… be reminded of God’s grace and forgiveness in order to face the opportunities and struggles ahead.
Here is where the divergence comes in. Overall most
people still prefer to be engaged through what we might call “passive means”—that is, when the preacher takes primary responsibility for engaging listeners. Chief among such requests is that preachers employ more stories that connect the biblical passage to everyday life. Stories, as many have noted, are the common cur- rency with which we make sense of and share our lives. Preachers can help us relate Scripture to daily life by off ering us sto- ries that illumine such connections. Another common
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Imagine how this biblical story might be ours ....
hope is that preachers identify a single insight, question or challenge with which to send hearers into their week, perhaps even inviting them to respond with their insights via email
or social media. Interestingly, a small but
distinct minority of people name their desire for more “active” engagement and
want to share in producing, as well as receiving, the content of the sermon. Is there room for active participation and discussion,
whether before, during or aſt er the sermon? Must sermons be monologues? Can preachers turn over greater responsibility
for connecting the sermon to everyday life, creating space for hearers to move from the role of audience to participant?
T ese are the questions this growing cadre of folks is
asking. In my career as a theologian and teacher of preach-
ers, I’ve tried to describe the trend this way: I was taught in seminary that the chief purpose of preaching was to create faith, and I still value that aspect highly. But I wasn’t taught that preaching also has the potential to help us see God and, having seen God, to participate in God’s ongoing work to love and bless this world. When we focus on the fi rst function of preaching—
creating faith—we tend to center on the past and present of a biblical passage, asking what it meant to its original audience and what it might mean to us today. When we add this second purpose—helping us see God—we begin focusing on the future of the passage, asking where we might see it coming true in our lives and inviting us to imagine how we might live into this biblical story. In a culture that no longer assumes, let alone encour-
ages, congregational participation, and for a generation that has numerous sources from which they might cre- ate their identity, preachers have increasing responsibil- ity for not only proclamation but also formation. Preach- ers must give us the tools by which we can imagine how this biblical story might be ours, and guide us into a future shaped and animated by the presence and grace of the living God. A tall order, for sure, but one I believe is still blessed
by the Spirit.
Author bio: Lose is president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and a former homiletics professor at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. This perspective on preaching was part of “In the Meantime …,” his theological blog about faith and life (
www.davidlose.net).
April 2015 13
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