Workshop - Will Willimon - Keeping Preaching Fresh

NOTE: When I saw the title of this workshop, I had to laugh. As I am notorious for finishing my sermon notes on Sunday morning, I sometimes joke "This sermon may not be good, but you can't accuse it of being stale!"

Bishop Will Willimon, a Methodist bishop from Alabama led this workshop on preaching.

Christians have always been urged to “keep time” like the empire. The great temptation is to be “at home” in the world’s time - Christians must fight against that.

Every time the church gathers, we ask - “What time is it?” Jesus always challenges our sense of being fixed and progressed.

In reading the fast-paced gospel of Mark, you realize - don’t get too settled in your seats. This is a living God!

Preaching is about the Trinity - not about us - not about finding a more meaningful life.

To preach is to be dependent on the God who is free - who is unpredictable - who is free to come and go - who is odd. It takes a lot of patience. Real sense of vulnerability.

Karl Barth said there is only one preacher - Jesus - and you have to wait until HE is ready to preach. It takes patience to keep saying the same gospel over and over again, even when it doesn’t get the response you think it deserves. Barth: “As Christian theologians, we can only repeat ourselves.”

There’s a word for my desire to be innovative and fresh - it’s called “Heresy.” “You’ve got to keep finding a way to fall in the love with the material.” Some of my most questionable theological moves are under the guise of attempting to be interesting to the people.

But there are some problems here. Most preaching literature is along the lines of rhetoric and technique. That’s almost blasphemous. I don’t think the need is for better technique, but for a more interesting God to talk about. (NOTE: Not that our God needs to be more interesting, but that we need to preach about the God of the Bible who is very engaging!)

Another…As preachers we get to thinking that our job is to take this prickly, difficult Jesus gospel and explain it away. “Here’s what Jesus was trying to say, if he had the benefit of a seminary education. He didn’t mean hate your mother. He didn’t mean give everything to the poor!”

Sometimes the space between us and the throne is being lessened, and the faith is reduced to having the “right principles.” Most of our mistakes is because we want to be heard and to receive approval. It’s up to the Holy Spirit to get a hearing.

The Holy Spirit wants more than the transfer of accurate information.

Do I have the courage to keep repeating the story?

Every sermon is kind of an experiment - can the gospel still gather a crowd or not?

The good news is that it is the nature of this God to raise the dead! Keeping preaching fresh is something this God does!

Preaching is always a theological issue before it is anything else. Who is the God we are talking about? Can this God do what this God promises?

Preaching is kept fresh because of Jesus. We work with a living, speaking, revealing Lord. The purpose of preaching is to allow the risen Christ to walk among his people.

Preaching is kept fresh because of Scripture. It is the nature of the Holy Spirit to intrude. It is the nature of the risen Christ to call people. May God give us the grace to keep Jesus as odd as he is supposed to be, and to keep preaching as difficult as it is supposed to be.

After all those years on the campus, I heard this from students - “If it’s not about Jesus, why are we listening to you? Dr. Phil is a better counselor, and Oprah gives better advice!”

He quoted Lyle Schaller - his answer to the question whether sermons are getting longer or shorter. He said “Both. It depends on the age of the listeners. The younger the audience, the longer the sermons. Probably because they know they don’t know, and they are ready for an explanation.” Older folks were more apt to say, "Get me out on time!"