Some Thoughts on Preaching
G. I. Williamson
Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 3, no. 2 (April 1994)
In the editorial in Vol. 1, No. 2, I argued strongly for the primacy of expository preaching. (If you did not read it, let me urge you to read it first, before reading this article.) Here I want to raise a question that you may already have asked: “but what about catechetical preaching?” The reference here, of course, is to the well known and time-honored practice in some Reformed denominations whereby the minister is required to preach one of his two sermons each Lord’s Day according to the sequence of the 52 divisions of the Heidelberg Catechism. My answer to this question is as follows.
If expository preaching remains the predominate emphasis then I see a valued place for catechetical preaching. And I do so for several reasons.
For one thing, there is great need today for the people of God to understand the system of doctrine taught in the Bible. And it is our Catechisms and Confessions that give us a wonderful summary of that system. Many of our people have come to the Reformed faith out of the raw paganism of modern American culture. They were not catechized in their youth. And every day we are confronted with more that calls for discernment—a discernment that is all but impossible without a good grasp of the system of truth that we have in our confessional heritage. What our people need to see clearly is the fact that our Confession and Catechisms really are scriptural. Systematic preaching that follows the sequence of our doctrinal standards will help them to see this. I would liken the preachers task, in this, to that of a guide in a great museum of art. It is his task to point things out in such a way that the visitor can see for himself what really is “there” in the work of art (a thing which is quite impossible in much modern art, by the way). The preacher is to expound the word of God in such a way that even the humblest among God’s people can see for themselves that the doctrine is unmistakably there.
It is also important, however, to make several qualifications. And the first one that I would make is that, in doing this, it is important to avoid the dulling effect of constant repetition. This, in my opinion, has been a difficulty not always overcome in the churches that have required their ministers to constantly preach according to the divisions of the Heidelberg Catechism. Great as this Catechism is, it is a fact that it is difficult to preach over the same ground—year after year—without a dulling effect. It is no doubt for this reason that—despite the stipulation of the church order—in many Reformed churches you will hear a series now and then on the Belgic Confession or the Canons of Dordt. (It is good to note that some Reformed denominations— such as the Reformed Churches of New Zealand— have amended the Church Order to allow the pastors to use all of the Confessional Standards as guides for doctrinal preaching).
More important than this, however, is a right concept of Catechetical preaching. And on this point no one has said it better than the late Professor R. B. Kuiper of Westminster.
Now this type of preaching, however excellently intended, is in at least some danger of running afoul of the Scriptura sola principle. Not that catechismal preaching is to be condemned. On the contrary, if it be performed properly, it deserves the warmest approbation. Doctrinal preaching of the right kind is one of the most crying needs of our day...It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the Protestant ministry is today working as hard at keeping the laity in doctrinal darkness as was the Roman Catholic clergy before the dawn of the Reformation. The Christian church has no greater present need than that of systematic doctrinal preaching.
But doctrinal preaching, like all preaching, must be based upon the Word of God, and that is a way of saying that it may not be based upon the creeds.... The greatest creeds of Christendom arc but fallible interpretations of Holy Writ. It does not follow that they cannot perform valuable service for preaching. They can indeed do that, for, although fallible, they are precious products of the illumination of the historic church by the Holy Spirit Christ’s promise to the apostles that the Spirit of truth would “guide them into all the truth” was intended for the church of all ages, and Scripture describes the generic church as ”the pillar and ground of the truth.” Therefore, for the minister of the gospel to stress his right of private interpretation to the practical exclusion of the illumination of the historic church deserves to be described as boundless conceit. Nevertheless, the church’s interpretation of Scripture is fallible, and so its confessions of faith and catechisms can do no more than service as helpful guides in preaching. Never may they be regarded as the source of doctrine or the touchstone of truth. Those distinctions belong to the Bible alone. And he who makes use of the creeds in preaching is in sacred duty bound to keep that fact unmistakably clear.[1]
Professor Kuiper is right! During the early years of my ministry, as an Orthodox Presbyterian pastor in New England, I sometimes preached in lowa in the Summer in Christian Reformed Churches. I met some wonderful people. But I also noticed an element that troubled me in the thinking of some I met—and they were invariably among the most conservative in many ways. I remember one middle-aged couple, in particular, who said the Heidelberg Catechism was inspired by God. I could hardly believe my ears, and questioned them closely. But that is what they said, meant, and believed. And I think it was because they so often heard it treated as if it was. My point is that we need to be alert to the danger of preaching from the Catechism as though it were a text of the Bible. When we do this we inadvertently lead people back into the Roman Catholic error of placing church creeds and decisions beside (and, in effect, over) the Bible. This may help to explain the present anti-traditional reaction which is now so rapidly undermining the Christian Reformed Church. A major error—however harmless it may seem at first— usually has the effect of provoking an opposite aberration.
So, in answer to the question: What about catechetical preaching? our answer is: Yes! But only if this catechetical preaching is done in such a way that the text expounded in the sermon is the text of inspired and inerrant Word of God and not the uninspired words of man—however excellent they may be—about the Word of God. There is a profound difference. And it is our conviction that it is no small part of our task as pastors and teachers to constantly make this important distinction abundantly clear in both our message and method.
[1] The Infallible Word: A Symposium by the Members of the Faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1980), pp. 227-229.