Epilogue
Preaching is indispensable to Christianity. These words, which began this book, affirm a strong personal conviction. I believe in preaching, and I further believe that nothing is better calculated to restore health and vitality to the church or to lead its members into maturity in Christ than a recovery of true, biblical, contemporary preaching. Certainly there are strong objections, which we have tried to face. But there are even stronger theological arguments, which we have tried to grasp. Certainly too, the task of preaching today is extremely exacting as we seek to build bridges between the Word and the world, between divine revelation and human experience, and to relate the one to the other with integrity and relevance. So God’s call comes to us freshly to give ourselves more time in which both to study and to prepare, and to determine to preach with sincerity, earnestness, courage, and humility.
The question which immediately springs to our lips is: who is sufficient for these things? The privilege is great, the responsibility is taxing, the temptations are many, and the standards are high. How can we hope to make an adequate response?
I would like to share with you, in reply, a simple secret. I struggle myself to remember it, and whenever I am enabled to do so, I find it extremely helpful. It begins with the negative fact of Psalm 139 that, wherever we go, we cannot escape from God, and it continues with the positive counterpart that, wherever we are, “even there” his right hand leads and holds us. More than that. His eye as well as his hand is upon us, and his ears are open to our words and prayers (Ps. 32:8; 34:15 = 1 Pet. 3:12). This truth is important for every Christian, but it has special significance for the preacher. As examples I choose Jeremiah in the Old Testament and Paul in the New.
Jeremiah: What passes my lips is open before you. (Jer. 17:16 NIV)
Paul: As men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ. (2 Cor. 2:17; 12:19)
True, when we preach, we speak in the sight and the hearing of human beings, and they challenge us to be faithful. But how much more challenging is the awareness that we preach in the sight and the hearing of God? He sees what we do; he listens to what we say. Nothing will more quickly rid us of laziness and coldness, of hypocrisy, cowardice, and pride than the knowledge that God sees, hears, and takes account. So may God grant us a more constant and more vivid awareness of his presence, to whom all hearts are open and from whom no secrets are hidden! God grant that, when we preach, we may become even more conscious that he sees and hears than that the congregation sees and hears, and that this knowledge will inspire us to faithfulness!
Handley Moule, who was later to become the first principal of Ridley Hall Cambridge and then Bishop of Durham, was ordained in 1867 to serve under his father at Fordington in Dorset. This explains the title of his poem “Fordington Pulpit—a preacher’s weekday thoughts.” Although it can hardly claim to be great poetry, it contains the fruit of his own self-examination. Referring to God as “this Great Listener,” who stands at the preacher’s side and hears his sermons, it ends with these searching questions:
Has he found thy message true?
Truth, and truly spoken too?
Uttered with a purpose whole
From a self-forgetful soul,
Bent on nothing save the fame
Of the great redeeming Name,
And the pardon, life and bliss
Of the flock he bought for his?
Self-forgetfulness is an unattainable goal, except as the by-product of preoccupation with Another’s presence and with his message, his power, and his glory. It is for this reason that, for a number of years now, I have found it helpful before preaching to pray this prayer in the pulpit:
Heavenly Father, we bow in your presence.
May your Word be our rule,
your Spirit our teacher,
and your greater glory our supreme concern,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.