us to do what needs to be done.  Don't simply moralize about serving the poor, show me how God is already working through others to serve the poor, and then I may feel empowered to join in that work.  Show us how God is already at work, and this will empower us to participate in the Kingdom, rather than leaving church with yet one more burden to carry.

Not all of Scripture is Gospel, but all Scripture points to the Gospel.

Certainly, preaching on some grim passages of the Bible makes it hard to point to God's merciful action.  Even though not every line of Scripture is explicitly good news, every line indeed points to its fulfillment in Christ.  Christ is the fulfillment of the Law, and so every moral command, every sin, every tragedy points to the Cross and the Resurrection.  Go there in your preaching!

Connect this Gospel story to the whole Gospel.

When the end of the sermon draws near, look for a way to connect this snippet of the Gospel with the larger Gospel story.  Every Sunday recalls the Resurrection, so every Gospel text points to the final victory.  Go there, and link this text with the larger story.

And finally, a few words on stories:

There are four types of stories, personal, local, Church, and world. 

Every story needs to focus on people. The human story involves God breaking in to the story.

To this end, every story needs a quotation; let us meet the person in the story.

The story of God's action in the world lets us see God in the ordinary.
 

This story is often the dream of what the world would look like if God's will were done!
Thank you Dr. Paul Scott Wilson for your encouraging words on proclamation.