If preaching were only a matter of writing a weekly essay, spinning out a metaphor in all its implications and applications, or even interpreting what a Bible passage means from the standpoint of its history and context, preaching would not be all that difficult, at east not for those who have an aptitude for reading, thinking, writing and speaking.

But preaching is more than this. It is laming the activity of God. It is reporting on the deeds of God with emphasis, though not narrow focus, or. God's current activities. It is proclaiming the good news of God's activity in Jesus Christ so persons can respond, as the Spirit leads, with knowledge, love, faith and obedience.

A Difficult Work

This strikes us as being a most difficult work. How can we possibly know what God is doing? While it is true to say that the God witnessed to in scripture is the God of revelation, it is also true to say God is hidden even it revelation. The God of the Bible is known but never completely known. The Bible never presents, and no biblical character experiences, God in God's essence or fullness.

Jacob wrestles with some mysterious character by the Jabbok, but does not recognize who it is. It is only after the experience that he is able to say, "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved" (Gen. 32:30). Much later, Moses is allowed to see only the back of God, but even then that back is not described. Later still, Isaiah and Ezekiel both have visions of the glory of God, but their descriptions of their visions focus on the majesty and mystery that surround God, not on God's being or countenance.

New Testament material may add the force of new spiritual truth, but it does not add clarity. The disciples who are with Jesus at the time of His transfiguration are confused eyewitnesses at best, they do not know what to make of the changes coming over their Master or how to respond to them appropriately. They may have been relieved when He told them not to tell anyone about what they had seen.

Later texts which speak of the Resurrected Christ present an unrecognized Lord. Until He speaks her name, probably with an inflection, a plain reading does not pick up; Mary thinks Jesus is the caretaker of the garden. That same day, the two disciples plodding along the Emmaus Road do not realize that their new found companion is the long-awaited Messiah who is newly resurrected.

Our task as preachers is to report on the deeds of God, but these deeds always retain the quality of mystery. God is always revealing, yet always hiding. Barth recognized this and put it in the first volume of Church Dogmatics. He used the Latin that the guild of theologians have loved so long: and which sounds kind of nice "Deus revelatus is also Deus absconditus and Deus absconditus also Deus revelatus." The God who reveals is the God who hides; the God who hides is the God who reveals. God reveals, but remains hidden nonetheless even within revelation. In light of this, it does not take any Latin to say that preaching is a most difficult and agonizing work. We are to declare the deeds of One whose acts are draped in mystery.