1.21 blog

Yesterday Pastor Stephen preached a sermon on preaching from 1 Corinthians 2.1-5. In it we saw what is preached (Christ crucified), who should preach (Pastors especially, but also all Christians), and why we preach (because Jesus is utterly worthy to be proclaimed). One thing that the Apostle Paul highlighted in this passage of Scripture is the way that preaching can sometimes undermine preaching.

Here’s what I mean. We’re often told that style is neutral. That’s not quite right. The way a message is delivered does affect the message. So we want to be careful that the methods we use don’t obscure or change the message we bring. During this time period, there were traveling speech makers, who, for a fee would train you to use rhetoric to win arguments. They’d role into town, make some really persuasive, eloquent speech, collect tuition, and then equip their students to be just as persuasive themselves. They were the heirs of the sophists, a philosophical school in ancient Greece. The sophists were experts in rhetoric and persuasion. They would demonstrate their prowess by successfully arguing both sides of a debate. They’d do clever stuff like use logic to prove that we don’t move. They didn’t care for truth, only persuasion.  So when Paul comes into town, people would have expected a similar show from him. They expect him to argue persuasively and manipulatively about Jesus. But he doesn’t deliver. He’s not counting on his rhetorical skill to win people over. Paul was trained in Rabbinic argumentation, classical drama, and rhetoric. It’s not that he couldn’t have come in and used his verbal skills. It’s that he chose not to for specific purposes.

And Paul’s purpose was to know nothing except for Christ and him crucified. This determination is the reason behind his refusal to come with lofty, wise words. It would contradict his message for him to preach in those ways. If he comes preaching: our salvation rests entirely on Christ, and it’s solely at God’s initiative, and we’re utterly dependent upon him, and Christ is all our wisdom, righteousness, etc., and yet does so in a way that highlights himself and his skill, he undermines the message. Pastors who say, “Jesus is our only hope and salvation,” but then preach sermons where they’re the hero of every illustration undermine their message. Pastors who preach the salvation of sinners by grace alone, and then complain about how the “queers” and Democrats (or fundamentalists and Republicans) and other bad folk are ruining our country undermine the message. If God is truly the author and finisher of salvation. If we really are foolish, weak, and dependent on him, then it makes no sense for us to preach in such a way as to highlight ourselves.

So…at this point I’ve said about half of what I want to. So rather than writing an overlong blog post, I’ll stop here for now. Tomorrow I’ll finish things up.

Posted by: Gene Schlesinger