“When the liturgy becomes so complicated that it demands the sort of highly conventionized sermons . . . the original purpose of preaching begins to fall from sight. Instead of explaining the Scriptures, the sermon explains the liturgy” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, Vol. II, p. 165).
And Will Be Again
“Our day and age, still under the shadow of the Enlightenment, naively imagines that the doctrinal sermon is boring and that sermons like these must have been tedious. A less beclouded day will probably recognize this prejudice as a rather peculiar form of pietistic agnosticism. The history of preaching is filled with examples of great …
Defining History
INTRODUCTION:We have all enjoyed the anticipation of another Christmas, and we are still in a celebratory moment—a Lord’s Day celebration the day after Christmas. But we don’t ever want this celebration to drift off point—this is not the armistice day of a long-forgotten war. This war is on-going, and we celebrate this decisive point in …
A Christmas Eve Invitation
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit . . . merry Christmas. Welcome, and thank you for coming this evening. We are grateful to have the opportunity to share our Christmas celebrations with you. What is Christmas about? What is the point of the whole thing? We don’t want to make the …
Before the Crystal Sea
There is a little something that I have assumed for years, but never bothered to check. This morning I was reading in Revelation, the thought popped up again, and so I thought I would check on it. And, sure enough, there it was, right in the Bible. “And before the throne there was a sea …
Treasury of Tropes
“Far from being mere word tricks, the tropes of classical rhetoric are the inevitable consequence of a creation endowed by its creator with meaning . . . Creation itself is metaphoric and parabolic. Things seen speak of things unseen” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, Vol. II, p. 59).
The Long Slavery
“For centuries one of the problems with rhetoric as it was practiced in the classical world was that it all too often served no purpose quite so clearly as the glorification of the orator . . . The purpose, the end, of rhetoric had a way of getting lost under the techniques. When rhetoric was …
Joy to the World
INTRODUCTION:In this world, joy is a bedrock sort of thing—and not the froth at the top of a wave. Joy is deep satisfaction in the will of God, and this must be coupled with a recognition of the reality that God’s will is everywhere and in everything. There is no place where we may go …
A Necessary Transition
“With the coming of the Christian empire, Christian preaching was bound to change. During the years of persecution the preacher had to gather and nourish the congregation to protect it from the world. Now the Christian preacher had become a bishop responsible for the spiritual state of the empire” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and …
Always Gospel
“Whenever the beauty and the power and the sheer joy of holiness are proclaimed and God’s people see that this is something for them, evangelism is done. When Christian preaching is done the way it should be done, then it is evangelistic” (Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures, p. 283).