The Lutheran Hour
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"Power Preaching"
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Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The words of the angel, spoken at the Savior’s empty tomb are words of transformation. The victory of Jesus over sin, death and Satan transform the eternal destiny of all who cling to the cross. No longer an instrument of cruelty, the cross, by Christ’s Easter resurrection is transformed into an eternal symbol of God’s grace and love for the lost.
Next year “The Lutheran Hour” will begin celebrating its 75 th year of proclaiming the salvation that comes through the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our Savior. There are, I imagine, a few people who remember hearing that first broadcast of the Reverend Walter A. Maier. Since those days when Reverend Maier stripped off his coat, tie and shirt to stand in an unair-conditioned studio and give his live, rapid-fire message to the world, a great many changes have taken place. Inventors have given us microwave ovens, lasers, computers, cordless phones, Teflon, Velcro, television, garbage disposals, hula-hoops and teeth-whitening strips. Art may still be art and music may still be music, but I no longer understand most of what I see and hear. Governments, kings, rulers, dictators, world powers and empires have risen, had their moment of importance, and been relegated to the unread pages of history books. Life has become disposable. Today we have disposable syringes and Styrofoam cups, disposable razors and contact lenses, disposable diapers, pregnancies and marriages. Since that first broadcast almost 75 years ago, we have spotted seemingly ceaseless changes in every segment of society. I suppose we would be naïve not to expect to see similar changes in preaching as well.
Recently one of our listeners, noting these changes, and perhaps willing to give me some constructive criticism, sent me some rules for preaching. In the list were included things like: 1) Remember, there are bad sermons and short sermons but there are no bad short sermons. 2) The purpose of a great sermon is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The latter is preferable to the former. 3) When the congregation starts to lose interest and doze off you can awaken them by saying loudly, “And finally” or “In conclusion.” This will only work about four times in each sermon. 4) Have a good opening point. Have a good closing point. Keep the two as close together as possible. 5) You can judge the quality of your sermon by the response of your spouse to the question, “How was my sermon, honey?” If she says, “Fine,” it means you went way too long. If she says, “It was okay,” that means you were getting close to the mark. If she says, “Wonderful,” it means your anniversary is coming. 6) Take advice from the rooster. One day a hen shared her desire to lay an egg in the middle of an expressway. The rooster took her to the edge of the road, and gave her this advice: “Make it quick, and lay it on the line!”
I appreciate his comments. I even agree with most of them. But there are other changes in preaching which are less acceptable. When I hear a preacher talk more about his ministry than the blood of Jesus, something is radically wrong. When I watch a program or listen to a broadcast and never hear the name of Jesus, never hear of Jesus’ love, Jesus’ sacrifice, Jesus’ death, Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ grace, Jesus’ hope, Jesus’ redemption and salvation, then preaching is off kilter. Yes, preaching has changed. Sixty-six years ago a traveling evangelist said, “Do you know how I know when it’s time to move to the next town? When I grab the listeners by the ankles, turn them upside down, give them a shake, and nothing falls out – then it’s time to move on.” Sixty years ago that man was a rarity. Today I hear one preacher after another seeming to be more concerned with raising money for his ministry than he is about pointing to the Christ.
I’m amazed to see crowds flock into a service where the man-up-front says, “I’ve been told by God that there is someone here who has an illness, an illness of the stomach, who has had it for six years, and he is being healed right now.” Doesn’t anybody say, “If God is telling you about this individual, why doesn’t He give you a name and an address too?” Not so long ago, a minister told me about a blind lady who had come to him and said, “Reverend, I’ve been listening with my friends to a minister on the radio. The preacher said, ‘if you have faith big enough, you will get delivered from all that is wrong in your life.’ He said, ‘if they believe hard enough the blind will see and the deaf will hear and the lame will walk.’ My friends agreed with him.” The woman continued, “Reverend, as you know I was born blind. I’ve been blind all my life. I don’t mind that much. But is that preacher right; are my friends right when they say, if I had believed hard enough, I could see?” The pastor replied, and I love him for his reply. He said, “Dear, I’ve noticed over the years that you carry a white cane. Do you always have it with you?” She said she did. Then the minister continued, “the next time someone tells you, you don’t have enough faith, hit them over the head with that cane as hard as you can. Then tell them, ‘if you had more faith, that wouldn’t hurt.’”
I like his reply almost as much as the one given by J. Vernon McGee. A lady wrote to him saying, “Our preacher said that on Easter, Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed him back to health. What do you think?” McGee replied, “Dear Sister, beat your preacher with a leather whip for 39 heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through his heart. Embalm him. Put him in an airless tomb for three days. Then see what happens.”
Yes, preaching has changed. It has changed so much that people think that they’ve heard about the Christ, tried the Christ, and found Him failing their expectations. Sadly, so weak is the message they have heard that in truth, they haven’t met the Savior at all. In contrast to all that, stands the words of Saint Paul. Writing to the church in Corinth he said, “the preaching of the cross is, unto us who are saved, the power of God.” Preaching the cross with power. That is what Saint Paul did. It is what Peter, James, Andrew, Thomas, Simon, and all the others did. They preached the cross with power because it was the power of God.
Understand, when Saint Paul talks about preaching with power, he is not referring to political power. In the year 312, the Roman emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the nation. Under his favor, persecution against Christ’s church ended, the faith was made legal, the pagan temples were stripped of their wealth and given to Christian churches, while top political positions were given to believers. But that is not the kind of power that we preach. Nor is Paul, when he talks about preaching the cross with power, referring to military might. On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II called for Christian princes and their people to rescue the Holy Land from the infidel. The idea of a crusade against Islam was one that would inflame Christianity for almost 300 years. It is an idea that still fuels mistrust between nations and neighbors, which still gives rise to fear and fanatics. But conversion through a crusade is not what Paul meant when he preached the cross with power.
So what did Paul mean? What is it about this cross that allowed Paul to say, “this is the power of God?” Mel Gibson’s movie has, I believe, shown for the first time on film, the cross for what it was: a humiliating, painful, scandalous, shameful, revolting, terrifying way to die. So terrible was the suffering of those who were nailed to the cross that it was illegal for any Roman citizen to die this way. Imagine if you will the shame of being stripped naked, the pain of having your hands nailed to a horizontal wooden beam, your ankles fixed into position with one long nail. Think upon the agony of hanging there, hour after hour, slowly bleeding, painfully suffering, gasping for breath, grasping for life. When death came, it was merciful. What makes this cross the power of God? Tens of thousands of men, women and children were crucified by the Romans. No one founded a religion upon their deaths. No one sang songs about what happened there as these victims slowly suffocated. For all these people, in all of these deaths, the cross remained what it was, a terrible torturous tool for death.
Nevertheless, Paul preaches the cross which is the power of God. Why? In Austria there is a village named Durnstein. Overlooking Durnstein there is a castle. The castle is called Kuenringer. But nobody calls it Kuenringer castle. It is called “the-Richard-the-Lionhearted-castle.” It is called that because that is where Richard was held for ransom in the year 1192. The castle is not remembered for its builder, nor for its owner, nor for the army that destroyed it. The castle is remembered because of the king that it held. Today the cross is not remembered because of its cruelty, nor for the thousands who died upon it. The cross that Paul says is the power of God is remembered because it once held the King of Kings. The cross is the power of God, because Jesus, the Son of God gave His life on the cross so that all who believe on Him as their substituting Savior might have everlasting life.
Some time ago, I read about a zookeeper who saw a mouse that had fallen into the glass enclosure of a large snake. Although the snake was sleeping in a bed of sawdust, the mouse knew that it was only a matter of time before he became supper. The man could almost see the gears of the mouse’s mind turning and churning, as he tried to find a remedy to his situation. He couldn’t climb the glass walls to freedom. He couldn’t tackle the snake in direct confrontation. In desperation, the mouse did the only thing he could do; he tried to cover the snake with sawdust chips. The chips flew fast and furious until that mouse had buried the snake. Now the mouse might have been content with his paw work, but the man knew the clock was still ticking – the snake would awake – the mouse would die. That’s when the man took a wooden rod and placed it into the snake’s cage. The mouse grabbed hold and was freed.
That my friends is the story of humanity. We are the mouse. Because of sin, we find ourselves face-to-face with death and the snake, Satan. We can philosophize, we can scheme and think and try to escape. No matter how hard we try on our own, there is no way out. We, like that mouse can try to bury our problem, cover it up, make it go away. We might even be satisfied with our work and think we are safe, but God knows better. God knows that Satan will eventually awake from sleep and shake off its cover. God knew that death would, sometime, somewhere, somehow, eat us alive. Seeing us in our helplessness, God, like the man observing the mouse, had pity on us. That’s when God, like the man, extended a pole, a wooden cross that would lift us to salvation.
Of course, when the man put the stick into the snake’s cage, it cost him nothing. But for God to save us, He had to send in a substitute – someone to take our place. Unbelievably, God sent His Son to do that job. Jesus died the death that we had coming. Jesus died so that we might live. Jesus was crucified so that we might be free. Jesus came down so that we might be lifted up. No, it doesn’t make sense that God would do such a thing. To us, it is unthinkable that anyone would sacrifice His child to save a mouse. But God, in His grace, in His unmerited kindness, did just that. God sent His Son to die on a wooden cross. When humankind was doing its worst, when Satan was smiling with glee, God did His best. He put His Son on the cross so that we might be saved. Now for those who cling to the cross, there is salvation. They are brought to safety by God’s great grace, by His unmerited love.
Of course, any reasonable person might ask, “Why is this cross different?” Jesus died on His cross like the other tens of thousands died on theirs. How I welcome that question. For upon the answer to that question hinges everything else I’ve said, everything else Christianity teaches. You see my friends, Jesus did die on the cross, but three days later He conquered death. That’s right. As God had promised, on the third day Jesus came forth from His grave. Three days after He had been buried, the Christ conquered the cross; he defeated death; He crushed the head of the serpent Satan. The resurrection is the single seminal event of history. The resurrection is the event which turned the cross for all who believe, from being a hated horror into God’s symbol of hope and heaven.
In changing times and through changing voices, Christ’s cross is God’s power which this broadcast has consistently and constantly proclaimed for almost 75 years. The power of Christ’s cross is that which the church, through changing circumstance, centuries, and situations, has been pleased to share . Christ’s cross, the power of God to save. Shortly after Fidel Castro took over Cuba, 12-year-old Armando hid himself in the tall grass at the Havana airport. When a DC-8 slowed to turn for its take off, Armando ran to the plane, climbed up on a wheel and hid himself up in the wheel well. Ten minutes after the takeoff Armando passed out because of cold and lack of oxygen. The plane landed in Madrid, Spain. That’s when the pilot spotted a boy lying on the tarmac. His clothing was stiff, there was frost around his nose and mouth. The boy was taken to a hospital and asked why he had done such a thing. He replied, “I wanted a new life.” Do you want a new life, a saved life? Unlike Armando, you can do nothing to get it. But God wants you to have a new life, too. He has made it possible. He gives that new life, a saved life, a better life, a forgiven life for all who cling to the cross. Hold to that cross. Why? The cross, along with the empty tomb, is the power of God to save. God grant that cross of power through faith be yours. Amen.
Lutheran Hour Mailbox (Questions & Answers) for March 21, 2004
Topic: What Can J. S. Bach Teach Us About Church Music?ANNOUNCER: Stay with us as we discuss music, theology, and the example of Johann Sebastian Bach. I’m Mark Eischer. Joining me here in the studio today is Dr. Robert Bergt. He’s artist in residence at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, specializing in the music and life of J.S. Bach. Dr. Bergt is also director of the American Kantorei. Dr. Bergt, many of our listeners participate in some form of music for the church; they might sing in the choir or play an instrument, and March 21 st is the birthday of J. S. Bach. This would be an appropriate time for us to talk about the influence he has had upon church music and church musicians. What can we learn from his example?
BERGT: Well you’ve raised a wonderful question. A theologian is one who studies, who learns from, or derives from God’s Word. Not words about God, but Word from God and Word that is God, and it’s Jesus Christ who is the Word, God. People who sing good hymnody, Psalms, canticles, and songs become grafted into God’s Word. We say, in belief, “You are, You are real, I adore You, I love You, I worship You, the living God.” This is theology in action. The act of adoration, in our music and with our music, through our music – we’re little theologians.
ANNOUNCER: From the example of Bach, what would you say would be the function or the purpose or the goal of music in the church?
BERGT: When music is wedded to the text and carries the text, but doesn’t try to overcome it, or to become an entertainer which overpowers it, but it carries, it undergirds, it supports. There’s a word we use in theology – Theocentric – it is centered in God and not in myself. I think you can hear Bach and be wiggling your big toe or your little toe. There’s nothing more effective than the art of rhythm in the Baroque music. That’s strong. It’s so steady, it’s like God’s reliability and that in itself is already a symbol at work.
ANNOUNCER: Perhaps many people think that music is designed primarily though, to stir the emotions and to provide maybe a feeling. What would Bach say to that?
BERGT: If I use your own statement, just remove primarily, we would have the answer. Yes, music speaks to the emotion of man. Like any art, and perhaps for many, more than other arts. That right there is the crux of the problem. So primarily, I would not want to rule that out and go back – what does the text do at that point? And let music serve the text and then if it stirs emotion of joy or of hope or of consolation – these are all feelings, then music is serving a wonderful purpose. The other thing Mark, is to go out now, just try to gain converts on the basis of music that entertains or welcomes you in; we’re going to have a good time here. And the hour is soon over because we have all this kind of music. That’s, that’s when I get worried.
ANNOUNCER: When Bach is writing, is he writing only for the benefit of God?
BERGT: I think he’s always trying to relate the listener to God, and get him to respond to God. He wants him to meditate upon the passion of our Lord, or His resurrection or His ascension. As you said earlier, I’ll use that word – to be stirred by it. To be stirred by the resurrection, not by the sound of the music, but by the resurrection of Christ. To be stirred by the ascension. I think his objective is always so clearly there, and it strikes me. I’ve had a lot of people who are not really religious, or they would say of themselves, “I’m Theist, but I’m not Christian,” yet they’re so attracted by and through the music of Bach, and Vivaldi, and Handel, and Buxtehude. And I can’t help to think that they have been brought into a meeting with God through his music.
ANNOUNCER: We’ve been talking with Dr. Robert Bergt of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.