Calvin's Preaching

I noted here before that I try to read at least one book on preaching a year. This year I've not only viewed the Craddock preaching tapes I wrote about earlier, I've also read Calvin's Preaching by T.H.L. Parker. Although several thousand of Calvin's sermons exist in manuscript (transcribed from shorthand notes made by various listeners) not that many have been published and even fewer translated into English. Parker had the advantage of access to the manuscripts and gives us the benefit into his research into Calvin's theology of preaching, his style, and his approach to the sermon.

One thing that struck me was Parker's insistence that Calvin's preaching was primarily positive in tone. He nearly always preaches to encourage his listeners. The subjects of his sermons, Parker says,

..are things that have been said in every century; the quiet, persistent call to frame our lives according to the teaching of Holy Scripture...There is no threshing himself into a fever of impatience or frustration, no holier-than-thou rebuking of the people, no beggin them in terms of hyperbole to give some physical sign that the message has been accepted. It is simply one man, concious of his sins, aware how little progress he makes and how hard it is to be a doer of the Word, sympathetically passing on to his people (whom he knows to have the same sort of problems as himself) what God has said to them and to him. We even notice that in the examples given...there is not one direct imperative in the second person. He is content to pass on the message, to declare how unwilling "we" are to accept it and how weak "we" are in general, how slack and rebellious, and then to use the firm but gentle first person plural imperative, "let us..." (pp.118-119)

We can't preach in the 21st century the way a 16th-century preacher would preach. But we can learn from him.

Why Change is So Hard

Here's a reminder of why we have so much trouble changing in the church. I'm not sure I completely agree, but it's a good place to start the conversation: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09829.htm

Daily Dose of Calvin III

The expression, being not weak in faith, take in this sense — that he vacillated not, nor fluctuated, as we usually do under difficult circumstances. There is indeed a twofold weakness of faith — one is that which, by succumbing to trying adversities, occasions a falling away from the supporting power of God — the other arises from imperfection, but does not extinguish faith itself: for the mind is never so illuminated, but that many relics of ignorance remain; the heart is never so strengthened, but that much doubting cleaves to it. Hence with these vices of the flesh, ignorance and doubt, the faithful have a continual conflict, and in this conflict their faith is often dreadfully shaken and distressed, but at length it comes forth victorious; so that they may be said to be strong even in weakness. - John Calvin, commenting on Romans 4:19

Daily Dose of Calvin II

18. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. If we thus read, the sense is, that when there was no probable reason, yea, when all things were against him, he yet continued to believe. And, doubtless, there is nothing more injurious to faith than to fasten our minds to our eyes, that we may from what we see, seek a reason for our hope. We may also read, “above hope,” and perhaps more suitably; as though he had said that by his faith he far surpassed all that he could conceive; for except faith flies upward on celestial wings so as to look down on all the perceptions of the flesh as on things far below, it will stick fast in the mud of the world. But Paul uses the word hope twice in this verse: in the first instance, he means a probable evidence for hoping, such as can be derived from nature and carnal reason; in the second he refers to faith given by God; for when he had no ground for hoping he yet in hope relied on the promise of God; and he thought it a sufficient reason for hoping, that the Lord had promised, however incredible the thing was in itself. - John Calvin, commenting on Romans 4:18

Another Missional Presbytery

This sounded interesting: http://www.pcusa.org/missionyearbook/Sep/18.htm

Daily Dose of Calvin

We have here also a type and a pattern of the call of us all, by which our beginning is set before our eyes, not as to our first birth, but as to the hope of future life, — that when we are called by the Lord we emerge from nothing; for whatever we may seem to be we have not, no, not a spark of anything good, which can render us fit for the kingdom of God. That we may indeed on the other hand be in a suitable state to hear the call of God, we must be altogether dead in ourselves. The character of the divine calling is, that they who are dead are raised by the Lord, that they who are nothing begin to be something through his power. The word call ought not to be confined to preaching, but it is to be taken, according to the usage of Scripture, for raising up; and it is intended to set forth more fully the power of God, who raises up, as it were by a nod only, whom he wills. - John Calvin, Commenting on Romans 4:17

The Alban Institute - 2009-08-31 The Bivocational Congregation

This is worth reading, from the Alban Institute:
The Alban Institute - 2009-08-31 The Bivocational Congregation