Then Jesus ‘opened
their minds to understand the scriptures’ (Luke 24:45). Earlier on in chapter 24, Luke
recounts how, on the road to Emmaus Jesus (though at the moment not recognized
by two disciples) did the same thing: ‘Then
beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things
about himself in all the scriptures’ (Luke 24:27). After the two disciples
recognized Jesus at the breaking of the bread, they recall: ‘Were not our
hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was
opening the scriptures to us?’ (Luke 24:32).
Paul
wrote to the early Christian church at Rome: ‘how can they believe without
hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?’ (Rom. 10:14). Paul
practised gospel-focused kerygmatic
preaching, that is preaching centred on the ministry, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. He told the Corinthian church that ‘I determined to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ (1 Cor. 2:2). The preaching
recorded in the Acts of the Apostles repeated again and again the divine kerygma,
the story of Jesus Christ: but then the apostles had no written gospels to
which to refer their audience.
This
is not the only Biblical model of preaching. There are times when life may seem to us almost meaningless and ruled by
despair and death. What people need, in such circumstances, is a Word of
redemption and meaning from outside this situation that will answer their
deepest questions about life and death. Preaching brings this Word. It is
Biblical because it was used by some of the Old Testament prophets and also by
Jesus himself in some of his meetings with individuals in which existential
questions are answered: three good examples (but they are by no means the only
ones) are his meetings with the tax collector Zacchaeus, with Nicodemus and
with the woman at the well.
An
alternative style of preaching is the proclamation of God’s word as an
alternate vision to injustice, inequities of power, suffering, and oppression. Biblical
models for ethical-political preaching stretch from the prophetic preaching of
the Hebrew prophets to Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God. Today this is very much the mission field of Christian Aid.
Another
model of preaching has been called the ‘whispered word of God’, in the preacher
seeks out the divine Word within the world and draws it up from the level of a
whisper to the level of an assertion or proposition. Jesus is in conversation
with disciples and the crowd uses metaphor, story, and parable, to take the
ordinary bits and pieces of people’s lives and transform them into the very
stuff of God’s revelation.
So
there are several types of preaching according to the work of the Holy Spirit,
circumstance, our needs and the needs of the world. Proclamation of the gospel,
including interpretation and teaching is not an optional extra. It is close to
the essence of our faith. Paul put it this way in Romans 10:8-10: ‘The word is
near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we
preach (kerygma); because, if you
confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses
with his lips and so is saved.’
Which preaching style
is the most appropriate for the church and the needs of contemporary society? There
are no simple answers. Perhaps an awareness of different styles and the
deployment of a variety so that neither the preacher nor the congregation falls
into cosy predictability is important. Most important of all is the need for openness
to guidance and direction from the Holy Spirit who ‘blows where he wills’ (John 3:8). ‘You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it
comes from or where it is going.’
