The Glory of Preaching

Participating in God's Transformation of the World

Darrell W. Johnson

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780830878673
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

In these pages you will find a vision of preaching that is both illuminating and inspiring. Drawing from biblical and theological resources as well as years in the pulpit, Darrell Johnson takes us far beyond the mere mechanics of delivering sermons. He dynamically unpacks the link between the human task of speaking to a congregation and the real, gracious action and presence of the living Christ in and through our proclamation.Johnson assists preachers to profoundly engage the biblical text and then liberates them to make use of their own personality, gifts and abilities as they communicate that message.This book is for any pastor or student who wants to cultivate a deeper pulpit approach, one that participates in the transforming mystery of God working through our less-than-perfect proclamation. Here is a solid foundation for preaching the good news as if God was living, Jesus was resurrected and the Holy Spirit was faithfully at work among us.

PART ONE

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Theoretical Foundations for Participating

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1

Why Does It Happen?

A Vision: Ezekiel 37

“Preaching works before it is understood,” writes Richard Lischer of Duke University Divinity School.[1] I agree. Like all communication between persons, preaching works before it is fully understood. Yes, the better it is understood, the better it works, as any married couple that has worked at communication can testify. Yet in the mystery of things, preaching works long before we fully understand what the preacher, the hearers, the text and the Holy Spirit are doing.

The Vision

In this first chapter, I invite you to give careful attention to a text of Scripture that helps us understand why what happens in preaching happens. It is the commonly called “Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones” given to and recorded by the prophet Ezekiel (592-570 b.c.) in the thirty- seventh chapter of his magnificent work. The longer I preach, the more I find that I throw myself on this text. What is revealed in and through Ezekiel 37 gives me courage to stand up in front of other human beings, read a text of Scripture, say again what the living God is saying in it and expect something to happen in the lives of those who hear.

Before I work with Ezekiel 37, please read it carefully, taking note of what leaps out at you and what questions you would like to ask Ezekiel.

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O LORD GOD, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’ Thus says the LORD GOD to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.’”

So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the LORD GOD, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.” ’ ”

So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD GOD, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,” declares the LORD.” (Ezek 37:1-14) [2]

This text ignited hope, even in the face of utter hopelessness. For the God of this text need only speak and something happens.

Recall the hopelessness of what Ezekiel faced. It is not unlike what many of us preachers face every time we stand up to speak in our time. It was the sixth century before the birth of Jesus, before the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14). Israel had been taken captive by the superpower Babylon. Jerusalem, “the city of the great King” (Ps 48:2), lay in ruins. The Solomonic temple, the center of worship of the God above all gods, was a heap of stones. The economic, social and moral infrastructure was not only in danger of collapsing; it was gone. The nation expresses its assessment of the predicament this way: “Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off” (Ezek 37:11).

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that hope has perished? I have. And I do, regularly. It is one of the most suffocating of human experiences.

While facing that hopeless situation, God brings Ezekiel, by the Holy Spirit, into the middle of a valley. Whether such a valley actually existed or was in the mind’s eye of the prophet does not matter for the purposes God intends.[3] God portrays Israel’s predicament using a picture of the decaying bones of a defeated army. God heightens (or should I say, deepens) the sense of hopelessness by speaking of graves. See the graves, Ezekiel? Israel was decaying, defeated, dried up. Israel was dead.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever stood up before a group of human beings who felt that way? Nearly every time we preach, wouldn’t you say?

As Ezekiel surveys the valley and realizes it portrays him and his people, God addresses the prophet as “son of man,” which in this context simply means “mortal.” “Mortal, can these bones live?” (Ezek 37:3). What do you think? Can dead bones live?

Ezekiel responds, “O LORD God [literally, ‘O LORD Yahweh’], You know” (Ezek 37:3), meaning, “You alone know the answer to Your question.” As far as Ezekiel is concerned, the situation—when considered only from the human standpoint—is utterly hopeless. There is no way he or any other Israelite, or the whole nation combined, could possibly bring those dry bones to life. Left to their own resources, they would remain dry and dead.

Is this not the nature of the human predicament? And is this not what preachers face every time we stand up before a group of other human beings? If it is all up to me to live a consistently whole and healthy spiritual life, then the dry bones of my dry soul will not live. If it is all up to preachers like you and me to keep a local congregation alive in community and ministry, then we may as well close the doors right now. If it is all up to you, me and all the other preachers alive today to bring about a moral revolution breaking the chains that bind us, then our world is doomed.

“Mortal, can these bones live?” Not by themselves. Not on their own. Left to themselves they will remain dry and dead.

“But You, O Yahweh . . . You know if they can live.”

So the living God commands Ezekiel to prophesy. In this context I take the word to mean “Speak forth the word of God.” Preach, Ezekiel. Yes, preaching means more than prophesying, and not all preaching is prophesying (as we will see in chapter four, which concerns the verbs of participating). For now let us assume some inherent correlation between what Ezekiel is commanded to do and what we in our time and place are commanded to do. Preach, Ezekiel, preach to the bones.

I can imagine Ezekiel saying, “But what good will that do? What possible impact can the word of God have on a national crisis? What possible effect can preaching have on dry bones? On your city and nation, on my city and nation? We are talking about a crisis of major proportions, LORD. We need more than preaching. What good can preaching do in the face of such overwhelming disintegration and decay and death?”

Yet Ezekiel obeys the strange command. Ezekiel speaks to the dry bones. He speaks to bones! “O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!” I wonder if Ezekiel felt silly. Do you ever feel silly speaking words of life to “dead” people? I do, regularly. Yet Ezekiel does it. “Thus says the LORD God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life’ ” (Ezek 37:5).

Next the text tells us to look what happened when Ezekiel did it, when he spoke the word of the living God. “And behold” (Ezek 37:8). It is the imperative form of the verb to see. That is, it is a command. Ezekiel is startled by what happened, and exhorts us to join him in his astonishment. “Look! Look! There was a noise, and look! A rattling sound, and bones came together, bone to bone. And I looked, and look! Tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them” (Ezek 37:7-8 NASB modified).

Why did prophesying have that effect? Why did preaching have that effect? Was it because of something unique about Ezekiel, because of some great rhetorical and oratorical skill? No. Was it because of the responsiveness of the dry bones? Linger with the question—it is critical for preaching in our time. Did preaching have that life-giving effect because of the responsive condition of the bones? No. The bones could not respond. They had decayed. They were dead. Please mark that. The bones were dead. How could they possibly hear, let alone respond?

Then why did speaking the word have that effect? It was because of the nature of the word. The word of the LORD is living and active, powerful and creative. The word of God not only informs, it performs, it transforms. The word of God makes things happen.

This is the insight of the Roman centurion in a story Matthew tells. The text is Matthew 8:5-13, another text that encourages preachers. The centurion had gone to Jesus on behalf of a servant. He says to Jesus, surprisingly, “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Mt 8:8). Who told him that? How did he know that? “Just say the word!” And Jesus says, “I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel” (Mt 8:10).

The centurion reasons from his own experience. As a soldier he is under authority and exercises authority over others. He simply says to one of his soldiers, “Go,” and he does. He says to another, “Come,” and he comes. He says to a servant, “Do this,” and he does. The centurion recognizes that the compassionate teacher need only say, “Be healed,” and it would happen. The centurion recognizes that just as he has authority over a hundred troops, so Jesus has authority over life and death. John Calvin paraphrases the centurion’s insight this way: “I have soldiers under me, as You have spiritual powers, healing angels, disease and death under you.”[4] The centurion gives orders, and they are instantly obeyed. He somehow grasps that Jesus can give orders affecting the welfare of human beings which are obeyed whether he is present or not.[5]

“Just say the word.” How did the centurion know this? How did he know that Jesus of Nazareth has that kind of authority? He came and threw himself on that authority, and Jesus responded, “I have never seen such great faith.” And the man was not disappointed. Jesus spoke, and the servant was made whole. It is crucial to observe that the servant was nowhere near the place where Jesus and the centurion were talking. A person he does not see who spoke a word he does not hear makes the servant whole. Such is the performative power of Jesus’ word.

“Just say the word.” We preachers need to say that to ourselves and to one another regularly. For, as I see it, one of the greatest needs of the preaching ministry, in any era in any cultural setting, is the continual recovery of confidence in the word of Jesus Christ. Jesus need only speak and something happens. We know the power of our words. One word can change the atmosphere in a room; one word can create a whole new perspective. If our words have such power, think of the word of the Word made flesh. I know I am repeating, but I think I must: Jesus’ word not only informs, it performs; his word not only announces, it accomplishes what it announces. “Be clean,” and the leper is clean. “Be still,” and the sea is calm. “Be gone,” and the demons flee. “Lazarus, come forth,” and a dead man walks out of the tomb. I believe the authors of the Gospels want us to hear in Jesus’ word the echo of the original creative word, the echo of that moment, when into the darkness and chaos of nothingness there came, “Let there be light.” And there was. Jesus’ word is the word of the Creator come into all the mess, the word that accomplishes what it announces.

Which is why we can put our weight on his promises. What he speaks will come into being. Remember the first word to Simon the fisherman? “You are Simon . . . you shall be called Cephas,” Rock (Jn 1:42). And it happened. Remember Jesus’ word to the early church? “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses” in all the world (Acts 1:8). And it happened. What Jesus speaks comes into being.

This is also how we are to understand his commandments. For example, most of us read the Ten Commandments (Ex 20; Deut 5) this way: “I am Yahweh your God, who took you out of the house of slavery. Now get on with it and have no other gods before me, keep the Sabbath, do not murder, do not covet.” That is, we take the weight of fulfillment of the commandment upon ourselves. We do so because we fail to grasp the performative nature of God’s word. But this, I think, is the way we are to read the commandments: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the h...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Prologue
• PART ONE: Theoretical Foundations for Participating
• PART TWO: Human Mechanics of Participating
• PART THREE: Theoretical Foundations Again
• Epilogue: A Sermon
• Name and Subject Index
• Scripture Index
• Notes
• About the Author
• Praise for The Glory of Preaching
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press