It was a very proficient sermon, engaging, clear in expounding the biblical text, well illustrated and well applied.
But this particular sermon on Revelation chapters 4 and 5 by the Revd Vaughan Roberts, rector of St Ebbe's, Oxford, had a vital element that is quite difficult to isolate or explain.
Cranmer's Curate can only describe it as an edge of danger.
The God, whose sovereignty in an apparently out-of-control world was so clearly communicated, came across as compellingly and gloriously unsafe.
This got cc thinking about preaching. However well expounded and well applied a sermon may be, it can lack that vital edge.
This is not to suggest that preachers who manage to convey it have access to some quasi-gnostic secret denied to the rest of us. Nor is this an attempt to try to resurrect sub-evangelical legalism around the 'quiet time'.
But it is to suggest that such preaching is the fruit of a consistently humble, privately prayerful walk - by grace - with this dangerous God, the glorious God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, may one conclude that an effective preacher of Christ is a faithful disciple of Christ whose discipleship is independent of his status as a preacher?
Is that not what makes him a preacher of sermons with a dangerous edge?
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A preacher was asked "How long did that sermon take you to write, Vicar?"
ReplyDeleteHe replied "50 years!"
That's about right!
Thanks and every blessing for Christmas.
Terry
Thank you Terry and happy Christmas to you Sir.
ReplyDeleteJust to add, it's clearly difficult for a preacher to achieve that degree of edge every week but a preacher walking with God will surely convey it to varying degrees in the regular course of his ministry.
It's got to be that element that distinguishes godly preaching from what you might call slick machined expositions. They are interesting to listen to and well applied as well as being good expositions of the text but the preacher displays signs of not being much of a private pray-er.
Every blessing,
Julian
Hi Julian,
ReplyDeleteI think the 'unsafeness' of our world and the sovereignty of God and the way that we communicate it is an extremely prized and to be valued aspect of our preaching ministry.
We need very much to be communicating from the 'edge of danger' and yet so many of our fellow preachers fail to do this, opting for 'pie in the sky' eternity and/or a 'now' in which we find a Jesus who appears to be some form of celestial Elastoplast and Nanny (there, there, Nanny will make all the nasties go away) combined. A heavenly vending machine that requires self-assumed tokens!
Unless we, as preachers, contend with the Word and engage with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in an active and personal way as disciples and misshapen clay pots ourself, how on earth can we lead others?
I meet a number of clergy who see their existence as little more than social workers or (often poor) theologians and yet, if we are, as C H Spurgeon had it, merely "One beggar showing other beggars where there is bread," we, who first benefit from both realisation (and experience) of God's control, grace and sovereignty will communicate from the fragility (and finitude) of our humanity the richness of His provision, love and grace.
Happy Advent (and a blesséd and joyful Christmas to you and yours),
V