A Theology of Preaching

One of the first lectures I was asked to do centered around my theology of preaching. I learned a long time ago that one of the great problems of the church both locally and nationally is that it often forgets about theology and moves pragmatically (whatever works). Neither Jesus nor Paul seemed much concerned with pragmatism. However, they were both deeply concerned about the theology of what we do and how we do it. To put it simply, God cares as much about the why as he does about the how (maybe more). Therefore, what you believe about preaching effects what you do in preaching. Let me explain.
One of the points in my Theology of Preaching lecture is that every sermon must have a text. And then, the sermon must be about the text. The text matters. People don't come to hear me, they come to hear from on high. My task is to do the study and the work that is necessary for me to speak about the text; to speak into the text; to speak from the text; and to speak with the authority of the Holy Spirit who has revealed, preserved, and applied the text. While that may seem basic to most preachers, it can be difficult to do. It happened to me this weekend.
My wife had put together the worship service for Sunday based on her own inspiration. I was still knee-deep in Comps and didn't have anything done on my sermon. Her service centered around the name of Jesus. It was a good service. Joanie is gifted and talented and I have learned the wisdom of trusting her sense of the Spirit and her knowledge of worship. So, as the weekend rolled around, I still had no sermon. So, I did what I rarely do but have the capability of doing. I looked through my filed sermons and found an old one. It was from Philippians 2:5-11 and the title of the sermon was, "The Names of God." Well, that sounded like a perfect fit and I pulled out the material and took it home. I figured that, with a little work, I could shape it up and it would work just fine. It was hardly the case.
When I sat down to really look at the sermon I found that the sermon had a theme but no text. I had not really dealt with the text in the whole of the sermon. It was a thematic sermon (and I like and think all sermons should have theme) but the theme had become the sermon. The text had become an afterthought. So, my debate was to just preach the sermon and not worry about it. After all, if you ignore your theology of preaching once, what's the big deal? It was just one sermon. None of my homiletics professors were going to be there. I had all the excuses in the world. Just let it go. But I couldn't. Not because I am some principled, disciplined hermeneut. I couldn't because it just wasn't worthy of representing what I know and believe about preaching, God, and theology. It was a matter of integrity. Either you do it right or you don't do it at all.
So, I spent a good part of Saturday afternoon and evening reworking an old sermon. I got out my word study books, my Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, a couple of commentaries, my Greek study tools, and the notes I had made from the previous sermon and I completely reworded the message. I found the heart of the text and what I sensed it really meant. I spent time learning what the word Christ means, what the meaning is of the name Jesus and how that relates to the names of God in the O.T. Ultimately I dealt with the concept of God's anointing and how that applies to priests in the Temple and to Christians in the N.T. The conclusion of the sermon called on the congregation to experience the anointing of God. A time of commitment and sanctification was experienced by the church. Verse 11 became the focus and the idea that Christ is "kupios insous Xpistos" (the Greek phrase translated as Jesus Christ Lord) was the challenge - to make Christ the "kupios" (Lord) of your life.
The real reason I reworked the sermon was to be able to stand at the end of the sermon and know that whatever God wanted to do with the sermon was just fine with me. I had been faithful - the results were up to him. Preachers, do the work so that you may stand at the door of the church when the service is over knowing that you were faithful to the text, faithful to your calling, and that your theology of preaching kept you in the text.