“Keep Your Doubts to Yourself, I Have Enough of My Own!” A Good Thought on Preaching
‘Preaching is not the proclamation of a theory, or the discussion of doubt. A man has a perfect right to proclaim a theory of a sort, or to discuss his doubts. But that is not preaching. ‘Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any. Keep your doubts to yourself; I have enough of my own’, said Goethe. We are never preaching when we are hazarding speculations. Of course we do so. We are bound to speculate sometimes. I sometimes say, ‘I am speculating; stop taking notes.’ Speculation is not preaching. Neither is the declaration of negations preaching. Preaching is the proclamation of the Word, the truth as the truth has been revealed.’
G. Campbell Morgan, once preacher at Westminster Chapel, London, from Preaching (1937), quoted in John Stott, Between Two Worlds , Eerdmans (1982), p.85, in a section on the modern church’s loss of confidence in the Gospel. HT: Glosses from an Old Manse Blog
I once heard a man who had spent his life sharing his own thoughts about life, morality, and God. I say “his own thoughts” because he had little respect for the Scriptures. As he neared retirement, he looked back over his career in despair, for he had accomplished nothing. People had listened politely and thanked him for his sermons, but the sermons were devoid of power and had left their lives untouched. He learned too late that human wisdom is nothing but empty vanity.
Hi, Paul!
This author’s point is well taken. Much of what passes for preaching is often the observations of a speaker (not a preacher) on life that corresponds to some quirky events that are loosely connected to the speaker’s theories about a particular text.
If permissible, I would add to this author’s good point: Preaching is also not proclaiming what is helpful; it is the proclamation of the truth.
God bless!
Kevin
A few years back, a good friend with whom I worked, asked me to come hear her sing a solo at her church “gig.” She sang professionally in the choir at Christ Cathedral Episcopal in New Orleans. She has a trained voice, sang in the chorus and small parts for the local opera company, and sometimes shared her free tickets to the opera with me. But, I hadn’t yet heard her voice. She said she was singing something by Puccini, and I asked right off had Puccini written anything one could sing in church because instantly I suspected the piece was chosen more for her voice than for the message. She gave me a confused look, “How should I know?” My friend is Jewish. She was happy to sing those Episcopalians anything they’d like if the money was right. Well the Puccini was operatic and said nothing much of anything. My friend’s voice was lovely; I was amazed that such a large sound could come out of such a small person.
Then the sermon began. My friend, sitting straight up front, coughed, stood up, and walked out through the back door and did not return till the sermon was over. I’ve teased her about that ever since. “No, really, I just had a cough. I needed some water. I wasn’t out for the whole sermon, no I wasn’t. I couldn’t have been.”
So she missed the Dean’s 20 minute confession of his doubts, serious doubts, ever since the seminary of the ascension of Christ, this being Ascension Sunday. I’d like to say that being a Lutheran and hearing that Episcopalians do this sort of thing made it easier for me to sit through it. It did not. “FRAUD, I want my money back. They should fire your butt and sue you for back salary.” is loudly running through my brains. “I can refer you to a local Unitarian/Universalist congregation, but they don’t have any money, do they?” But the Dean didn’t reckon that doubting the Ascension was the worst thing you could doubt; he could have done much worse. So he was thankful that he still believed some things.
And then my friend and I went to lunch somewhere on St. Charles Avenue at some chi-chi bistro, meeting a group of her musician friends, and they all talked about their Sunday morning church gigs.