Preachers who hesitate to deliver sermons based on the difficult portions of Paul’s epistles can take heart from the encouragement and teachings of the Rev. Dr. Nancy Lammers Gross, the Arthur Sarell Rudd Professor of Speech Communication in Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Gross recently led the monthly preaching workshop for the Synod of the Covenant. Her focus was on preaching from Ephesians. Watch the 90-minute webinar here.
“We love the great affirmations of faith” found early on in Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, Gross said. “We love the opening material about praise and glory and thanksgiving to God, who created all things. … We love that through Christ, God has brought down the dividing walls between two hating people and drawn in those who are far off with those who are near. That is all wonderful.”
“Then, of course, we willingly use Ephesians 4 in our ordinations services, the gifts of the Spirit. The problem is, we turn the page and we get to the household codes: wives, submit to your husbands; children, obey your parents; and, of course, slaves, obey your masters. The question becomes, and this has been my question: Can we preach any of Ephesians if we can’t preach all of Ephesians? Can we just cherry pick the phrases we want?”
The title to Gross’ talk, “Only What is Useful,” comes from Ephesians 4:29: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.”
“Imagine saying that to the Christian community today,” Gross said. For an upcoming book, “That’s the center from which I am exploring the rest of Ephesians.”
Gross asked webinar participants to share what they like about Paul, what’s their favorite Pauline passage, and how they use Paul in their ministry and in their preaching.
“I love Paul’s heart for the worldwide church,” one participant said. “He clearly cared about all sorts of church settings.”
Then there’s “the difficult Paul,” Gross said, displaying a slide that asserted, “Paul is like eating broccoli.”
She asked: What do you most dislike about Paul? What makes Paul difficult? What are your struggles in preaching on Paul?
“Paul can be offensive,” Gross said. “He’s been accused of being a racist, a misogynist, a nativist, a Jew-hater even though he was a Jew. He has been blamed for so many things.”
“A difficulty we have with Paul is we want to say what Paul said in those great affirmations of faith,” including “by grace you have been saved through faith” and “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.” We want to say, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
“But there are things we don’t want to say,” Gross noted, such as the household codes.
“Try instead to do what Paul did,” she suggested. “What was he doing and what was he trying to do” when he said the things he said, “including the great affirmations of faith that we love and the more difficult things that we don’t love.”
“What I see so often in Paul,” one participant said, “is, how do we live together in community when we’re different people?”
Again, what was Paul doing, Gross asked. “He mentored young disciples. He led an itinerant ministry of preaching and teaching. He raised funds” and he provided some pastoral care, such as to the churches in Philippi, she said.
“In early Paul, he was very concerned about how we live today in view of Christ returning immediately,” Gross said. “That was the apocalyptic Paul, the Paul who thought Jesus might return tonight,” whose message was, “Don’t worry about your social station in life because it’s not going to matter.”
For later Paul, “we think, maybe Christ might not return tonight, and we start getting into how we organize ourselves and how we administrate ourselves,” she said.
Learn more about and register for upcoming edition of the Synod of the Covenant’s Equipping Preachers series here.
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Shawnda Styles, Client Services Specialists, Presbyterian Foundation
Ralph Su, Associate, Asian Intercultural Congregational Support, Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
Gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for the courageous and faithful example of your people. Protect, guide and embolden them as they continue to seek ways to proclaim your message of good news in Jesus Christ. May the people receive this message with joy and thanksgiving. Amen.
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