INTRODUCTION
This is what happened after two thousand sermons. I have attempted to bring the gospel to speech that many Sundays and still plan to say it again Sunday next. This little book arose out of a gracious invitation from Dean L. Gregory Jones to give the 2005 Jamison Jones Lectures at Duke University. My assigned topic was how to keep preaching fresh. I took the challenge. After all, a major concern of most homiletics courses (even though most of the preaching students have preached no more than a dozen sermons) is how to make preaching less dull, how to preach a fourth Easter when you have already told the parishioners all that you know in the last three. There is an undeniable tendency of religious language to diminish over time into platitude and shibboleth. How do we preachers keep from boring ourselves to death, to say nothing of killing the congregation?
Herein I continue my conversation with Karl Barth.1 How can we preachers proclaim the gospel time and time again without destroying the gospel? The answer lies not in us but in the gospel. Much of my argument is an extended reflection upon the implications of what Barth says in Volume III, part 2 of section 47 (“Man in His Time”) of Church Dogmatics.
Søren Kierkegaard (S.K.), whom I've been rereading during the past two years (because S.K. disbelieves in just about everything I'm now doing), has also been helpful, but in an annoying sort of way.
I dedicate this book to Dr. H. Keith H. Brodie, who has constantly encouraged me to continue scholarly endeavor, even as a bishop.
One of my episcopal tasks is the somber receiving of credentials of pastors who call it quits. The grind of having to persevere in the gospel, the necessity of having to repeat ourselves, the prospect of next Sunday's sermon relentlessly looming before us sometimes gets to us. How do we preachers summon the nerve to say the same thing about Jesus over and again?
If this book helps some of my sisters and brothers in that task, if it helps our listeners hear the ancient good news as news, then I'll be glad I've said it, again.
William H. Willimon
The Second Sunday of Easter