Homiletic Discipline
by Ken Myers
The vast majority of sermons I’ve heard, liberal and conservative, only take the text as a badly understood starting point for the pastor’s own creative work. They do not arise, as they should, from a true lectio divina, an immersion in the text which puts boundaries on what can be said about it by a preacher.
I do not think one is in the School of the Holy Spirit unless, in the labor of composition, he hears the Voice speaking through conscience (“with-knowing”) saying things like, “That’s not what it says,” or “They’re not ready for that—they may never be,” or “Better say it some other way,” or “You don’t know enough to say that,” or “You’re just showing off—do you think I’m impressed?” or “Your own critical faculties tell you the scholarly consensus among the commentators you incline to rely on is tendentious. Look at it this way and preach accordingly,” or “That’s what your sect believes it means, but they’re wrong for obvious reasons that you understand. Preach what they want to hear and you’re in trouble with Me, because that’s not what I said, and you know it—get in the habit of this, and you’re useless to Me because you will soon find it easy to ignore what I am saying, which it is your job to deliver unaltered,” or “You may not change the Word of God, but embellishment, however it appears, is a manner of change”—and things (usually admonishments) like this.
When you’re done, you find that God has actually been speaking to you and has quite a bit to say. A sign of this is his consistent negativity within the freedom he grants to do your own work and say what you think best. A good sermon is the product of a dialogue between God and the preacher, something the best preachers will tell you—and they’re humble about their work.
Unsound System
An observation from Giles Fraser on the Church of England’s closedown reaction to Covid:
For many people, a pattern of churchgoing had been broken never to be taken up again. Sunday schools were abandoned, the vulnerable left to fend for themselves. Parish treasurers pulled their hair out as finances went into a death spiral. Zoom was never a realistic alternative for a religion that is inherently physical, all about the body and the blood.
These are vitally important observations. I put the last sentence in italics because it is the most important of all and is widely applicable for the replacement of the physical with the merely electronic, whether of the acoustic instruments with electric or perhaps even the amplification of the human voice. (Churches used to be built to make this unnecessary.)
All of these things make me increasingly uncomfortable these days. There should be a very strong intuitive reaction, I think, against services of “worship” broadcast electronically. These would seem to involve a falsification prima facie. All uses of electronics in worship (even amplification for the hard of hearing) should be stringently justified by light of the principle of its intrinsic physicality derived from the doctrine of the Incarnation. (In my own church experience I have noticed that many of those who are hearing-impaired insist on sitting near the back of the sanctuary and complaining they cannot hear, while the front rows remain empty.)
Ecumenical & Moving
In 1802, Johann Nikolaus Forkel—a German music theorist—published the first extended biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. Benefitting from correspondence with two of Bach’s sons (Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann), Forkel’s book is still cited frequently for its uniquely valuable perspective on the life and work of the greatest composer of sacred music.
One of the passages from the volume most frequently quoted is this sentence from the chapter titled “Bach’s Character,” a sentence presented to epitomize the great composer’s humility: “When he was sometimes asked how he had contrived to master the art to such a high degree, he generally answered: ‘I was obliged to be industrious; whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.’”
Assuming that Bach ever said such a thing, was this an expression of false modesty? Or an ironic articulation of the Protestant work ethic? Maybe he was throwing down a gauntlet to his sons, who were eager to establish themselves as worthy inheritors of the family name and trade.
Ken Myers is the host and producer of the Mars Hill Audio Journal. Formerly an arts editor with National Public Radio, he also serves as music director at All Saints Anglican Church in Ivy, Virginia. He is a contributing editor for Touchstone.
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