And now "The Word Interpreted" Huh?
March 24, 2010
Usually they’re called “Sermons,” sometimes “Meditations” (signaling that they won’t be so, er, windy). At some point in my life, probably during seminary (let’s just say well over 50% of a life ago), I adopted language that I had heard at my local church, “The Word Interpreted.” The frequent reaction of guests is, “do what now?” Sorry about that. There is actually some thinking behind it, which I have shared in a few conversations, but not in the venue of this weekly column. In an effort to unravel the mysteries of our worship life (a project of our “worship team”), please let me talk about that.
To preach the word, even after and especially after lo, these many years continues to give me pause. That is, it’s a fearsome thing! (No cracks about what it is to listen to it!) I frequently recall the moment in our ordination as elders of the church, where the bishop says: ” (name) , take authority as an elder in the Church to preach the Word of God, and to administer the Holy Sacraments.”* I continue to marvel that my name was plugged into the blank. For centuries, authority to “preach the Word of God” has been passed along by the laying on of hands and the claiming of the Holy Spirit.
As far as I know, there is no, there can be no single standard of what constitutes “preaching.” That may just be a way to let myself off the hook, but there it is. I don’t have the clearest memory of the dialogue from the Robert Duvall film, The Apostle, but I remember him answering a question from a radio station’s owner, “What kind of preaching do you do?” The Apostle E. F.’s answer was something like, “Well sir, Pentecostal preaching, preaching in tongues, miracle preaching, well, you know, all kinds of preaching.” Sonny (The Apostle) and I don’t do it exactly the same…
That brings me to the phrase, “The Word Interpreted.” Week by week, with considerable awe, and frequent fear and trembling, I take the Word in hand, and interpret it. Ask questions of it. Wrestle with it or do outright battle with it. Draw lines that connect it within the book, and within the Book. It’s an organic process, one that is alive, and for me, lively. And at long last, by God’s grace and mercy, it is the thing I offer to the community, this “interpretation” of The Word. I have made more mistakes than I can count, and you, graciously, have not counted either, at least not aloud.
As a community of faith, the Scripture, this sacred writ, provides us an anchor, a common language, a story that is all of ours. I am not alone in offering the interpretation in the congregation, as we Protestants are big on “the priesthood of believers.” But it is the pastor’s task to be faithful to an elder’s ordination to “Word, Sacrament and Order.”
The interpretation is at its best when dialogue ensues – at the front door, over lunch, throughout the week. That tells me that together we have engaged and been engaged by the Word. Ours is to be drawn into the Presence, the Mystery, the Divine, to be open to some moment that is formative or transformative. We may find new “marching orders.” We may be convicted in a direction contrary to the one we’ve been traveling. In any case, we will have had the opportunity to sharpen our beliefs, our understanding, our faith, all because we came together for “The Word Interpreted.”
Pastor Steve
* The United Methodist Book of Worship, Abingdon, Nasvhille, 1992, p. 678.