Who Dares to Listen?
I had a shelf in my office that was not level. Five times I lifted the shelf, moved the pegs, and leveled the boards. Each time, within a few days, the books began to slide forward again. I could not explain the phenomenon. If only I had written to Unsolved Mysteries or called Ghost Busters. I never found out why the shelf would not remain level; however, I remained convinced that there was a cause for this effect. Maybe it was how I put the pegs in the shelf. Maybe it was my eyes not sitting square in my head. Maybe something was broken. Maybe someone was playing a trick. I do not know. I’m well grounded in our scientific age and remain convinced that a rational explanation existed.
Cause and Effect⎯sometimes there is a break down. Sometimes the action does not produce the desired result. What about preaching the Word of God? The question was asked by Karl Barth, “Who Dares To Preach?” What about the antithesis to that question, “Who Dares To Listen?” Does preaching (the cause) still have God’s desired effect in people’s lives.
We laugh at the definition of preaching that sees it as the “art of talking in someone else’s sleep.” We cringe when dictionaries include, “boring harangue” or “giving advice in an obtrusive or tedious way.” But how do we explain that even the best sermons proclaimed by the best preachers are slept through week after week? You see, it is not boring sermons that are not listened to, it’s the good ones!
Warnings
Indiana claims to be a tornadoe state. Twice, while living in Indiana, tornadoes have twisted nearby towns. When I lived in Lafayette, Moticello was devastated. Friends died there. When I lived in Washington, Petersburg suffered severely. In both cases, nature’s breath struck with little warning.
Tornado sirens and early warning systems permeate Indiana. At noon, sirens blare there practice warning to reassure all that the system works. I’ve heard those sirens so often that I became nonchalant about there intended meaning. Even if I heard the siren at some other time, I did not notice it. It is like living by a railroad—it doesn’t take long before you are sleeping like a baby when the 2 AM express rumbles through. The cry of wolf dulls our sensitivities to danger. Confident in my own understanding of the facts, warnings go unheeded.
It happens all around us. The child becomes immune to the parent’s admonitions. The patient eventually ignores the doctor’s instructions. The spouse tunes out the nagging mate. The person in the pew sleeps soundly during the recitation from the pulpit. We are bombarded on every side by words, warnings, cautions, and advice. Language becomes prating. Conversation becomes chatter. Preaching becomes rhetoric.
The Word of God is the Deed of God (Ps 33:6, 9). God’s Word has power. In a society where talk is cheap, promises are empty, and rhetoric is synonymous with vanity, preaching has fallen on hard times. Preaching is not a speech. Preaching is not idle chatter. Preaching is not trading religious ideas about God with the audience. Preaching is the proclamation of the gospel. As heralds and witnesses of the Word of God, we preach. Who dares to preach? What audacity! Yet the calling remains. “The lion has roared⎯who will not fear? [Dare to Listen] The Sovereign Lord has spoken⎯who can but prophesy? [Dare to Preach]” (Amos 3:8).
The Preached Word of God is the Word of God! The preached word has power. God has spoken and continues to speak. Words give life, arouse jealousy, provoke anger, and bring peace. Preaching is the proclamation of the gospel that redeems, comforts, blesses, and provokes. Paul said, Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the [hrematos—spoken] Word of Christ (Rom 10:17). Preaching is not merely a word about God and his redemptive acts but a word of God that is itself a redemptive event (Rom 1:16).
The Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Heb 4:12-13). If the Word of God is not penetrating your heart, it is not the Word’s fault.
Warnings are for our benefit. The wise one heeds the warning label on a household product—Do Not Ingest! Read and be wise. A door marked High Voltage or Radiation should cause caution. Warnings are for our safety and welfare. Warnings are for our instruction. Warnings are good. Thank you for the warnings.
We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Heb 2:1-3).
Hear then the Word of God.