Alive to the Word. Stephen I. Wright

the sermon, like the rest of the service, is not a time for mere information, entertainment or displays of skill, but for drawing near to God.

      Conversely, preaching can effectively function as an enabler of worship. This is because it can bring the recollection of God’s past revelation in the biblical story together with the reality of the present, in which God is still to be discerned. It can do so in a focused way which claims the attention of the minds, hearts and consciences of the worshippers. Putting it simply, it can take the praises that we have sung and the Scriptures we have heard, and connect them with the world for which we intercede and the longings we express in the silence. Praise of God and reading of Scripture, if left on their own, may risk leaving us in ‘the language of Zion’, the great formulations of theology and the story of the past. Intercession for the world and silence before God bring us very much into the present, yet if left on their own may cut us loose from the depth of our tradition and the anchor of God’s own promises. Preaching negotiates a way between past and present, between the sure foundation of Christ and the uncertain waters of the contemporary world, between the safety of an eternal, faithful God and the disturbing dynamism of a living, speaking God.

It does this by announcing a gospel that concerns both past and future, and interprets the present as a time of grace in the midst of judgement.[3] It may thus fundamentally shape the consciousness of the worshipper, who needs constant reminders of the ‘grace in which we stand’ (Rom. 5.2),[4] and for whom that grace is the only basis for self-offering to God (Rom. 12.1–2). Many churches believe that it does this in a creative partnership with the sacrament of Holy Communion. The word of grace, spoken and heard in the sermon, is enacted and received at the Lord’s Table.

      These mutual connections between preaching and worship are made in a multitude of ways, of which those gathered – both preacher and congregation – probably remain largely unconscious most of the time. A service is a network of signs which interact with each other and with the participants in dynamic complexity. Words of songs may echo, or sometimes question, words of sermons. Bible readings stand alongside sermons not simply as their jumping-off point, but as the sounding-board against which the preacher’s words vibrate. Preaching may shed new light on the meaning of the sacraments and enable worshippers to participate at greater depth. The compassion evoked by a preacher may find expression in the outpouring of prayer led by an intercessor. Thus we might continue.

      The existence of different traditions of worship lends yet more complexity to the picture, for sermon will relate to service differently depending on whether one is in a Methodist, Catholic, Pentecostal church or any other. The sacramental ethos of churches in the Catholic tradition yields a different atmosphere for preaching from the strongly word-centred approach of traditional Protestantism and the strongly experience-centred approach of the Pentecostal and charismatic branches of the family.

      To give one example: where, in the service, does the sermon come? Its location says much about the implied meaning of the whole gathering, and therefore of the preaching within it. In Protestantism it is regularly at the climax of the service, occupying the longest single section. In Pentecostal and charismatic churches the situation is often similar to this, with the important difference that the sermon is followed by a time where response of one kind or another is specifically encouraged. In sacramental traditions the sermon is usually at the centre of the Eucharist, while the actual climax of the service is the distribution of bread and wine towards the end. Many local variations and permutations complicate the picture. We cannot ignore the existence of such variables in seeking guidance about if, what and how to preach, because the way a sermon is conceived, spoken and heard is inextricably entangled with them.

      Contemporary culture

      ‘Culture’ is the network of customs, practices, preferences, beliefs and languages which makes up the fabric of our daily life. Just as worship and preaching influence each other in many subtle ways of which we are often unconscious, so it is with culture and preaching. Before we make any conscious decisions about whether or what or how to preach, we are affected by culture; and so, before they begin listening to any sermon, are our hearers. But preaching in turn can function as an influence within and upon the cultures around it.

      This reality is made more complex by the fact that most Western societies today are ‘multicultural’. Whatever the majority of people think about this, or how it should be handled, a great variety of different cultures jostle alongside each other. Moreover, as immigrants become naturalized, cultures start to blend in confusing but enriching ways. Shared Christian faith adds a dimension to this picture but it does not contradict it. All of us have received faith embedded in cultural clothing (translations of the Bible, church customs, habits seen as ‘normative’, whether weekly Communion or daily ‘quiet time’ and so on). As human beings, we have no other means of receiving it, or of passing it on. Churches themselves become ‘subcultures’, or groups of subcultures, and it is helpful to raise to consciousness those practices, forms of speech, rituals and so on which identify them as such. This is not for the purpose of trying to escape from being a subculture, which is impossible. It is simply so that we can take stock of how we behave, as the basis for bringing our common life under the light of God’s direction.

      An important mediator of that direction can be preaching. Through preaching, the gospel can influence culture, if the subcultures of particular churches themselves remain open to the gospel. The preacher himself or herself is in an interesting position, in that he or she may be immersed in the church’s subculture, or may be (or may be perceived as) at least partly an ‘outsider’ to it. Over time, he or she may shift along this spectrum, one way or the other. Awareness of one’s cultural location as a preacher enables sensitivity to the ways in which one’s own embodiment of the gospel may be peculiar to a particular culture and the ways in which it transcends such particularity.

As we saw in Chapter 1, the transformation of culture has been seen as one of the classic aims of Christian mission.[5] Preaching’s role in such transformation is well-documented, although as preaching is a fallible cultural act itself, it has produced not only positive transformation but less benign effects as well.[6] Moreover, we should not think of such transformation of cultures as something set apart from the transformation of individuals within them. As individuals are persuaded, whether through preaching or any other means, of the transforming truth and power of the gospel, they will start to exercise a transforming influence on the culture(s) in which they are embedded. Conversely, cultures influenced by the gospel may be hospitable settings for its transforming influence on individuals.[7] I am therefore treating preaching’s function in transforming culture as its ‘evangelistic’ function in the widest sense.

      It is important to distinguish two levels at which this function is fulfilled. First, it is fulfilled by means of the preacher’s theological appropriation of God’s revelation in order to interpret the present and mediate God’s wisdom for life within it. That is, the content of preaching can be transformative of people’s thought-world and therefore their lives. Insofar as the preacher’s theology reflects contemporary fashions more than the historic revelation, this transformation will be lessened or eliminated. I consider this theological function of preaching in the next section.

      Second, preaching can fulfil a transformative function with respect to culture by means of its form. This too can have a surprising effect. But here, too, if preaching imitates too closely either the communication style of a previous generation or that of today, its transformative potential will be reduced. The question is not whether our preaching ‘looks’ or ‘sounds’ strange in a culture accustomed to many other media, but whether that strangeness is a vehicle of transformation or a mere eccentric relic.

Roger Standing has given an excellent concise and up-to-date overview of cultural characteristics of contemporary British society, together with reflections on how these