“The assumption seems to be that, whereas the preacher is really doing something, the people have a passive role, like so many jugs waiting to be filled.”
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 48
Or One Ten Pound Plate
“Tom showed him to the door, said good night with little or no enthusiasm, and when the door was closed, sat down on the bench by the door. He felt as though he had just eaten a couple of the five-pound plates from his weight-lifting gear in the basement.”
The Preacher as First Listener
“They should consider that in the sermon God rules his Church by declaring his will . . . Their representative and leader, the preacher, has been the first to submit completely and unconditionally to the message of Holy Scripture. They can do no less when that message is passed on to them.”
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 49
That Kind of Presbyterian
“‘Is he a believer?’ Dawn asked. ‘Well, he is a Presbyterian. But he is the kind that believes the Bible. And as an attorney, I get the impression he is the kind of lawyer who goes home and sharpens his incisors at night.’”
As They Often Are in the Sermon as Well
“Now, it is a strange fact that, although there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books written about the preacher, the hearers have been largely neglected.”
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 48
A Full Crankcase
“Governor Fawgee Prater was the kind of politician who was telegenic enough, but who, if you got closer than ten yards or so, was revealed to be as unctuous and oily as they come. A full crankcase had nothing on him.”
Mood Swings
“And thus the stage was set for Maria to go through several days of dark anguish and exquisite joy, alternating back and forth like a small reciprocating two-cycle engine.”
The Actual Point
“The preacher’s purpose is directed first of all towards God. He preaches in order that God may be glorified. The very act of declaring the Gospel is a praising and exalting of God in his mighty acts.”
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 46
And That on the High End
“In time the amorphous aim will dwindle until neither truth nor personality remain and the sermon will become what it all too often is today, the third-rate conveyance of fourth-rate opinions.”
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 45
The Deep Feels
“This poor woman’s poetry . . . was the kind of poetry that focused on how the poet felt. True, there was not much here to distinguish it from the vast watery sea of how all the other poets felt, but Taki-Smith had a peculiar genius for it. Her volume of verse that had won the Pulitzer Prize was not titled The Pale Parabola of Joy, but it might as well have been.”