Prophetic Preaching

A Pastoral Approach

Leonora Tubbs Tisdale

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781611640977
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Where have all the prophets gone? And why do preachers seem to shy away from prophetic witness? Astute preacher Leonora Tisdale considers these vexing questions while providing guidance and encouragement to pastors who want to recommit themselves to the task of prophetic witness. With a keen sensitivity to pastoral contexts, Tisdale's work is full of helpful suggestions and examples to help pastors structure and preach prophetic sermons, considered by many to be one of the most difficult tasks pastors are called to undertake.

1
Where Have All the Prophets Gone?

God was saying to me, “witness to this,” and “reveal the truth about this,” and “be a prophet.” And I said, “No, thank you. I don’t want it!”

[God] said, “This will be a great service to people you love, to tell them the truth.”

And I said, “They’re not going to thank me for it. I know that for sure. People hurt prophets. They throw sharp things at them. … I don’t want that. I don’t want any pain whatsoever. … Minor dentistry is more than enough for me.”

So no thank you, I don’t want to be a prophet and tell the truth. What can I do that’s the opposite of that? And so I got into this line of work: telling lies.¹

Garrison Keillor, “Prophet,” Fertility CD

In his book Where Have All the Prophets Gone? Marvin McMickle—who is both pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and professor of preaching at Ashland University—takes American pastors to task, claiming that many of us have sold out the God of biblical justice for a lesser god and, in so doing, have blunted or silenced the prophetic voice of the American pulpit.

Several things, McMickle claims, have contributed to the demise of prophetic preaching in churches of his own African American tradition, including

1. an overzealous preoccupation with the place of praise in some churches and services of worship (which has resulted in pastors’ downplaying or ignoring the pain and suffering of our world);
2. a false and narrow view of patriotism (that has sometimes equated unqualified praise of country with love of country); and
3. a focus in preaching on personal enrichment themes or a prosperity gospel to the exclusion or detriment of the gospel’s broader social justice claims.²

Both conservatives and liberals alike have contributed to the demise of prophetic preaching, says McMickle, in that both have tended to be one-issue preachers when it comes to preaching justice—with conservatives focusing primarily on “family values” and abortion, and with liberals primarily focusing on human sexuality and gay rights. In the process, he claims, a host of other important justice issues have gone largely unaddressed and underacknowledged in the American pulpit, such as immigration reform, global warming, the war in Iraq, the scourge of illegal drugs in our cities, both global and local poverty, health-care reform, the AIDS crisis, the ever-growing prison population in our land, and ongoing racism and sexism.

What McMickle sounds in this book is a clarion call for preachers who will rise up and boldly take on the mantle of prophetic preaching and who will respond to the call of Isaiah 6:8 (“ ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’”) by saying, “ ‘Here am I; send me!’” He writes,

It is still our task to call people back from the worship of Baal and other idols, but we will need to attach twenty-first century identities to those false gods. It is still our task to demand that society care for “the least of these” among us, but we will have to attach twenty-first century names and faces and conditions to those persons. It is still our task to speak truth to power and stand against the forces of injustice as they appear not only within the broader reaches of American society, but also as they manifest themselves within the life of the contemporary church.³

Consequently, he says, “we need an understanding of prophetic preaching that matches the times in which we live: a postmodern, nuclear-terrorist, politically polarized, grossly self-indulgent age, in which all the world’s citizens reside in a global community.”⁴ And we need preachers who are willing to take on this mantle and rise to the challenge of prophetic preaching, as difficult as it might be.

McMickle is honest in saying that he doesn’t think all preachers will respond positively to this call. Indeed, he says that the recovery of prophetic preaching and prophetic action will likely begin with a remnant, a small vocal minority who take this call seriously.⁵ But he also looks back over our nation’s history and reminds us that in former times of crisis such prophets have arisen, and while their voices have not always been popular at the time, they have made a significant difference in shaping the collective conscience and actions of church and of nation. He is hopeful that in our day as well God will raise up such a remnant.

I, too, am hopeful that God will raise up such a remnant. But if that is to happen, we as preachers will first need to wrestle honestly with why it is we avoid or fear prophetic preaching, and we need to come clean about our own resistances in this regard. Why is it that we are sometimes tempted to substitute another god for the God of justice of the Scriptures? Why do we avoid speaking truth in love regarding some of the burning issues of our day? And why are we often fearful of what becoming prophetic witnesses will mean for our lives?

In this chapter, I will begin addressing those questions. But first it is important to define prophetic preaching and to describe its attributes so that we have some clarity regarding what it is that we are discussing.

WHAT IS PROPHETIC PREACHING?

When I mention to friends and acquaintances that I am writing a book on prophetic preaching, the first question I am usually asked is “What do you mean by that term?” If truth be told, that is a highly reasonable question because “prophetic” is currently used in church circles in ways that can be confusing and even conflicting.

For example, if you search the Internet for “prophetic” sermons, you will find that the reference is often used in regard to sermons that in some way either predict the future or deal with the end times. These sermons, often rooted in literalistic modes of biblical interpretation, tend to be based on apocalyptic texts from the Bible—such as those found in the book of Revelation or the “little apocalypse” in Mark—or on passages from the Old Testament prophets that “foretell” the coming of the Messiah. They bear titles such as “Preparing for the End Times,” “Is the Rapture for Real?” or “Who Is the Beast?”

On the other hand, in many mainline church circles the term prophetic usually refers either to preaching based on prophetic biblical texts that call people to live into God’s vision for justice, peace, and equality in our world (such as those found in the Hebrew prophets or the teachings of Jesus), or to preaching that addresses significant social issues and concerns. It is the kind of preaching that can “get ministers in trouble” with their congregations because it often goes against societal norms, pronouncing not only grace but also God’s judgment on human action or inaction.

While recognizing with respect the many Christians who gravitate toward the former understanding of “prophetic preaching,” this book’s focus will decidedly be on the latter understanding of the term. I am interested in the type of preaching that is cutting edge and future oriented (yet not future predicting), and that addresses public and social concerns. However, having stated that bias, I also acknowledge that even among homileticians who share it, there is no unanimity regarding how to define the term—or even whether to use it. What emerge instead are certain hallmarks that characterize this important mode of proclamation and that help differentiate it from other types of preaching. It is to a consideration of those hallmarks and to the diverse definitions given for “prophetic preaching” that we now turn our attention.

Philip Wogaman’s Definition

Philip Wogaman, a Christian ethicist who also served for many years as pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC (and who was pastor to the Clintons during their White House years), gives a rather broad definition of prophetic preaching in his book Speaking the Truth in Love. He writes, “To be prophetic is not necessarily to be adversarial, or even controversial. The word in its Greek form refers to one who speaks on behalf of another. In Hebrew tradition, a prophet is one who speaks for God. …” ⁶ He goes on to ask, “What does it mean to speak for God?”⁷

The prophet has a singular grasp of what God intends. Through the prophets the people have a window into the reality of God and how the reality of God can shape and direct their existence. He cites James Russell Lowell’s poem “Columbus,” a portion of which, though written in a different context, is suggestive:

For I believed the poets; it is they
Who utter wisdom from the central deep,
And listening to the inner flow of things,
Speak to the age out of eternity.⁸

“This is exactly the job description of the prophet,” says Wogaman. “To speak for another is to grasp, first, the mind of the other … genuinely prophetic preaching draws people into the reality of God in such a way that they cannot any longer be content with conventional wisdom and superficial existence.”⁹

Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm’s Definition

Dawn Ottoni-Wilhem, professor of preaching at Bethany Christian Seminary in Indiana and a scholar who approaches preaching from an Anabaptist “peace church” tradition, helpfully reminds us that the prophetic tradition in which we stand is not only the tradition of the Old Testament prophets; it is also the tradition of the prophet Jesus.

In accordance with the prophetic tradition of Israel and the ministry of Jesus Christ as recorded in Scripture, prophetic preaching may be understood as divinely inspired speech enlivened by the Holy Spirit in the gathered community of faith. Prophetic preaching proclaims God’s Word from within the Christian tradition against all that threatens God’s reconciling intention for humanity and for all that creates and sustains a vital and necessary ministry of compassion to neighbors near and far. Because it is not exclusively either moral exhortation or predictions regarding future events, prophetic preaching envisions past, present and future concerns within the context of the reign of God realized in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit.¹⁰

Ottoni-Wilhelm differentiates prophetic preaching from both “moral exhortation” and “predicting the future” and reminds us that even as prophetic witnesses must stand for all that creates and sustains a ministry of compassion to neighbors near and far, they also must stand against all that threatens God’s good intention for creation. She also reminds us that prophetic preaching must be undertaken in the Spirit of Christ, reflecting his compassion for the world and its brokenness.

Ottoni-Wilhelm names three essential elements of prophetic preaching that can be discerned from considering Jesus’ own prophetic words and deeds. First, prophetic preaching voices God’s passion for others. It incarnates and gives voice to God’s love for the world revealed in Christ Jesus and using the language of lament, voices God’s deep sorrow over evil and injustice. Second, prophetic preaching proclaims the promises of God. The prophet announces the coming reign of God, which has already broken into our midst in Jesus of Nazareth, and gives assurance that God’s promise of a new day of justice and peace and equality will surely come to pass. And third, prophetic preaching points the way to new possibilities. Using the language of imagination, it invites us to envision the new day God intends and to discern how God would creatively use us to help bring that day to completion.¹¹

Social-Justice Preaching, Public-Issues Preaching, and Liberation Preaching

While Wogaman and Ottoni-Wilhelm begin with the biblical witness in defining prophetic preaching (Wogaman with the witness of the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures and Ottoni-Wilhelm with the witness of the prophet Jesus), other authors in the field of homiletics, while writing about prophetic preaching, don’t actually define it. Instead they use the term interchangeably with phrases such as “social-justice preaching,” “liberation preaching,” or “public-issues preaching.”

For example, when Kelly Miller Smith gave the Lyman Beecher Lectures on preaching at Yale Divinity School in 1983, he focused them around the theme of “social crisis preaching.”¹² When Catherine and Justo González authored a book about prophetic preaching from their vantage point as Hispanic Americans, they titled it Liberation Preaching.¹³ And when Christine Smith gathered an ethnically diverse group of authors to write about preaching out of the context of oppression as their various communities had experienced it, she titled it Preaching Justice.¹⁴

While prophetic preaching is certainly, as Wogaman rightly indicates, any preaching that “speaks for God,” authors who use terms like prophetic preaching and social-justice preaching and liberation preaching interchangeably press us to acknowledge that to speak for God also means to speak on the cutting edge of what is just and what is unjust in the local communities in which we find ourselves; to bring God’s Word to bear on key events and at crisis moments in the life of church, nation, and world; and to have a bias in our preaching toward the liberation of God and the upending of powers and principalities, thus bringing in a reign marked by peace and equality and justice for all.

Walter Brueggemann’s Definition

Lest we become too comfortable equating prophetic preaching with preaching on social or political issues, biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann reminds us that ultimately there is something far bigger at stake. When the biblical worldview and our own cultural worldviews come into collision, Brueggemann insists, an entire change of perception and consciousness is required on the part of those who would attend to God’s Word. He offers his own definition of prophetic ministry in his now-classic book The Prophetic Imagination: “The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.”¹⁵

Brueggemann continues:

Thus I contend that prophetic ministry has to do not primarily with addressing specific public crises but with addressing, in season and out of season, the dominant crisis that is enduring and resilient, of having our alternative vocation [as Christians] co-opted and domesticated. It may be, of course, that this enduring crisis ma...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 - Where Have All the Prophets Gone?
• Chapter 2 - Rekindling the Fire Within: A Spirituality for Prophetic Witness
• Chapter 3 - Speaking Truth in Love: Strategies for Prophetic Proclamation
• Chapter 4 - Giving Shape to the Witness: Forms for Prophetic Preaching
• Chapter 5 - Word and Deed: The Integrity of Prophetic Witness
• Permissions
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index