Dear Rose Park,
I am a visual learner; I like to pair a concept with an image to allow my mind to understand the concept more fully. I’ve also found this to be true in my teaching. Lately I’ve been teaching Simon the nine positions on a baseball field; I have found it far easier to teach him (and more effective) by showing him the positions on the field rather than merely talking about them. When it comes to preaching, there’s one particular image I’ve found to be helpful.
Below is Pieter Bruegel’s The Sermon of St. John the Baptist. I was introduced to this painting in my preaching class in seminary. In the painting, it can be difficult to find St. John at first amid all that’s going on. Some of the crowd appears to be listening while others are staring off and even one seems to be sleeping with their mouth open. At the time I was introduced to this painting, I was reading William H. Willimon’s book Conversations with Barth on Preaching. Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed Theologian known for his extensive commentaries and sermons. Willimon offers Bruegel’s artwork as a parable for Barthian preaching.
Willimon writes, “On Sunday morning, we preachers stand up and speak of Jesus, pointing toward Him with our words. Sometimes a crowd gathers. Sometimes a few go to some trouble to be there and get a look. There are distractions. But for the most part, the world goes on about its business. Games are played. People doze. One can hardly see Jesus for all that is going on around Him. Still, this is the way that Jesus gets introduced to most people, through the gestures of our preaching.”
This is all to say, besides the geography, preaching at Rose Park or preaching at Camp Geneva is no different than St. John preaching in the wilderness. There are still distractions and even a few heads nodding off. I empathize and am inspired by Willimon’s words, “preaching is impossible on most Sundays, an exercise in frustration, like attempting to take to the air in a lead-and-steel book. Yet sometimes, by the grace of God, miracles of miracles, they hear. The Word rises, ascends; the Word condescends, descends. The old Bible takes wing, tabernacles among us, flutters, quivers, and despite everything against it, hovers, and we miraculously hear.”
It is my greatest hope and prayer that the Word of God might take flight each and every Sunday so that we might hear all that God desires to speak to us. So, join us in worship as we witness the Word rising, fluttering, taking wing and living among us in order that we might hear and be drawn closer to each other as we’re drawn closer to Him.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark