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Willimon short
Wednesday 10th March 2010 @ 12:00 am

 A Willimon short for you - which struck me as concise & brilliant - as always:

 

A robust theology of the cross is a reminder to us preachers that there is no eloquent, rhetorically savvy way by which our congregations can ascend to God. All of our attempts to climb up to God are our pitiful efforts at self-salvation. The gospel is not a story about how we are seeking God, but how God in Christ seeks us.
Christian theology has always affirmed that the cross is not only a window through which we see the true nature of God as the embodiment of suffering love but also the truthful mirror in which we see ourselves. Cruciform preaching can't help but speak of our sin ...

Preaching offers the grace of God along with a good dose of honesty about the human condition, honesty that we would not have had without the cross. ... There is no way to talk about gospel foolishness without risking rejection.

Preachers therefore ought to be more surprised when a congregation gratefully understands, receives, and inculcates our message rather than when it misunderstands, rejects, and ignores our message. "We are fools for the sake of Christ" (1 Cor. 4:10).


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