Preaching with the press

The Bible and the New York Times Fleming Rutledge. Eerdmans, 1998.

Recently, the cover of our Mennonite Brethren Herald asked, “What’s the matter with preaching?” Fleming Rutledge’s answer to that question would, I suspect, be something like, “There’s something wrong with preaching if it fails to address the issues in last week’s newspaper.”

For more than 25 years, Fleming Rutledge preached at Grace (Episcopal) Church in Manhattan. The Bible and the New York Times is a collection of her sermons in which she holds the daily newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other. As a result, she discusses God’s love and sovereignty in the same breath as the evils of warfare, poverty, and child abuse. She writes, “Only by attending to the horrors of this world can we continue to sing:

He comes to make his blessings known
Far as the curse is found.

(Hymn, ‘Joy to the World’)

When Rutledge ties current events together with the kingdom of God, she’s in good company. In Luke 13, Jesus made explicit reference to a Roman massacre of Jewish worshippers, and to the death of 18 people when a tower fell on them. He then made spiritual application of these stories, called twice for repentance, and launched into a parable (Luke 13:1–9).

Rutledge would have a further response to the question “What’s the matter with preaching?” After citing Romans 10:17 (“. . . faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ”), she writes that preaching is different from other public speaking, in that it’s rooted in encounter with God. “When preaching is working the way it is supposed to, the Word of God causes the preacher to disappear into the message. The Word escapes from the preacher altogether and becomes a transforming event in the lives of the hearers.”

“In the preaching of the Word of God, the risen, reigning, living Jesus Christ has promised to be present in power. He is present in the Word, because he is himself the Word.” These are thought provoking comments when questions are raised about the relevance or utility of preaching.

This book is not just for preachers. It’s a pleasure to read for Rutledge’s knowledge of history, culture, and literature. This book is good for several months of stimulating devotional reading, since her 34 sermons follow a year of the church calendar. Any Sunday school teacher or small group leader will find both useful stories and challenging applications of Scripture.

Most importantly, Rutledge is an inspiring, passionate champion of the Bible and disciple of Jesus Christ. “In this age when many clergy and Biblical scholars are suggesting that Biblical faith is unfashionable and retrograde, I am not ashamed to say that, more and more, I am discovering that the alien world of the Bible is the sphere where human beings are truly understood, where we will find our real selves, where we will discern our eternal destiny. I believe the biblical future is the one future worthy of total commitment.” Do I hear an “Amen”?

Marvin Dyck is pastor of Crossroads MB Church, Winnipeg, Man.