A recent work on general homiletics is Thomas G. Long, The Witness of Preaching, 2nd ed. (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2005). Long, Presbyterian (USA) minister and professor of preaching at Candler School of Theology, begins his work by locating the preacher, theologically, “within the community of faith” (2); he writes that “ministers are made in and through the church” (4). Covering much the same ground as Robinson, though in quite a different way, Long offers the following chapter titles: 1) What Does It Mean to Preach?; 2) The Biblical Witness in Preaching; 3) Biblical Exegesis for Preaching; 4) The Focus and Function of the Sermon; 5) The Basic Form of the Sermon; 6) Refining the Form; 7) Beginnings, Connections and Endings; 8) Images and Experiences in Sermons; 9) From Desk to Pulpit; 10) Conversation Along the Pilgrim Way. For Long, preaching is an event that includes “the congregation, the preacher, the sermon, and the presence of Christ . . . ” (17). “Preaching,” he writes, “is to join our human words with the word that God in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit is already speaking to the church and to the world . . .” (17).
In chapter one, Long discusses the preacher under the “‘master’ metaphors” of “herald” (19), “pastor” (28), and “storyteller” (36). The herald metaphor expects the listener to hear another “voice beyond the preacher’s voice” (20). Herald preachers are not concerned about matters of style. As Long explains it, heralds “do not aspire to be poets; they aspire to be mouthpieces of God, servants of the Word” (20). For this reason, they are not interested in “trying to figure out how to forge connections with the hearers” (21) or drawing attention to the “personality of the preacher” (22). The gospel is its own source of power and does not need to be embellished (23-24). However, Long criticizes this model for failing to recognize the artistry of the Scripture itself (24) and notes that preaching does not occur “in thin air but always happens on a specific occasion and with particular people in a given cultural setting” (26).
The preacher as pastor is concerned with “the needs of the hearers” (29). If the herald is one who knows his message, the pastor is one who knows his people (31) and is concerned that “when the sermon is over, the hearers are different and better people than when the sermon began” (31). The pastor’s relationship to the congregation is paramount (31) and the preacher as pastor is concerned about the way the Bible portrays human conflicts and relates to human needs. Long critiques this model, noting that the church is not only a place for hurting people, but is also a community of faith (32-3). This model also overly emphasizes the question of relevance (33) and “runs the risk of reducing theology to anthropology by presenting the gospel merely as a resource for human emotional growth” (35). Storytelling preachers gained “prominence in the 1970s as homileticians became fascinated with emerging theories of narrative and with the communicational potential of stories” (37). Storytelling preachers use “the language forms of the Bible and the essential language forms of the Christian faith itself. The gospel itself is basically a narrative, often told in poetic language and with evocative images . . .” (38). Storytelling preachers consider themselves to be at least as Biblical as the herald “since they take the specific literary character of the Bible into account” (39). People will remember stories when all else is forgotten (39). There are many approaches to storytelling, from using stories in the sermon to casting entire sermons as stories (39-40). For some storytellers, the sermon “should be designed to move in the listener’s consciousness like stories” rather than in the form of a linear argument (40). Long lists some weaknesses of the storytelling model, noting that it “tends to underplay the nonnarrative dimensions of Scripture” (44) and might, if not careful, confuse “God’s story” and “our stories” (44-5).
In lieu of these three models, Long offers the preacher as witness, which, he says, “is not a new idea” (44). This model gives the preacher authority, namely, “the authority of ordination” to speak on behalf of the congregation (48). The preacher as witness testifies to “the encounter between God and ourselves” (45). The preaching of the witness “will assume a variety of rhetorical styles . . . as governed by the truth to which they correspond” (49). The witness as part of the community is not a disinterested party but “stands in and with a community of faith” (50). Continuing this discussion in chapter two, Long states that “Biblical preaching happens when a preacher prayerfully goes to listen to the Bible on behalf of the people and then speaks on Christ’s behalf what she or he hears there” (52). Biblical preaching is patterned after preaching in the synagogue (53). Such preaching encounters Scripture critically (57), from a particular theological heritage or denominational viewpoint (59), and with an awareness of the congregation’s struggles and aspirations (63).
Much of the rest of the book is standard homiletics methodology, moving from exegesis to sermon, including a helpful discussion on whether a sermon should have “a central idea or sermon thesis” (101). Splitting the difference between opposing viewpoints, Long says the “preacher should bring to the sermon both what the text says and what the text does . . .” (106), concepts explained more fully in his subsequent discussion of the sermon’s “focus” and “function” (108-16). His discussion of the basic form of the sermon critiques the traditional outline sermon (122-23) and considers other approaches, such as Fred Craddock’s “‘problem-solving activity’” (124-26), Eugene Lowry’s homiletical plot (126-28), and Paul Scott Wilson’s law/gospel structure. Long concludes that “the gospel is too rich, complex, and varied to be proclaimed through a single sermon form” (131). He also looks at David Buttrick’s proposal that preaching is analogous to a series of snapshots, or a motion picture that moves from one scene to another (131-4) and finds this helpful in some ways, but not altogether satisfactory.
Throughout the book, Long makes few references to the preaching and teaching of Jesus. He reminds the reader that Mark 4:34 says Jesus “‘did not speak to them without a parable,’ a story built on metaphor” (39). Many of these parables are “metaphors in story form” (216). Later, in his discussion of “images and experiences,” he says “Jesus came preaching in stories and parables, and when he spoke of the reign of God he often did so in familiar images drawn from ordinary experience” (198). Long continues, stating that “Christian preachers ever since have followed Jesus’ example and have continued to communicate the gospel through narratives, images, metaphors, and similes drawn from everyday life” (198). In light of this observation, it seems that Long missed a great opportunity in the first two chapters to consider how the preaching and teaching of Jesus might inform the “master metaphors” he discusses. To reflect more intentionally on Jesus as “witness”—and the implications of his preaching as model for our preaching—would have been most helpful. The last two chapters (225-44) provide helpful advice about a wide range of practical issues, such as the use of notes, quotations, visuals, children’s sermons, etc
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