The Pericope in Preaching
“Pericope” refers to a portion of the biblical text that is of manageable size for a given preaching event in the worship gathering of the church. In other words it is a preaching text. It is through pericopes, read and exposited in congregations as fundamental units of Scripture, that the community of God corporately encounters the Bible. Indeed, it is impossible to conceive of a gathering of the faithful that does not implement such a reading and interpretation of
Truth!
You want to be healthy? Eat your fruits and veggies, exercise regularly, … and don’t tell lies!
Anita Kelly, professor of psychology at Notre Dame, presented her “science of honesty” research at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association the other day.
Real?
Friday, with a couple of friends, I went to see “Dark Knight Rises,” Christopher Nolan’s final offering in the Batman trilogy.
And now I’m tired. Yes, tired.
Mid-air hijackings, Batmobile, Batpod, and Bat (his flying thingamajig) chases, chaos galore, havoc aplenty, nihilism and anarchy, violence and killings, nuclear bombs, mushroom clouds, guns, guns and more guns, flying from buildings, escaping from caves, explosions, tanks, collapsing bridges, and every conceivable
Preaching is Spiritual
One of the key elements in my definition of preaching comes at the end: “all in the power of the Holy Spirit.” “All,” i.e., the communication in a worship gathering of Christians, the discernment of the biblical idea by theological exegesis of Scripture, and the application of that idea to the specific body of believers to conform them to the image of Christ for the glory of God. All. Every part of preaching is to be Spirit-directed and Spirit-controlled.
Neglect!
The Hāna Highway (aka Road to Hana) is a 68-mile stretch of asphalt in east Maui. It takes about 3 hours to navigate though, with 620 serious curves and 59 bridges (most of them only one lane wide). One side you have lush, verdant rainforest with streams and waterfalls and all. On the other, cliffs and a raging sea with beaches with gold sand, black sand, and red sand! Spectacular!
Somewhere on this road in the middle of nowhere is Coconut Glen’s ice cream stand.
Glen
Rain!
Just. Stop. Raining.
That was the rather odd command issued in a Times of London editorial last week.
Yes, the Brits are getting tired of rain. What with the Olympics and all, this is a wet season promising to douse all the athletic excitement. Londoners, in particular, are getting tired of the miserable weather, which has been plaguing them for months.
Every day—drizzles and downpours, sprinkles and showers. Wet. Flood alerts all over the country. The rain is coming down
Preaching is Doxological
Preaching glorifies God. Preaching abounds to the glory of God. Directly and indirectly, the greatness of God is expressed and exalted through preaching: directly, because of its integral role in the worship of God’s people; and indirectly, God is glorified as his children align themselves to his will (for preaching conforms listeners to divine demand).
While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.