Preaching is an impossible task. The message of God’s love and grace are so overwhelming that no sermon can do it justice. The most carefully crafted text and the most eloquently delivered message fall short.
And yet, even through the inadequacies of the stumbling preacher, there is power in the proclaimed Word. Something happens. A gift of grace is offered and lives are moved.
In 1932, Bonhoeffer wrote, “A truly evangelical sermon must be like offering a child a fine red apple or offering a thirsty man a cool glass of water and then saying: Do you want it?”
Later, Bonhoeffer taught his students, “We must be able to speak about our faith so that hands will be stretched out toward us faster than we can fill them.”
For Bonhoeffer, the Word proclaimed was “A ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity.” (Metaxas 272)
It is this ship, loaded down with grace, that is impossible to completely and perfectly articulate in the best of a 15 to 20 minute sermon.
And yet, it is that impossible task that has the power to offer a light in the darkness. Preaching is one of the means of grace that can touch a troubled soul and feed a hungry heart. Through preaching, God can take a message that fails to completely reveal the mystery and beauty of God’s nature to offer a word of hope.
While Bonhoeffer was speaking specifically about the Word preached from the pulpit, it has often been said that the Christian life is the only sermon many people will see. If this is true, how do our lives shine as a means by which people can find the answer to their needs? Perhaps it is through our broken and impossible lives that God’s grace can be at work offering healing in a hurting world.
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