Preaching That Makes the Word Plain. William Clair Turner
work of exegesis serves to modulate the corrupted boundaries in which the hearers dwell. It disturbs the false placidity and undifferentiated ether of a world that has turned from its creator; it punctuates the noise of chaos with silences of the Spirit; it charges toxic atmosphere with divine effluvium. Then it translates what has been seen and heard in the counsel of God into auditions that transform ordinary space into a doxological environment wherein God is present. The Lord is in his Holy Temple; let all the earth keep silence. Let the silence be broken only to say, “Speak Lord.”
1. Cleland, Preaching to be Understood.
2. See Cleland’s chapter on “bifocal preaching,” 33–58.
3. Taylor, How Shall They Preach, 24.
4. I am borrowing this term from Charles Long to account for the moment in which one gives full attention to reality that cannot be readily dominated or dissected. See Long, Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion. Long describes the moment as looking into a rock. Hence the term “lithic,” taken from lithos, Greek for rock. What is desired is “in the rock,” not under it or behind it. The moment is akin to the one in which the sculptor sees in the rock the image that is to be brought forth. For preaching, this is like looking into the word (the text) and waiting for the insight that must be given—an insight that cannot be rushed.
5. When the quadratic equation is solved, one of the factors is the square root of –1. Standard practice is to designate this factor by the sign “i.” Mathematical convention is to discard any answers containing this factor. It is real, and it can be squared to equal 1, but it cannot be reduced to any rational sum.
6. Otto, Idea of the Holy.
7. See Jones, African Americans and the Christian Churches 1619–1860, chapter 1.
8. See Smith, In His Image, But . . . , especially chapter 3, “In Defense of Bondage,” 129ff.
9. Buber, I and Thou.
10. Johnson, God’s Trombones.
two from scribble to script: a spirituality of preaching
Preaching comes from the passion of God. God moves graciously toward the creation in an act that is straight from the heart. Like the gift of the Son, God’s address is the outflow of love and compassion. In preaching, the unsurpassed gift of God finds its continuation in zeal and work to save the world—to heal the creation and restore it into fellowship. It is addressed to the creature, whose vocation is to lead the creation into obedience to Christ.
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