Comments on: The responsibility of preaching scares me sometimes! http://shroedernz.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/the-responsibility-of-preaching-scares-me-sometimes/ Thu, 08 May 2008 07:59:32 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Rebecca Gane http://shroedernz.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/the-responsibility-of-preaching-scares-me-sometimes/#comment-138 Rebecca Gane Tue, 06 May 2008 11:27:06 +0000 http://shroedernz.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/the-responsibility-of-preaching-scares-me-sometimes/#comment-138 Obviously I shouldn't have used the symbols I did. Found these comments on the Armybarmy blog written by Aaron White (and Bonhoeffer!). Good food for thought. Paul I think you're right...preaching is a big deal - and hard work! Obviously I shouldn’t have used the symbols I did. Found these comments on the Armybarmy blog written by Aaron White (and Bonhoeffer!). Good food for thought. Paul I think you’re right…preaching is a big deal – and hard work!

]]> By: Rebecca Gane http://shroedernz.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/the-responsibility-of-preaching-scares-me-sometimes/#comment-137 Rebecca Gane Tue, 06 May 2008 11:25:30 +0000 http://shroedernz.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/the-responsibility-of-preaching-scares-me-sometimes/#comment-137 <> Here are six challenging qualifications Bonhoeffer gives on preaching: 1. A sermon is only relevant when God is there. He is the one who makes its message concrete. 2. God speaks to us through the Bible. Therefore, our task is to expound the Bible and not to elaborate it! 3. All texts are relevant and it is no part of the preacher's task to find topical texts. 4. The preacher has no word of wisdom suited specially to the moment. He has to proclaim what he knows of God in the situation. 5. The concrete situation represents only the material to which the word of God can be spoken. There are no moments of eternal significance, heavy with God's message for us. All historical moments are ambiguous - in them God and the devil are at work! 6. The truly concrete situation is not some historical happening, but the sinner standing before God, and the answer to that situation is in the crucified and risen Lord. ---- Too often we rip our sermons out of the headlines rather than out of Scripture. I do believe we need to know our world and be able to speak about it and to it. But when we are preaching, surely the written word of God should get more than a cursory mention or inclusion as part of proof-texts? <> <>

Here are six challenging qualifications Bonhoeffer gives on preaching:

1. A sermon is only relevant when God is there. He is the one who makes its message concrete.

2. God speaks to us through the Bible. Therefore, our task is to expound the Bible and not to elaborate it!

3. All texts are relevant and it is no part of the preacher’s task to find topical texts.

4. The preacher has no word of wisdom suited specially to the moment. He has to proclaim what he knows of God in the situation.

5. The concrete situation represents only the material to which the word of God can be spoken. There are no moments of eternal significance, heavy with God’s message for us. All historical moments are ambiguous – in them God and the devil are at work!

6. The truly concrete situation is not some historical happening, but the sinner standing before God, and the answer to that situation is in the crucified and risen Lord.
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Too often we rip our sermons out of the headlines rather than out of Scripture. I do believe we need to know our world and be able to speak about it and to it. But when we are preaching, surely the written word of God should get more than a cursory mention or inclusion as part of proof-texts?

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]]> By: Gavin Knight http://shroedernz.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/the-responsibility-of-preaching-scares-me-sometimes/#comment-131 Gavin Knight Mon, 05 May 2008 06:15:03 +0000 http://shroedernz.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/the-responsibility-of-preaching-scares-me-sometimes/#comment-131 yep, yesterday was a good day, even coming off last week's high! as I twittered <i>"2 good church services today, social justice this morning, personal alignment with God tonight, now for a blog post, and then some reading"</i> http://twitter.com/gavinknight/statuses/803095133 (didn't get the blog post done as something else intervened, hopefully tonight) yep, yesterday was a good day, even coming off last week’s high!

as I twittered “2 good church services today, social justice this morning, personal alignment with God tonight, now for a blog post, and then some reading” http://twitter.com/gavinknight/statuses/803095133 (didn’t get the blog post done as something else intervened, hopefully tonight)

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