word” in the text on which to hang it, or when we string together a set of texts to “flip and hop”—sometimes from Genesis to Revelation. The exegetical tension out of which empowered preaching emerges comes from waiting on the word we could not find without the disciplines of consecrated listening.
Such listening can be compared to the “tuning action” required for the old fashion radio and television. Before there was digital capacity, one had to turn a knob to get the true wave. When the tuning was not precise one would get static on the radio, or what looked like snow on the black and white television screen. Even when tuned, the dial would sometimes slip, and the static and snow would return. Consecrated listening is the first step toward encoding the speech of preaching so it strikes the listening ear with digital precision. We preach to a generation that does not desire to do the work of tuning.
The scriptures reveal who God is, who we are, and what we need to know. The tension in which preaching occurs pivots on the axiom that what we are given is what we need. The implication of preaching grounded in the scriptures is that there is a word in the given text—a word those who are present need to hear. The first work of the preacher is “tuning the ear” to hear with clarity. This is an immersion that may be called “synesthesia,” in that there is a total participation in the “ether of the word” that cannot be reduced to a single sense. This is on the order of “tasting to see,” “looking to hear,” or “smelling to be touched.” It is being handled by the word of life to know what to say to particular people.
Exegeting the scriptures for preaching is not to be reduced to the historical and critical methods developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They have their place, but they do not replace nearly twenty centuries of the church’s exegetical work. Nor do these methods guarantee the healthy tension required for twenty-first-century preaching. They are good for what they were designed to do. They identify the sources that feed into the books of the canon, showing parallels with other ancient literature. They identify the form of the literature, so we can distinguish one genre from another. Critical study exposes the institutions within ancient Hebrew culture, comparing it with customs of surrounding peoples. By means of these studies we learn the interconnections between what we now distinguish as religious teaching and practice, from political, economic, and social structures and patterns. Examining how the sources were edited serves to indicate the issues that were pressing for the compiler and help us to know the theology that operates in a given book. Language study is crucial for knowing the meaning of words in their origin, root meaning, and the world of images out of which they emerged. This component of exegesis is crucial, and it must never be set aside or diminished. But it must be kept in tension with other knowledges to serve the purposes of preaching.
If we are to preach within tension, we must also be attentive to the times and seasons in which we preach. Before the departure of the Lord at the end of his earthly ministry, the disciples asked Jesus whether the moment preceding his ascension was the time when he would restore the kingdom to Israel. His answer was that it was not for them to know the times and seasons the Father had reserved for his power. Rather, they would receive power after the Holy Ghost came upon him to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the utmost parts of the earth. The Lord did not say it was not for them to know the times and seasons in which they carried forth the ministry given to them, however. Indeed, the Spirit was given precisely so they might know their times and seasons.
The times and seasons of the text and the context must be exegeted for preaching to be focused and clear. For the text of scripture, the critical methods identified with biblical scholarship are indispensable. Along with them, however, come all of the theological disciplines, as well as the emancipating knowledges coming from the human sciences, and the critical knowledge of the natural sciences.
The manner in which the scriptures have been interpreted in the long history of the church is utterly consequential for preaching in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the dogmatic constructions of the church are the direct consequence of how the scriptures have been read. Doctrine did not fall from the sky. This is true both of the doctrines that unite Christians and those that divide them. To put the matter another way, there are no Christians who concede that their teaching is “unscriptural.” What one finds in both the written and unwritten text of believing communities reflects the efforts of living, believing Christians to make sense of the scriptural deposit that has been received as well as those things believed and taught among them.
Dogmatics operate at the threshold of the faith. They deal with what must be believed and confessed for persons to claim they are Christian. Or they compel an account of how a claim can be made to Christian identity without such a confession. An outline of dogmatics follows the order of the statements of the creeds of the church. No matter what one’s denomination, members do well to be familiar with these boundaries. Otherwise there can be great and costly forfeiture of troves of wisdom. Systematics keep one mindful of what must be said to confess the mystery of godliness in a manner that is consistent and coherent. For example, systematics prevents a statement concerning the Spirit to contradict what must be said concerning the Son. Attention is given by this discipline to how what is said at one point in confession interpenetrates all else that must be said. In addition, systematics seek for coherence between theological knowledge and other fields that do not pretend to be driven by a search for understanding the knowledge of God that comes by faith.
Knowledge of times and seasons also penetrates into the thickness of concrete, historical Christian communities, known as denominational and nondenominational churches. This is theology that presses below the threshold of written texts into oral traditions, patterns, gestures, idioms, and astructural content that are given with the pulse of the people. In this tissue one finds “ersatz” (informal) dogma where claims are staked and given the valence of gospel, and elevated to the status of sin and salvation, life and death. By this knowledge churches grow, or they go the way of defunct institutions that preceded them. These are the sorts of issues one finds addressed directly in the epistles and indirectly in the gospels. It is in this tension between the text and context that issues are disclosed as the impediments to the gospel they really are, or as the false faith that is not recognize as such. In the New Testament church issues such as circumcision and division were viewed in this light.
Preaching cannot occur without knowledge of the times and seasons of those to whom one preaches. Herein lies one of the great challenges for twenty-first-century preachers born before or shortly after the midpoint of the twentieth century. Seismic shifts in knowledge divide the century into two epistemological domains. The explosion of technology and virtual communication creates two worlds within the same families and communities. But similar shifts also occurred in matters of politics, economics, race, gender, and other descriptors by which we categorize our civilization. At the epicenter of this seismic shift are the theological issues of liberation and pneumatology. Preaching without knowledge of times and seasons reduces to the rhetoric and elocution of centuries that are past.
The tension that ties preaching to the seasons of the liturgical year also supplies health. It keeps the people of God focused on salvation history, supplying marvelous occasions for teaching the faith. Around these concrete moments can be found unsurpassed occasions for rehearsing the gospel. As one moves from Advent to Christmas, to Epiphany, to Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and Whitsuntide, opportunities are supplied for declaring the wondrous deeds of God in the thickness of life and the specificity of the human condition.
Holidays, cultural events, and idiomatic practices likewise supply tension. In some cases the opportunity is afforded for saying why a cultural event is not to be confused with Christian celebration at all. Other events beg to be lifted above the sentimentality and narcissism of parochial indulgences. Church Anniversary, for instance, begs for some discussion of ecclesiology and mission. Mother’s Day and Men’s Day are occasions for addressing the vocation of Christians in ordinary time in light of our calling under God. Methodologically speaking, the posture is that of listening to hear what the word might speak to a particular people on a specific occasion. It is asking the text, “What have you to say to the children of God today?”
