How to speak?

I had dinner with two friends last week who don't regularly attend a church but do care about words. For them the two go together. How can a fallen human craft words that speak to the full range of the world? Can the depths of God find adequate measure in mere words? Can truth really come off of the tongue of a preacher?

Lischer has a lot to say to my friends. So many factors lead to the end of words in our culture. I've written about some of the same ones that Lischer enumerates including technological changes that shape the way that we understand the world. As well, words, any words, seem an inadequate response to the death count of the 20th century. The list goes on.

Lischer plays with the meaning of his title to make the end (as in terminus) of words into the end (telos) of words. Calling preachers to preach, read Scripture, narrate the Biblical story and point to reconciliation, Lischer follows a pretty standard direction. The beauty of the book is in the words. The destination is predictable, the journey delightful.

Preaching, with its incessant regularity, forces preachers to make hermeneutical decisions that they don't necessarily want to. Don Juel once said in a class on the death of Jesus that come Sunday morning we needed to stand in the pulpit and say something. We couldn't equivocate or avoid. Our papers could do hermeneutical gymnastics but come Sunday, all of our ruses to avoid the truth must stay in the office. We must stand and say why Jesus had to die.

It is that imperative, that must stand, that Lischer captures beautifully. Words will never cover the breadth of the world nor adequately measure the depths of God. Nevertheless, the preacher has an obligation to stand and become a vessel for God to speak some word to God's people. Hopefully, next time my friends hear me preach, they won't hear me but God.