Weekend Reads: Word and sacrament

Spreading the Feast: Instructions and Meditations for Ministry at the Lord’s Table (P&R Publishing, 2015), by Howard Griffith of Reformed Theological Seminary, and Preaching the Whole Counsel of God: Design and Deliver Gospel-Centered Sermons (Zondervan, 2015), by Julius J. Kim of Westminster Seminary California, are both “how-to” books for pastors.

Griffith begins by noting he served Communion every week for 23 years to the same congregation, and it never got old. His key idea: “In the Supper, [Christ] makes us companions at his Table, meeting us as our reconciled God.” The point is not so much what we’re eating as with whom we’re eating. The Lord is at the table, not on the table. We partake spiritually of Christ, physically of bread and wine. Griffith includes a great deal of thought-provoking exegetical work to back this up. One example: His treatment of 1 Corinthians 10, where Paul says that Israel in the wilderness ate “spiritual food” and drank “spiritual drink” (verses 3-4). Clearly, this doesn’t mean they ate ethereal food. Instead, the idea is that the Holy Spirit provided the food in order to teach Israel to depend on God (Deuteronomy 8:3). Similarly, the elements of the Lord’s Supper are food provided by Christ and made effective means of salvation by the work of the same Spirit who was at work in the manna so long ago.

The majority of Griffith’s book is a series of meditations to be delivered at the Communion table, each illuminating a different facet of the sacrament. Its 28 meditations, all different, point together to the riches, joy, and solemnity of Holy Communion.

Griffith emphasizes that he and his church never regretted weekly communion, but Kim doesn’t have to defend the practice of weekly sermons—most churches have already bought into that. But he does hint that preaching will get old fast if the preacher doesn’t saturate his work in prayer. Indeed, Kim seemingly never tires of repeating how indispensable fervent praying is to good preaching.

But Kim is no spiritual lazybones, recommending that would-be heralds of the gospel pray and then wait for a “word from the Lord” to obviate the hard work of preparing sermons that present the truth of the text and that showcase the role of Jesus Christ. Basing much of his book on the homiletical advice of Bryan Chapell, former chancellor of Covenant Theological Seminary, Kim advocates distilling the core idea of each sermon into a “Because … therefore” format, where the first clause teaches some attribute of God and the second some responsibility of human beings. The Bible teaches theology and ethics. Sermons should too.

Since Kim relies so heavily on Chapell, why not just read Chapell? “This is the only book on preaching that takes ample account of the most recent studies in brain research,” writes Kim’s WSC colleague Michael Horton in the foreword. To the best of my knowledge, this is true. Kim doesn’t pretend to be a scientific expert, but his use of the available scientific data is fascinating.

Many preachers preach on what they want to hear about, rather than on what their hearers need. But since the brain processes information one piece at a time, too many random pieces tend to “clog up” the machinery. So omit nonessential items. Further, the brain likes the familiar. Listeners who hear a point once in a preview at the sermon’s beginning, then hear it again when the sermon gets there, retain the information better.

Buying both of these books for your pastor might be like giving him soap and deodorant. But he’ll appreciate them if they’re given one at a time.