John H Armstrong

Preaching Is in My Heart

The apostle Paul writes of preaching:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believe in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

When I was ordained, back in August of 1970, the text my pastor used was 1 Timothy 5:17: "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching." I still recall him saying this means we should support, both personally and financially, those who labored in preaching. I knew almost nothing then but I was sure I was called to preach. There was, in my soul, that sense that said, "Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel."

I am still amazed, even this very day as I preach the gospel in a Christian Reformed Church about an hour from my home, that anyone would listen to me preach. I am more amazed that God called me and then that he would be pleased to use me at all. "Who is sufficient for these things?"

Preaching on Pentecost Sunday

This past Lord’s Day (May 11) was Pentecost Sunday. For many it passed with little or no recognition of this great truth of our Christian faith. But for me, and the congregation of First Reformed Church in South Holland (where I am preaching regularly until the new pastor is installed on June 15,) it was a great day to worship God the Holy Spirit in the fullness of joy.

I preached from the Lectionary and thus the Gospel text was John 20:19-23. This text seems not to be appropriate to the feast of Pentecost since the events presented here happened on Easter eve. But it actually fits perfectly with John’s great theme of “sentness.” This is connected to the Spirit’s power coming upon the disciples (corporately) in order to give witness to Christ and thus to speak with authority and power. This is John’s emphasis here without doubt. I think we sometimes get caught in a bind of trying to create a “harmony” of the four Gospels that defies the actual intention of the human authors and the Spirit himself. This is such a case in how we handle John 20:19-23. While Luke follows a rather chronological development in Luke–Acts the John does not do this fourth Gospel. The problem of the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit before Pentecost here is really no problem at all unless your reading of Scripture has to flatten everything to make it fit into your tiny grid.

The central emphasis here is clearly that the Spirit creates joy and peace in these disciples and then grants them authority and responsibility. And the promise to forgive or not forgive sins is not singular but corporate if this text is read canonically and correctly.

F. F. Bruce rightly wrote that “Post-resurrection there is not a note of hopeless sorrow in the New Testament.” Amen!

As I was leaving on Sunday the person who prepares the music and works with me on the liturgy of the worship at engaged me briefly on the way out the door. Laurie noted that if I saw her smile at times, especially during my sermons, it was her way of saying “I am amazed at how this all fits together at times. It just has to be God doing it.” I agreed with her. I believe we should plan a service of worship and that it should have common biblical elements in it; e.g., approach to God, confession of sin, pronouncement of forgiveness, greeting of one another, confession of the creed, worshiping God with our gifts, the sacraments, the proclamation of the Word of God, etc. When good preparation is united with the Spirit’s active work then we welcome God into our worship. When this happens there will be moments when we realize: “God is doing this!”

I said to Laurie, “At this stage of my life I work harder on preparing the preacher than the sermon. I have a good idea about how to preach most texts. I have few notes at all when I preach. I move from point A to point B to point C and then to the finish line but I am willing to wander here and there and pick up strands and free flowing thoughts as I go along. I can do this since I do not follow a manuscript. I said to her that by this means: “ I can hear the music, sing the words, enter into all the prayers and the precise moment of what is happening and then pray, ‘God speak through me as your servant and it just seems to happen.’” I believe this is the ideal way to preach. Young ministers will find this hard to do but they should strive for it. Preaching is not about a great script but about a great God speaking a great word to his people through a very weak human person who is entirely dependent upon him. What a great work preaching really is for those called to do it.

Expository Preaching is Still My Preference

I have been out of the pastorate of a stated congregation, except for eight months as an interim, since May of 1992. I am sometimes asked, "What do you miss the most?" (There are several things about pastoring I do not miss at all, I assure you. One is the warfare that swirls around people's dissatisfaction with the pastor, which is common to every church I know.) But there is one thing I miss very profoundly and I was made aware of this again when I preached in the pulpit of my "home" church this morning, First Reformed Church (RCA) in South Holland, Illinois. I miss doing faithful, regular exposition of the biblical text.

Now I do preach a lot. And I do still preach expositions, in fact I do this primarily. But I also am asked to tackle subjects, themes and special events a lot. What made today so different was that I was asked to consider preaching from one of the Lectionary texts of the day. I chose Jeremiah 32. I chose it, I think, because I too rarely choose an Old Testament text from one of the prophets. (I have preached Genesis in its entirety, as well as from other parts of the Pentateuch. I have also preached wisdom literature and a lot from the Psalter. But the prophets have not been an area where I preached a great deal during my twenty years in the pastorate. (I think the radically different systems of eschatology inclined me away from them since I did not want to get into the various "hot button" controversies. This is, admittedly, a lame excuse and with age and experience I would not shy away now at all.) Anyway, I chose the text from Jeremiah 32 for today and I enjoyed preaching it more than I commonly enjoy preaching.

Read Jeremiah 32 if you get an opportunity this week. (I hope to out the video of my sermon on our Web site soon.) Right in the middle of all the gloom and doom of the Jeremiah's warnings that God would destroy Jerusalem and Judah comes this amazing witness to hope in chapters 30-33. Chapters 30-31 are poetry. Chapters 32-33 are prose. And right in the middle comes this account of Jeremiah buying this land and sealing the deal. The whole act seemed senseless and, quite frankly, completely ridiculous if you follow what is going on here. What is really going on here? The answer is to be found in Jeremiah 32:27ff. and in the well-known promise that occurred earlier about the New Covenant  written on the hearts of all who believe in a future day. God will bless his people, the whole earth will know good news, and the prophet demonstrates his confidence in this promise by this amazing act of faith in buying this land. Surely it was symbolic but it was also a very real and detailed account of a purchase made when land meant nothing to a starving and dying people. 

I am not sure the good people at First Reformed Church got as much from this message as I did. (I am quite sure that they did not since the preacher always gets the most from his own preaching if his heart is truly open to the Spirit of God working through the act of his preaching!) I spoke with several friends before I drove to the airport to fly to Washington, D.C., where I am resting tonight. They encouraged me a great deal about the message.

Tomorrow I take part in the board meeting of the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD) here in D.C. Pray for me and for this strategic ministry to denominations, churches and leaders in our nation. It is a wonderful experience for me to be part of IRD when so much money and energy is being put into the so-called Christian Right, which I do not share great enthusiasm for as many of you know. There seems to me to be far too few groups that are taking the stands that IRD does without the methodology and strategy of the Christian Right. IRD has a solid perspective on the role of faith in democracy and also includes Catholics and Protestants working side-by-side for issues that  concern many of us as active Christians in our culture.

Check Your Motives if You Preach

William Willimon is a Methodist bishop who can preach. In fact, he is quite frankly one of my favorite preachers today. He tells an important story about preaching and the motives that those who preach often bring to the process of homiletics.

Willimon once heard a preacher begin a sermon, with great drama and more than a trace of theatrics, by saying to the congregation, “It is very hard for me to say what I feel I must say to you today in my sermon.” An elderly woman, sitting in the pew in front of Willimon, whispered loud enough to be heard by many, and said, “I’ll bet it’s not that hard for him to say this.”

If you preach ask yourself, “Why am I saying this and what do I hope to accomplish by saying it?” Don’t use humility to cover up your own opinions, which are often more related to what you really want to say rather than to what God wants you to say. Know the difference and you will be a true servant of the Lord of the church.