Based on a chapter from a forthcoming book to be published by Cascade, this paper will focus on the essentials and earmarks of sermons that play out in a sacramental (encounter-enabling) manner.
In the first half of the paper I outline what I consider to be the essentials of a theology of preaching that can and will underwrite the development and delivery of sacramental sermons. My tack in this initial discussion will be to indicate the developments in my own theological/ministry/spirituality journey that have contributed to the fully trinitarian, “I-Thou,” sacramental theology of preaching I contend is possible and that God always intended.
The second half of this paper will explore the related topic of anointed preaching. Most ecclesial traditions have room in them for the phenomenon of sermons that seem to be influenced by the Holy Spirit in an especially powerful manner. There is, however, no mutually agreed upon understanding of how to identify genuinely anointed sermons. Are they earmarked by their length, the passion with which they are delivered, the emotional response they engender? Or could it be something more? I contend that a case can be made for the notion that the chief characteristics of genuinely anointed preaching relate to its prophetic, incarnational, and transformative properties. In other words, genuinely anointed sermons are prophetic in nature, incarnational in manner, and truly transformative in effect. Accordingly, the second half of this paper will elaborate upon these three attributes, providing in the process some biblical and theological support for each.
Together, these two discussions are intended to generate within the reader an increased interest in, and commitment to a Spirit-empowered yet biblically faithful theology of preaching: one that is productive of sermons that play out in a sacramental, Christ-encountering manner.