Some Temptations in Preaching

As I started my ministry at my current church 2 years ago, one of the things that I was concerned about was the task of preaching every week. I was really worried that I would be overwhelmed and ineffective. Well, I have learned that any effectiveness in preaching has everything to do with the Holy Spirit and nothing much to do with me. It is my job to prepare the sermon through prayer and study and then get out of the way, so that the Spirit can work. I'm still working on this. I'm noticing, however, that there are some temptations in preaching that I deal with on a regular basis.


I'm currently reading (albeit slowly) Will Willimon's book Conversations with Barth on Preaching and several points that Willimon (or Barth) makes early on have been really helpful in dealing with these temptations.

1) I am tempted to make sermon preparation and preaching an exclusively intellectual enterprise. Willimon says on pg. 24: "Our fertile imaginations are not the key to biblical interpretation but rather the work of the Holy Spirit. The source of any interesting interpretation is prayer." Wow, I need to hear that every week. Sometimes I operate as if by uncovering some obscure fact or some hitherto unknown meaning for this word or that phrase, then the "true" meaning of the text will shine forth, based on my research and understanding. Willimon states further, on page 27: "Biblical preachers must cultivate the art of relinquishment, letting go of our dearest insights in deference to the Bible's insights." I love how Willimon shoots that idea down so eloquently. My imagination or research or ability to make connections or draw conclusions are not the things that bring cohesion and clarity to the text - that's the work of the Spirit. My intelligence or skill (any that I possess are given as gifts of God) don't lead people to repentance or salvation - that's God's job.

2) I am tempted to focus on myself or my own experiences. I have been trying lately, and with varying success, to steer sermons away from stories or anecdotes about myself. Far too many times, I have begun sermons or introduced points by saying: "When I was…" You can fill in the blanks: "…in college"; "…in seminary"; "…growing up" - on and on. So often, I have made my experience the starting point of whatever point I was trying to make. In comparison to God's Word, my life is a pretty sorry starting point. I've had a good life and I've been blessed beyond measure, but I'm not the focus of the sermon! Willimon states aptly regarding this point, on page 33 that we preachers too often seek refuge, not in some philosophical system or school of thought, but "in that last pitiful asylum of the modern person: our own subjectivity." We assume that our experience is the best starting point for the work of preaching, we focus not on the God revealed in Christ, but on our own experience. George Hunsinger (as quoted by Willimon on page 73) states this clearly: "Experience, Barth acknowledged, can scarcely be presented as absent from the life of faith, but neither can it be regarded as central to the life of faith. We believe in Christ, he insisted, not in our experience of Christ; we attempt to listen to the gospel, not to our experience of the gospel; we believe in salvation, not in our experience of salvation." I tend to think I'm getting something right when I don't talk about myself in the sermon at all, but rather focus on God's redemptive work through Christ and how God is working in us through the Spirit. Here's one final thought (pg. 71): "God is the object that stimulates our thought and talk about God, not anything subjectively arising from within us. Barth criticized that sort of modern theology 'which starts with pious experience or faith'."

3) I am tempted to be an exegetical show-off. Barth states, "preaching is exposition, not exegesis. It follows the text but moves on from it to the preacher's own heart and to the congregation." By the way, I did not learn the word "exegesis" until I went to seminary. It means the careful, close study of Scripture. The basic meaning is "to draw out of". In exegesis, the preacher is trying to draw out of the text the meaning that God is trying to communicate. The opposite of exegesis is eisegesis, which is when we put into the text our own meaning. When we are seeking meaning from the text it's exegesis (which is appropriate and rewarding); when we go to the text with our minds made up about what it means and read the text having already decided what it says and means, that's eisegesis (which is lazy and almost always inappropriate). I sometimes am tempted to make my sermon about my own exegesis and not about what God wants the congregation to hear through the proclaimed Word. The bridge between exegesis and exposition is prayer. In order to know my own heart, in order to have any idea about what the congregation needs to hear, in order to hear what God is speaking - prayer must be the central piece of the work of preaching. I am learning this, however slowly. One temptation for me is that I want to "show my work". I want the congregation to know that I've studied, taken my time, pored over the passage. But, that's more about making myself look good rather than pointing the way to Jesus Christ. This is related to my first temptation - there's a lot that I'm learning to let go of, to relinquish things that I might find fascinating, but that have no bearing on the Gospel message I'm called to proclaim.

4) Finally, I tempted to try to be likeable. I want my congregation to like me, to find me agreeable. I don't want to make people angry or upset, or even confused. Giving in to this temptation means that I water down the truth, I underestimate my congregation's ability and desire to hear a difficult, challenging word. It means that when I give in to this temptation, I'm not speaking what God is calling me to speak, when the message is hard to hear. I'm finding that preaching, real honest-to-God preaching, requires courage. I'm working on it. Here's what Barth says: "My calling is to speak and speak clearly…If I wanted to be liked, I would keep quiet." Amen.