I received a comment on yesterday’s post about preaching that makes several points, but I would like to focus on the last one made, specifically that all the bold preaching done from a pulpit does no good to someone who isn’t there and not listening.
A point well made.
Effective preaching will require going beyond one’s usual environment and comfort. It includes the witness one gives on the street, in the office, in the homes of the unchurched, and in the places most of us would rather avoid.
Whereas it is a great temptation to preach only about what we think will satisfy the peoples’ immediate hunger or expectations of us, it is a greater temptation for the deacon, priest or bishop to put ourselves only in a comfortable preaching environment, i.e., at the ambo in all our finery. We cannot preach as the Apostles preached if we stay in the confines of church building or the rectory.
This is one of the particular challenges, and charisms, of the diaconate, for the deacon is to bring those who aren’t present or listening to the assembly, to the Church, and we are to bring the Church to them in their particular circumstances. In other words, we are heralds of the Gospel to the outcasts and the lost. Being that herald is branded into the minds of each deacon at ordination when his bishop hands him the Gospel and says, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read; teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”
