I’m late. Apologies. It was a weekend for the ages. And now the week ahead is another wild one. Our saying around the house, amid the boxes and the piles and the confused creatures wondering what in the world is going on now, is “It’ll be great in October!” Meaning, we should be through this messy transition place, where we aren’t here and we aren’t there and no where seems like home at the moment, and settled in a new abode carving out a new chapter in our lives by the month of October. For a while there, we thought we might have to restate the mantra as “It’ll be great in November!” Because it seemed like things weren’t happening fast enough and we might get stuck betwixt and between. I don’t know exactly what betwixt means, but it sounds really cool.
But then this weekend, we were actually in Fort Wayne for the wedding of some dear friends. I was invited to preside over the ceremony, which was held in the Allen County Courthouse, of all places. It is gorgeous and marble and echoey. We stayed in town Friday night after the rehearsal and Saturday night after the wedding and then came home to Indianapolis in time to pack and get on the road for Nashville. Whew.
Betwixt, it’s my new word, all of that, we were making offers on houses in Nashville. Three different offers, actually. The first one didn’t get very far because we found out things we didn’t like early on and so didn’t submit it. The second one we were really invested in and did a lot of back and forth with the realtor to get the offer right. But it wasn’t accepted. We were ready to give up and figured that I would start all over again when I got back to Nashville. But then La Donna saw one in the same development of the second offer. We hadn’t seen it, but it was the same floorplan and we were willing to go offer without seeing it. Then our realtor did a video walk through and we liked it, maybe even better than the other one. We made the offer, it was countered, we accepted the counter and here we are! Homeowners. Well, homeowners to be, as many of you know there are lots of steps to go from here. But we are excited and relieved and anxious, and believers.
Believers? We believe in a future we had begun to give up on. Ask my office mates, many of them stopped in and were worried about me last week. I seemed down, or burdened, or despairing. I had lost faith that it was ever going to happen. Not completely, I wasn’t ready to give up, but I wondered. I worried. I was tired of looking at inadequate houses, or beautiful ones that someone got before we did. The difficulties of living, often drag us down from living the life we’re called to live. They often keep us from seeing the new way of being alive in the world as we prepare for the coming Reign of God. It’s hard to hold on to faith, which is why we need to hear it and sometimes see it from time to time.
Romans 10:13-17 For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." 14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" 16 But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our message?" 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
Actually, it wasn’t the house issue that brought these things to mind this week, though it does seem to fit. Not, I was and am celebrating the fact that I am preaching again! I first got to preach for the wedding on Saturday. An admittedly short sermon, though I threatened them during rehearsal with 45 minutes worth, but still it was a sermon. A proclamation of the Word in this celebration of love and covenant and family and the ability to see beyond the present into a lived future. I loved having the chance to preach again.
And then this week, I am preaching the Wednesday service in the Upper Room Chapel. The worship team from Discipleship Ministries is leading worship this week. It’s a chance for us to present the kinds of things we write and talk and teach about all the time. I was asked to preach. Imagine, the Director of Preaching Ministries is going to preach! In fact I’m titling the sermon “No Pressure” as a tongue in cheek nod to the moment. What might they be expecting from the Director of Preaching Ministries? Indeed what does any attender of church, member or not, expect from the preacher? I’m wanting to address this expectation a little bit. To admit that maybe we preachers have let people down over the years and the expectations no longer are there. Maybe the hearer isn’t expecting to hear about faith anymore, or about a call to see a new reality toward which God is moving us. Maybe people are just expecting a little advice on how to live a better life. Which isn’t a bad thing, but seems a little small compared to the grand vision Jesus gave us about kingdom living.
How shall they hear, Paul asks in Romans. What are we listening to these days? What are the voices who declare the good life to us, who describe our dreams for us? Every now and then I read an article that says preaching is a relic of the past. It is fading away, they claim. Unnecessary in this postmodern world. Except that there are preachers in the world aplenty. Preachers who capture our attention, who beguile us with images and sensations that are compelling. Secular preachers, consumer preachers, political preachers, social activist preachers who are drawing us into their sermons because we don’t have a compelling vision of the message Christ brought, the message Christ is.
Part of my job is to help preachers compete in a world full of proclaimers. I have decided, after two whole months on the job, that my main function will be one of encouragement. Preachers need to hear how vital they still are to the movement of the church, to the vitality of the church. They might need to change some things as the world around us changes, but I believe that there will always be a place for preachers to cast a compelling vision of hope and grace and faith in a complicated and wearying world. We need to stand in opposition to the polarization of our culture, to the anger and violent speech that we hear all too often. We need to help the church find its voice in a noisy world.
Yeah, that’s one change I intend to advocate for. For too long preaching has been understood and practiced as a monologue. The time for monologue is over, I believe. Instead the preacher engages in a dialogue with his or her congregation. Not necessarily in the sermon time – though there is a great opportunity there, it was one thing I experimented with at my Fort Wayne church in an event we called Genesis. Some of the folks I met with at the wedding remembered that experiment and spoke of finding it creative and affirming.
But if not in the sermon, then elsewhere. Find a place for dialogue. Find a way to let other people than just the assigned preacher speak, share, preach. I believe we’ll be surprised at the depth and passion and power that will rise from the church again when we do.
And maybe when we find a way for all to speak, then we will become the church with the beautiful feet. OK, as slogans go, that may not be the best. But faith comes from what is heard. So let’s practice listening. Listening to the Word, listening to the preachers, listening to one another. And then faith will come.
Shalom,
Derek
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