Vox populi | end of words

Does the sermon still have power?

J

ean Francois Lyotard claims any knowledge that does not mutate and adapt to the available technology in order to be bought and sold as information, cannot survive (from The End of Words – Richard Lischer). If this is true then we all might as well put down our pens or close our laptops, and admit defeat for Sunday morning. The sermon as we know it has been put to death, as it no longer lives “for there will be no such thing as communicating for the sake of the sheer goodness of the thing communicated, which is the very genius and freedom of the pulpit” (Richard Lischer).

Is it possible in a postmodern world that words have ceased to have meaning? Walter Brueggemann suggests the narrative scripts of the church have ceased to have meaning, as the church has become decentralized in society and culture. In the wake of world wars, and atrocities such as Auschwitz, Rwanda and Bosnia, the rhetoric of preaching is falling on the deaf ears of cynics. “Trust in Jesus, and all will be well” becomes a beating rod rather than its intended comfort and hope. Lischer asks, “in an age where people are presented with millions of pieces of information everyday, why would they trust the information presented by the gospel?”

In order to save the sermon from drowning, we float it with sermon-spice illustrations, designer coffee bars and slick morphing video backdrops for liturgical jazz bands. Then we justify everything we do by quoting St. Francis, “preach the gospel always – and when necessary use words.” Even this becomes unreliable as we learn St. Francis never said this. Some suggest we can only communicate to our times when we speak in the language of multi-media. If true, then we’re dead. I’ve yet to see a Christian production that holds my interest like a good Die Hard movie.

I believe the sermon does have power, and preaching can be effective, but I think it is only effective when we seek to incarnate the words of the one who put on eyelids, kneecaps and a spleen and came to live among us. It doesn’t “need” multimedia input, but does need those who are willing to work hard at understanding, and then crafting our words in such a way as to effectively communicate the story of redemption and reconciliation to our world. Then we need a church who takes seriously Christ’s claims of justice, mercy and the reconciling of creation to Him to give some backbone to the words we claim will transform lives. Or, is it possible that the Word will not return void no matter how it’s proclaimed, or how our culture hears it?

Vox populi appears every Friday on theRubicon. Find past Vox populi posts and a bio of Capt. Rick Zelinsky here.

1 Comment to Vox populi | end of words

1. Yes indeed, people need to SEE what we are saying (preaching) and that on a prolonged timeframe. Otherwise they will not pay attention.
Siggi Buschhaus on February 1st, 2008

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