Word to the Wise
Monday, September 4, 2006 - LABOR DAY
[1 Corinthians 2:1-5 and Luke 4:16-30]Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.
Jesus' statement is rather breath-taking. He literally says to the people in the synagogue that what he just read from Isaiah is really about himself! The response was not very encouraging, to say the least! Paul's statement in the passage from 1 Corinthians also shows that preaching is not an easy task. He puts all the emphasis on the message and the Spirit so that his shortcomings as a preacher won't stand in the way. I can't "speak" for other preachers in this, but I regard the preaching process as essentially a mystery on the theological level, anyhow. I know that it has been studied up one side and down the other as a communication process. There is a tremendous amount of publication about preaching. (And a lot of complaining about it, too!) For me, it is a matter of looking at the text and situating it in the midst of my experience and reading and study and faith and then getting up and speaking about it. If what St. Paul says is true about the results depending "not on human wisdom but on the power of God," then it is my task to see that the particular passage is fulfilled in the hearing of the congregation each time I preach! That's not an easy thing to do but it's my daily task, both on your screen and to the sisters and students here. It's a labor of love and today is Labor Day! AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
57 ms
4
