Preaching with Power (Tues. July 16)

The word of the day is “proclamation.” In our scripture study today, we read Romans 10:11-11:2.  There we find a soaring statement about the preaching of the apostles,  Pau states, “Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the end of the universe” (Romans 10:18).¹

This declaration of the power of preaching applies to the witness of the apostles (OSB footnote on Psalm 19:4), but does it apply to preaching today? Those who have spent their lives in the church have heard so many sermons, both inspired and uninspired, that they may no longer expect to be stirred by any preacher. According to our reading,  if the preaching of the Gospel is weak today, we should be concerned because salvation depends on hearing the proclamation of the Word. We conclude from today’s study that if the church is to win hearts and minds to Christ, its preaching should have the same compelling power as the proclamation of the apostles. Moreover, we find that the responsibility for witness to Christ and the sharing of the Gospel message is not only given to priests and ministers.

 The Gospel Must Be Proclaimed

In our scripture reading, St. Paul teaches that the Gospel is meant to be proclaimed. Indeed, it must be proclaimed. Here is the logic. Salvation comes by calling on the Lord for His mercy. And calling on the Lord depends on faith. Faith in turn requires hearing the message of God’s grace. And hearing the message involves proclamation. This logic means that no one should despise or disparage the calling of preaching. It is essential to the creation and nurture of faith. It plants the seed of the Word in the heart and nurtures it.

Thus, all the apostles that we commemorate today were, above all,  preachers of the Gospel. And the Church recognizes it when it sings, “Their proclamation has gone out into all the earth.” We can translate the thought as “their sound,” “their voice,” or “their proclamation.” It makes no difference. The apostles were Sowers of the Word, the eternal message of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the voice of their preaching still echoes around the world. There is no more powerful sound than the Gospel they preached, for by the work of the Holy Spirit, the Good News has the power to inspire faith. And faith is necessary for salvation.

But, again, what about ourselves? Does our “proclamation” sound forth into all the earth? In 1989, the Holy Synod [of Bishops] of the Orthodox Church in America published an encyclical on preaching. It declared that God calls on the Church in America to speak with the same “power of the Spirit” in her mission in the “New World”… Christ preached to the converted and the unconverted, repentant, and unrepentant. Likewise, the Church addresses those who have put on Christ and those who have yet to taste and see that the Lord is Good” (OCA 1989).

What Preaching Must Do

The Holy Synod summed up the goal of preaching in this way: “Preaching must feed the flock already in the fold, call to repentance those who stray, and add new sheep to the flock through Holy Baptism.”

 

But who has the responsibility to proclaim the message of salvation? Of course, we think of the sacred responsibility of the priests who are given authority and power in their ordination to “speak the word with boldness.” As Paul instructs the young Timothy, they are to “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).

But the Holy Synod’s encyclical says that all the faithful are members of the “Royal Priesthood.” Accordingly, the hierarchs write, “Each has been called to witness to Christ in word and action. Therefore, each member of the Church is a “preacher” and cannot but proclaim the “tidings of gladness and joy” (OCA 1989). 

 

The Holy Synod admonishes those who deny their call to proclaim the message of salvation. “Some feel that it is not their responsibility to speak out to the world, to loved ones and family, to fellow workers and neighbors about the Good News. This kind of attitude has weakened the witness of the Royal Priesthood. But the Lord’s parables about hiding one’s lamp under a bushel and about salt losing its flavor, apply to all of us. Out of pure love for God and in thanksgiving, all baptized in the Lord should not resist the power of the Spirit within, and should bear witness in word and in action” (OCA 1989).

 For Reflection

 

There is one more thing to say. On what basis does the voice of those who proclaim the Good News sound forth? On what ground does the preacher stand? Writing about the worship of the early church, Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) reported, “They [those who preside] are to base their message on the “memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets,” that is, on the scriptures. After these readings, they are to orally “instruct” and “exhort the imitation of these good things” (First Apology: Knopf 1, 186).

 

In the same vein, Fr. Jonathan Choler wrote, “Good Orthodox preaching always weaves a tapestry from the language of Scripture. Read the Old Testament prophets, the apostles, and the words of Christ Himself – always alluding to the holy words spoken before. More than that, though, good preaching thinks Scripturally, not just verbally quoting the Scripture, but with the rationale of the Holy Spirit” (Cholcher 2012).

If today’s preaching is to resound through the world as the proclamation of the apostles did, its melody must be the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the call to follow Him. And the sheet music it plays must be the scriptures.

 Notes and Works Cited

¹We hear this hymn on Pentecost, the Feast of SS Peter and Paul, as well as today on the Synaxis of the Twelve Holy Apostles.” 

Cholcher, Jonathan. 2012. "Four Characteristics of Good Orthodox Preaching." Orthodox Network Blog. https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2012/08/four-characteristics-of-good-orthodox-preaching-2/.

 OCA, The Holy Synod of the. 1989. "Encyclical Letter of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America on Preaching." The Preacher's Institute https://preachersinstitute.com/2013/04/26/encyclical-on-preaching/.