The
actual manner of preparing the sermon is a different matter, but the manner
of preaching must be centered in that union between the human need and God's
truth.
Preaching:
Given that union between the text of Scripture and its message regarding human
need, how do you move from the text to the sermon?
Massey:
I place the text at one end of an ellipse, the human hearer at the other end
of the ellipse, and between the two I try to focus on the dynamic which can
help the hearer to understand the meaning of this for his or her life. The relation
to the text in that kind of framework allows the text to open up as I see someone's
face, someone's setting, situation, or need. The text opens up as I overhear
what the Spirit of God is saying in that text — and throughout the whole
of Scripture.
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As
Donald Gray Barnhouse used to say, the text should be a pivot, by which the
whole of Scripture bears witness. Not that I pour all of Scripture into one
text, but all of the Bible that I have learned is highlighted and feeds the
meaning of a particular text.
Preaching:
What is the greatest threat to genuine, authentic, biblical preaching in our
own day?
Massey:
There are three major threats: first, the threat of generalities; second, the
threat of pluralism; and third, the threat of popularity. Generalities —
trying to relate all human knowledge in such a way that we do not remain particularly
Christian — levels everything. The whole business of pluralism, in which
we wish not to offend anyone, leads many to leave off speaking particularly
as a Christian voice.
The
globalism concern of our time has opened us up to the reality of differences
and to the function of those differences as valid and meaningful. But the Christian
preacher must always be identified with and serve the Christian particularity.
That relates also to the third threat. When we want to please the crowds, we
too often fall into generalities and avoid particularities, and therefore do
not 'sound the note' that we were called upon by God to keep before the public.
There is a scandal of particularity to the Christian faith that is just germane
to the faith itself and, apart from that, preaching has no quickening power
to change human life.
You
might deal religiously with any number of notions, and may even do so devotionally.
We may be spellbinding in the pulpit by way of oratory and rhetoric, but the
Christian has something more to say, and that is the kerygma. The kerygma takes
us beyond generalities, beyond pluralism, beyond popularity, to reach to the
very reason Jesus Christ came.
Preaching:
With this issue of the kerygma, how does one confront the kerygmatic function
of the sermon in each individual message?
