From Classroom to Pulpit: Interviews with Fred Craddock & Walter Brueggemann
Brueggemann: I think that preaching is going to have to be much more imaginative and adventuresome. I think that as our society draws more secular and more illiterate about biblical tradition, preaching has a huge educational job of helping people understand what an odd angle of vision is given to us by the Gospel on the world. I think preaching has to really be nervy and imaginative, so that what we say doesn't just sound like an echo of what is assumed in dominant culture.
I think that the tension between the dominant substance of our culture and the claims of the Gospel — I think those tensions are going to have to be more and more visible and available to people. There was a very long time in U.S. society when we just assumed that the American dream and the Gospel were the same thing. I think that's got to be pulled apart in rather dramatic and bold ways. Of course that upsets people greatly when do that, but I think that's what's got to happen. The followers of Jesus cannot ultimately sign on for any other commitment of state or society or culture or anything like that. We make proximate commitments but not ultimate commitments, and all those commitments are held under the judgment of the ultimate commitment of the Gospel. I think that's very difficult for all of us.
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Preaching: Why is preaching still important for the church in the 21st century?
Brueggemann: I think that pastors need to recognize more that preaching is really crucial, not only for the maintenance of the church but for the health of our society. There is almost no other place left in our society where the truth can be told — the truth of the good news and the truth of the bad news. So preaching has got to be — with lots of artistic sensibility — preaching has really got to be truth-telling, because we live in a society of pretend, and that pretend is going to bring us to death. It's a matter of preaching being able to pop the bubble of the illusion, I think, which is very hard work. But what a glorious calling; what a glorious calling that somebody gets to do that regularly.
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Michael Duduit is the Editor of Preaching.