PREACHING IN THE SPIRIT

INCARNATION – PERSONIFICATION, EMBODIMENT, MANIFESTATION OF SOMETHING

WHO IS THIS PREACHER?

I am a desperate truth-seeking preacher who knows personally how theologies are fluid and new ones are born at friction points. My voice is rooted in the African American Southern Pentecostal Church where passion for God in Jesus is heard and seen in the songs, preaching, dancing and daily at-home meditations. I have struggled with the history of the church and the interpretation of the Bible, but not with the freestyle celebratory worship of the Pentecostal Church. My struggle has been with the Christian Church’s changing position regarding the treatment of women, same gender loving persons, war, people of color and slaves (My grandmother, Bessie Hamilton born 1895, was the daughter of Stella Wyatt who was born a slave). I am an avowed womanist, and a reconciling liberation theologian who dances in the Spirit and speaks in tongues. My life long journey has been to hold on to Jesus in spite of the tortured interpretations of scripture, which have been used historically to mortally wound. Finding my way, following the Light, refusing to believe Jesus didn’t love me/us; this is the foundation of my preaching.

Mine is a voice that passionately preaches justice and freedom with responsibility; however not to the exclusion of Jesus. Justice without Jesus will not work for me. I preach to a desperate people, who are struggling to make sense of their lives on the margins of society. They are my beloveds.

In my community, you must find God in the struggle for equality, parity and justice; the struggle is the long, strong, deep, resonant base of all I preach, sing and pray about. 'Through many dangers toils and snares’...is foundational to our worship, and the locus of our passion. If we cannot see God in the struggle and believe day after day that God will make it all right, then we cannot see God at all. This is the starting point.

Preaching in the Spirit will explore crafting faith-based sermons that build self worth. People who have for generations been abused by the preaching of the Bible need to hear the Bible preached in ways that affirm and validate them. Preaching to people who are on the edge of society and the mainline church must have good content and good form. Preaching to marginalized people must be believable, powerful and passionate. Marginalized people frequently have a memory of strong words from the pulpit used to destroy. They need stronger words of affirmation and inclusion.

Preaching in the Spirit will explore incarnational Preaching. We will examine methods to exegete both the text and the listeners. New and difficult truths can be packaged in a familiar wrapping, so a common relationship of trust based on collective experience can be established. Preaching that is outside of the theological, intellectual or cultural reach of the listener is an insult to the life experience the listener brings to the preaching moment. It is not enough for the preacher to simply be profound but to seek to be a profound blessing, by hearing from God and paying close attention to ‘voice’ of the listening congregation.

Preaching in the Spirit encourage the use of life experience, or what I call ‘personal transparency’ to identify with the experiences of the listener. There is a need for the preacher to be sensitive to the needs of the listener i.e. sermons should speak for as well as to the congregation, the Gospel is from the community as well as to it. There is a need for honesty and intimacy.

Finally Preaching in the Spirit will explore some fresh ways to come to the preaching moment. Where might we find new inspiration for sermons? What is the Still Speaking God saying to creation today and how might we hear and impart transformational truths?