|
Written by reviewed by Ed McLeod
|
|
Wednesday, 22 December 2010 04:54 |
Preaching from Memory to Hope, by Thomas G. Long. WJKP, 2009. Pb., 176 pp. $19.95.
Given a choice, I’d rather hear Tom Long preach than read any book on preaching.
Then again, Preaching from Memory to Hope is not just any book on preaching. It is a timely, forceful reminder of the urgency of preaching, it is a summons to those of us who have been called to the ministry of proclamation to be attentive to the ways the landscape around us has changed and is changing. This is not a book on how to preach, though Tom Long can do that as well as anyone; instead, this is a book that challenges us to recover our voice, and to summon up the courage to speak God’s truth in an age desperate for it.
Portions of the book are rooted in Long’s 2006 Lyman Beecher lectures at Yale Divinity School and others were presented first to local congregations, mirroring his strong commitment to preaching as careful scholarship and as an enterprise for building up the church of Jesus Christ. These twin passions are obvious on every page, for Professor Long writes as one who loves the church, and Preacher Long writes as one who has done his homework.
In five densely packed chapters, Long
- responds to valid critiques of narrative preaching, while still arguing for its power to communicate the essence and the ethic of the gospel;
- argues for a renewed sense of the holiness of preaching, for vigorous and attentive exegesis, and for daring to make a “present tense announcement of God’s action” in our midst;
- reminds us that our congregations are reading Dan Brown and Marcus Borg and Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels and John Shelby Spong and wondering if we have anything to say to the intellectual hurdles they erect, and the conspiracy theories they invent;
- responds directly to Marcus Borg, and the particular way Borg has fueled the modern-day “Gnostic impulse” that pervades the culture;
- contends that we preachers need to give voice to the eschatological hope of the gospel, “the language of promise, the language of redemption beyond human striving.”
Working preachers will be stung from time to time by Long’s critique of what emerges from many modern pulpits. He is troubled that the grand era of narrative preaching, rooted in Steimle and Craddock, has given way to building sermons around funny/touching/inspiring stories that can make our preaching “like a massage at a spa, a pleasurable aesthetic experience without content or goal.” His reflections on narrative preaching give considerable attention to the work of exegeting our congregations, reminding those of us who have been at this awhile that things have changed.
Long is also concerned about our silence, namely our hesitancy to speak to the questions that are rumbling around in the popular culture, when issues raised on the Discovery Channel or in the latest best-seller seem to undermine the historic teachings of the church. To be silent is to leave some of our most literate and intellectually engaged members with the impression that the Church has nothing to say to these challenges, and so Long summons us to clear our throats and reclaim the role of “teaching elder.” He reminds us that our task is to “negotiate a hearing for the faith in, with and for the world,” and that when we do so effectively, we equip our listeners as they go out into the “roiling marketplace of ideas, behaviors and truth claims that make up our world.”
And even if you have not immersed yourself in the work of Marcus Borg, you will appreciate the way Long engages his work, as a way of addressing the tenets of the neo-Gnostic movement. First of all, it’s helpful to know that this movement is lurking out there. But mostly, in a careful, deliberate treatment, Long responds to Gnosticism in a way that the church has always responded to Gnosticism, with a clear affirmation of the good news of a Word made flesh, and a hope that surpasses all other hope.
What is apparent throughout this book is that Tom Long believes in preaching. As archaic and out-dated as it seems in a world of Facebook, instant messaging, and Twitter, he is persuaded that the call to preach is still vital and pertinent to the community of faith and to the world. He simply wants those who are called to this particular ministry to step into the pulpit prepared to speak a bold and daring word about the redeeming work of the God we know in Jesus Christ, and to do so as pastors who know the sort of world in which our congregations live. As his title suggests, if we are faithful in our calling, we will stoke their memories, and we will fuel their hopes.
ED McLEOD is pastor of First Church in Raleigh, N.C.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
