Book Review: Lutheran Preaching?: Law and Gospel Proclamation Today
We need better conversations around preaching. "Lutheran Preaching?" provides us with insightful conversation partners who will challenge and excite us to become better at our craft.
The Craft of Preaching was born out of a desire to foster better preaching. One of our great concerns is that preaching has fallen on hard times. Men in the ministry spend far too much time focused on secondary issues, when our primary task as pastors is to preach God’s Word in and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2). Time and again, surveyed congregations demonstrate that the people of God want better preaching. Jesus has given us the pastoral ministry so He has people in place to baptize and teach (Matthew 28:18-20), that is, to hand over (preach) God’s Word in all its sacramental and verbal forms. Yet, for many preachers, focus on the preaching task takes a backseat.
Our goal is to get preaching back into the primary position for pastors by fostering conversations around this glorious calling. We want to see men around the table with open Bibles discussing what they will be proclaiming this next Sunday. We believe good conversation partners make us better preachers.
To that end, we encourage you to pick up Lutheran Preaching?: Law and Gospel Proclamation Today.[1] Matthew Harrison and John Pless have marshaled a variety of conversations partners in this collection of essays who want to talk to us about great preaching. As part of a collection of books from Concordia Publishing House[2] that examine Lutheran distinctives and themes, the twenty six essays from “Lutheran Preaching?” engage us in a conversation around the idea that God’s Law and His Gospel inform, shape, and give content to the preaching task. By organizing the essays into four sections, Harrison and Pless invite us to consider preaching from four different angles. Each section provides a variety of conversation partners, brothers in the ministry from both the history of the Church and today.
Part One: "Luther’s Legacy" invites to the table arguably the Church’s most influential voice from the past five hundred years to say a few words about proclamation. The five essays in this section examine Martin Luther’s contribution to preaching and demonstrate its importance, not just in the history of the Church, but also in how pastors speak to their congregations today. Of note in this section is Oswald Bayer’s piece, titled “Twenty Questions on the Relevance of Luther for Today,” which challenges preachers to question not only whether or not their sermons focus on Christ, but whether or not they trust the Gospel to accomplish its purposes. Also, Kenneth Hagen’s essay, “Luther’s Preaching to Hometown Folks,” is helpful in getting us to consider how life lived with a congregation informs our preaching.
Each section provides a variety of conversation partners, brothers in the ministry from both the history of the Church and today.
Part Two: "Historical Topics" brings to the conversation the impact of Law and Gospel preaching on pulpits throughout the Church’s history. The essays engage the homiletical insights of figures like Theodosius Harnack, Hermann Sasse, and Helmut Theielcke (to name a few) in order to show us how they preached Law and Gospel in their own contexts. Timothy C. J. Quill’s essay, “Theodosius Harnack and Liturgical Preaching,” is especially helpful in thinking about preaching as a sacramental act. Klemet Preus and Mark Mattes provide articles comparing faithful Lutheran preaching with the less-than-satisfactory sermons found in other American Evangelical and Revivalist circles. These last two essays serve as guides and warnings against a type of proclamation which may tickle the American ear, but ultimately supplant Christ.
Part Three: "Theological Themes" move us away from the historical conversation and focuses the discussion on the content of our preaching. These ten essays get us to think through the questions of how Law and Gospel inform our sermons and impact the hearers. Each author demonstrates how Lutherans understand what preaching ought to be and do. In the Lutheran understanding, preaching is not merely an explanation of what God has done in the past, but it is the doing of God to hearers who are simultaneously bound to sin and made new in Christ. It is difficult to highlight any particular essay in this collection because I found all of them to be insightful in their own right. That said, I recommend spending extra time with the essays by Norman Nagel, Steven Paulson, and Mark Seifrid. Personally, for this reviewer, these three essays especially challenged me in a fruitful way.
Part Four: "Practical Issues" provides insight into how the Law and the Gospel not only inform our preaching, but actually give form to our Sunday presentations. Lastly, this section answers the “how” following the previous section’s “what.” “Law and Gospel and the Form of the Sermon,” by Carl C. Fickensher II, provides fascinating insight into how the structure of a given sermon will impact the message itself. This essay was a shortened form of Fickensher’s dissertation. Were it not so long, I would have loved to have the whole paper included in the book! Also, “Preaching the Catechism,” by John Pless, is one of the most important essays in the book. If you really want to know what Lutheranism is, Martin Luther’s catechisms are the place to look. These are not mere grammar books, but the heart and soul of what Lutherans believe, teach, and confess. Thus, they are what we preach! Pless’ work on the catechisms is one of the great gifts he has given to the Church, and this essay is vital for preachers.
Perhaps my only concern with this collection is how the title may lead one to believe this is a preaching conversation reserved for Lutherans. I do appreciate the use of the question mark, though, as it hopefully invites preachers outside of the Lutheran tradition to pick up the volume and see how the Law/Gospel distinctive in Lutheran theology will actually make you a better preacher. To that end, these essays are good for the whole Church.
We need better conversations around preaching. Lutheran Preaching? provides us with insightful conversation partners who will challenge and excite us to become better at our craft. I highly recommend this book for you. In fact, why not pick up a few copies, share them with a group of local pastors, and discuss the essays over a drink? Conversations around this book will only serve to make you better preachers.
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[1] Matthew C. Harrison and John T. Pless. Lutheran Preaching?: Law and Gospel Proclamation Today. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2023.
[2] Other titles in the series include Closed Communion?: Admission to the Lord’s Supper in Biblical Lutheran Perspective, One Lord, Two Hands?: Essays on the Theology of the Two Kingdoms, and Women Pastors?: The Ordination of Women in Biblical Lutheran Perspective.
