Comments on Richard Lisher's "End of Words"

Interaction with The End of Words (by Richard Lischer)

            The End of Words is the best book on preaching I have read in years.  I put it right up there with the works of Fred Craddock and Tom Long.  I have learned about preaching because of reading Lischer’s book.

            I will be interacting with this book for the foreseeable future as I plan to re-read it in 2017.  For me, 2017 will be a year of re-reading books on theology, homiletics, and race relations.  The re-reading, I hope, will drive me to deeper engagement with these fine works.  In The End of Words there is much I could write about here, but for now I opt to comment on one idea from his essay ‘One Last Story,’ (p.89-128).

            Lischer says, “The Stories of Jesus haunt our world not because they correspond perfectly to history but because they correspond perfectly to his real presence among us” (p.125).  The distinction he draws is important.  People don’t come to faith because we Christians convince them, in their skepticism, of the historicity of events in the Christian story.  Some Christian apologists are so determined to win the argument and then proclaim their victory, they lose sight of the real goal: helping people meet and come to know Jesus.

            People are not won to faith by convincing arguments.  They come to faith in God when they meet God in Jesus Christ.  Hence Lischer’s use of the verb ‘haunt.’  Skeptics and believers alike are haunted by a ghost – the Holy Ghost.  Apologetics has its place.  Our preaching can be defeated if it fails to hold up to scientific and historic scrutiny.  However, strong proofs do not win any victory for the preacher.  We don’t help people find their way to Jesus unless we have the Holy Spirit with us.

            Our sermons will successfully tell those stories that haunt the world, when the Holy Spirit haunts our sermons and our souls.  Near the conclusions of the section, Lischer says, “We have the high and dangerous calling of telling one last story in a world filled with lies: the story must be true” (emphasis mine) (p. 127).  That we can show the historicity of the resurrection of the scientific veracity of the world as something created does not make our story true.  Those types of proofs make the message verifiable to some degree.  What makes it true is if Jesus is in it and in us as we preach it.  When people hear the message and find themselves staring into the eyes of Jesus, we have told the true story, the one the world desperately needs.

            Thank you, Dr. Lischer, for this amazing book.  Five stars!

A Witness to What God Did

          Tom Long writes, “We go to scripture … to encounter a presence, to hear God’s voice speaking to us ever anew.”[i] Where Long says “we,” he specifically means preachers.  However, what he says is true of most Bible readers.  Christians open the Bible to hear from God.  Long feels that the primary function of the preacher is to testify what he or she has seen – to tell what can be known about God.  I agree and I think all Christians are called to this activity of giving testimony.

        The epistle First John is also the testimony of an eye-witness.  “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1).  What we learn of God in this letter comes from the first-hand experiences first century believers had. 

        At HillSong, we will spend the Sunday sermon time in July and August considering the testimony offered in 1^st John.  Our intent is not to do verse-by-verse exposition.  Where that is appropriate, it will be done.  But our goal is to see God.  The witness of the 1^st John will serve to help us see God.  So, I encourage all who will worship at HillSong to read this letter and as it is read, make notes.  What are we seeing?  Where is God in this?  Look for Him.  Read expecting to have an encounter with the transcendent, eternal, almighty One.

        This way of reading is demanding.  We need to read attentively and imaginatively.  Every word matters, but each comes from a late 1^st century context and in response to specific circumstances – circumstances we can only speculatively piece together.  How do we hear it and how do we see the truth in these words take shape in and inform us in our context, one very different that the first century when the words were written?

We also need to read confessionally, allowing the text to interpret our lives as the Spirit, speaking through the word, breaks us down and remakes us.  Reading in this way requires something of us – the readers.  It is involved.  When the word speaks of sin, we have to name our own sins, accept our guilt, and realize the truth about ourselves.  At the same time, the text speaks of forgiveness (1 John 2:1-2) we can accept it.  We accept that we are forgiven and in Christ we have life (1 John 5:11).  Christ is evidence that God loves us.

So, come to HillSong and read 1^st John.  And read with complete involvement and commitment.  It may sound like an emotional rollercoaster, but it is worth it. 

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[i] T. Long (1989).  The Witness of Preaching.  Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, p.45.

Who's in control here, anyway?

I am a pastor. Every Sunday, I preach sermons. When you do you that every single week – some are better than others.

This morning, I got up to preach, and I started talking. I said my opening words, looked down at my manuscript, and kind of got lost. I kept talking. You have to – everyone is watching, waiting for you to say something. Of course I knew the general theme of the message, I had worked on it all week; but the more I talked the most lost and discombobulated I felt.

I finally recovered around the bottom of the page. Every time I looked at the crowd – really looked people in the eye – I could tell they were listening intently. I felt like the whole sermon, I came across as disorganized. As I got the last page of the manuscript, I was thinking, “Man, I am glad this is over.” In my mind, I was already making commitments to work extra hard in the upcoming week so I wouldn’t subject my folks to another exercise in unprepared rambling. I have two more weeks in a 5-part series in Judges, which is very hard to preach. So I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Then, afterward, two of the people who are typically very attentive listeners were talking. I entered their conversation not thinking the sermon would be mentioned. But, one of the women said she was getting a lot out of the sermons on Judges – especially today! The other woman agreed. ‘Really?’ I asked, astounded!

Who’s in control here anyway? Not me!

Once I got home, I asked the woman who is my harshest critic, my wife, what she thought. (By the way, because she is my harshest critic, she’s also the best, bar none). Before the two friends at church had said what they said, I had planned on avoiding the topic of the sermon in hopes that my wife wouldn’t bring it up. Because of their encouragement, I asked her for her reaction.

Expecting to have my worst fears confirmed, I waited. She said it was one of the best sermons I had ever given. Flabbergasted! I could not believe it. I felt awful about the whole thing and three of the people whose views I really trust affirmed me.

Who’s in control here anyway? Not me!

God guides how words are spoken and how they are heard. In the book of Job, many of the words spoken by his three friends are good words. They are good words spoken at the wrong time. They are good words spoken by people who did not have the right to speak them; the friends were especially out of line in saying what they did to Job. They forwarded a theology that God rewards righteous people and punishes wicked people.

Job’s suffering must have come from God. God would only send such awful woes on one who was wicked. Ergo, Job was wicked and things would go better for him as soon as he repented. The lengthy speeches of Job’s friends were poetic, quite beautiful and compelling at times. But, they did not adequately reflect the reality of Job’s situation.

God condemned good words, well-spoken words, by Job’s friends. And, not that God needs vindication from anyone, but, an ethicist would find God in the right. In the book of Job, God comes out OK.

This morning, God ordained words poorly spoken by me. Four different people were blessed by what they heard. It’s a good thing God is in control here. I would pity the world if it relied on me for eloquence or Job’s friends for truth spoken appropriately. We human beings try our best, and all the while pray and trust that God is guiding the way.