Preachers must do their utmost to get out of the way
of the Word of God, which "is living and
effective," in order to allow room for it to operate.

Good Scriptural preaching

By John H. Wright

n According to Mark the last instruction Jesus gave his Apostles was: "Go into the world and proclaim the good news to all creation." You can't state the mission of priests any clearer than that. Vatican II confirmed that the primary duty of priests is the proclamation of the Word. The crux of the matter is that faith is the key to salvation, and faith is uniquely incited by preaching. Paul clarifies the point: "How are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?"

Nevertheless, poor preaching generally heads the complaint list of Catholics today. One reason may well be that would-be reformers usually focus on the skill of the preacher, rather than on the substance of his preaching. It is thus critically flawed at the outset. It might well be stated as a law: the more the preacher is remembered, the sooner his message is forgotten. The truly effective preacher is virtually invisible. St. John Vianney said, "You pour liquor through a funnel; whether it be made of gold or copper, if the liquor is good it will still be good." St. Paul likened preachers to mere "earthen vessels," whose "transcendent power belongs to God" rather than to them. He added, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth."

Therein lies the clue to the core problem. Preachers must do their utmost to get out of the way of the word of God, which "is living and effective," in order to allow room for it to operate. They must somehow allow space between themselves and their listeners. This allows the latter actually to confront the Word in terms of their own experience. Such confrontations will never occur if preachers, by whatever clever artifices, keep imposing their own presence.

Many may still remember a very prominent TV evangelist in the 50s, a Catholic bishop no less, who seemed to be very successful while doing exactly that in an almost Shakespearean manner-the much admired late Bishop Fulton Sheen. Yet, the most frequently heard exclamations were invariably: "Don't you love the way he flounces his cape?" or, "Don't his stark piercing eyes hypnotize you when he stares to emphasize a point?" The problem was that such commentators could rarely even remember the subject of his sermon. Clearly, the good bishop often got in the way of his message.

Too many preachers today picture themselves as performers, and seemingly think that they have to be entertainers, and so pad their sermons with sometimes interesting but more often irrelevant anecdotes, boring personal recollections, and banal or even boorish one-liners that tend to trivialize their real message. Surely people get enough of the latter on TV, and go to church in the expectation of getting something a little different and much more substantial.

Surrender the spotlight

But how are preachers to get and retain peoples' attention? The obvious answer is: "They already have the attention of their audience at the very outset!" After all, the people came voluntarily. They came expecting and fully prepared to listen. So the immediate aim of the preacher then is subtly to force the audience to focus its attention on itself, linking the preacher's message to their own personal experience. The preacher does this by seeking to sink into the shadows so as to provide the audience . . . space.

Providing space means that the preacher willfully surrenders the spotlight, thereby enabling the congregation quietly to reflect on the Word on its own terms. The preacher does this by simply tuning in on either the congregation's recollection or imagination. Consider such beginnings as: "Did you ever? Have you ever? Imagine for a minute that I
. . . ." or, "Imagine for a minute that you. . . ."

Any such introductions are guaranteed to involve any speaker immediately and intimately with every individual, thus getting everyone engrossed in the process. Listeners then independently strive furiously to couple their own unique experiences with the particular theme being expounded. In short, this approach gets each listener mentally as well as physically there!

The foregoing approach will very likely result in everyone feeling like they have been addressed personally, precisely because they have from the very start begun to internalize the message. And that's the object of the whole exercise. The only valid communication is one-on-one. As St. Charles Borromeo once observed, "A single soul is a diocese big enough for a bishop." If you don't get through to the individual you don't get through at all.

You can't be a truly effective preacher if you don't truly communicate. And the best way to get a response is to ask a question, even a rhetorical question. That's what really gets the other person's attention. And once you have that, once you have the members of your audience truly . . . there . . . then you must try to get out of the way, to let the thought you've planted . . . "percolate."

The foregoing methodology might serve to explain the unparalleled success of the master-hucksters of early radio fame-before TV. The fact that they were invisible was an asset rather than a liability-precisely because that enabled them to harness the imagination of their listeners. Remember the easy-going manner and folksy honesty of radio-huckster Arthur Godfrey? Being on the radio, he was never seen. Yet he communicated daily with millions of listeners in a manner suggesting that he was addressing each and every one-individually! And it only underscores the point to note that he was never as successful at selling on TV, where he was seen. Apparently, the spotlight is too often an irresistible invitation for the messenger to up-stage the message.

The good preacher can avoid this, provided the focus of the sermon is clearly centered on Christ's saving Word. Nor does it hurt to be confrontational. Nothing enhances attention-and therefore effectiveness-like controversy. Recall what Jesus himself said: "Do you think I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake." You could say that it is precisely the preacher's job to make people feel uncomfortable, so as to compel change for the better in their lives.

A story is told of King Louis XIV of France. Though he listened to a vast array of noted preachers he reportedly found only one, Massillon of Clermont, who stirred the very depths of his soul. One day Louis is said to have remarked: "When I hear some other preacher, I'm pleased with the preacher; but when I listen to Massillon, I'm displeased with myself."

To be truly effective then, the preacher should ruffle some feathers. As Cardinal Newman once remarked, "To be at ease is to be unsafe." The preacher must continually hold the congregation's feet to the fire, lest it perish in the eternal fire. It's a good trade-off in the long run. n