Good workmanship?

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

I heard a story recently about a man who visited a church one Sunday and heard a sermon where the preacher didn’t once mention the name of Jesus. He decided there and then that this wasn’t the church for him.

Every Christian – certainly me - is likely to agree with that man’s disappointment, not to say disgust. Preaching a “Christian” message without even bringing Jesus into it! – outrageous!

But wait a minute… The story as told didn’t contain any information about the theme or content of the offending sermon. But I can’t help wondering… did Jesus figure prominently in the service as a whole – the prayers, the readings, the songs and hymns? Was the sermon from a little-known passage in the Old Testament? May we assume that God was mentioned many times? (And even if all those things were so, would it have made it any better?)

True, the absence of the name of Jesus still seems strange. But I have to admit that as I thought the story over I decided  that, just in the interests of being fair to the preacher, I would like to have heard the whole thing.

My mind went to some advice of Paul to his protégé Timothy, a younger pastor still learning his trade, so to speak. In 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul tells him, among other things, to “correctly handle the word of truth”. That’s something the preacher in the story didn’t do, it would seem.

But again, wait a minute… We have to stop and ask a question: What precisely does it mean to “correctly handle the word of truth”?

The word that many Bibles translate as “correctly handling” is very unusual; it has the word “cut” or “carefully shape” at its root – think of a farmer cutting a straight furrow, or a road that has been cut straight. It suggests that Timothy here is being advised to take scrupulous care over the work he puts into his preaching: nothing sloppy or lazy. What he says when he preaches is to be not only true to scripture (we take that for granted) but also appropriate, relevant to everyday life, couched in clear intelligible language and honouring to God. Skilfully cut.

But even on that showing it still seems odd if the name of Jesus is not heard. But then another question occurred to my mind: Is it possible for a sermon to have too much of the name of Jesus?

That, surely, is an even more outrageous suggestion! But bear with me, please.

I have heard sermons where the preacher has seemed absolutely determined to squeeze the name of Jesus in at every possible opportunity – never mind how artificial and contrived it is. It’s as if the preacher has thought during preparation: “Never mind what this passage is actually about, my chief job is to lift up the name of Jesus… – so I’m going to find him here by hook or by crook!”

But isn’t the whole Bible, both testaments, all about Jesus? Well, yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that the Old Testament as a whole leads up to him, and the New Testament as a whole looks back to him. But No, not in the sense that every single verse or even every story, passage or chapter speaks of him. To speak as if it did is to make a mistake regarding the interpretation of the Bible.

It’s true that Luke tells us (Luke 24:27) that on the road to Emmaus the risen Jesus explained to the two bewildered disciples “what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself”. But “in all the scriptures” surely means “in scripture as a whole” (focussing particularly in this instance on “Moses and the prophets”). If Jesus had, that night, expounded every single Old Testament verse, the exposition would have gone on for days!

So yes, it is possible for a sermon to mention too often the name of Jesus, if that involves twisting and distorting the natural meaning of the text.

The vital message for us preachers is: Let scripture speak! Let it say just what it wants to say. Don’t try and make is say something which, at that particular moment, it has no intention of saying. Don’t foist upon it a meaning it doesn’t carry. The Bible, certainly, is a divinely inspired book. But it is not a magic book, and we shouldn’t treat it as if it were.

There are many traps and pitfalls into which preachers and teachers can fall – and I reckon that in my time, alas, there aren’t many I have managed to avoid. So it’s hardly my right to find fault with others. But it’s very easy for us to fall into patterns of preaching without consciously thinking about what we’re doing and why exactly we’re doing it.

All of us therefore need to pay attention to Paul’s advice to Timothy to “correctly handle the word of truth”. And as we struggle to do that, please, you who listen, be patient with us and bear with us! Above all, pray for us, for we sorely need it.

To ponder… When did I last pray for my minister?

Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word, the Bible, and we recognise how vital it is. Please pour out your Spirit on those who teach and preach it, and help all of us who listen to understand it, absorb it, and apply it day by day. Amen.