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 Many
preachers are amazed at what some hearers “get” from their
effort. It is often foreign to their intent, and sometimes
defies explanation. I said, “The Holy Spirit dwells in us, in
the same way the Father and Son dwell in us;” and a listener
thought I said there was no Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the
Godhead. Or, we present a lesson on the nature and make-up of
the church; and someone thinks this is a new and startling way
to say the church is unimportant. A preacher must constantly
seek to improve on his means of conveying ideas, but the hearers
could also do with a bit of self-examination.
We
“hear” through the mechanics of the ear; but our
understanding, or the mental impression we “get” may be
greatly influenced by previous experiences which tend to “classify”
and interpret the sermon. Alabama saints “hear” with their
own sectional background, which is vastly different from that of
the west coast cities. A lesson welcomed in Texas as a warning
against the encroachment of institutional influence. may seem
too “old line Sommerism” in Missouri or Ohio. Older people,
especially in the rural south, “hear” with the Baptist in
mind; while younger people ask why so much preaching must be
unrelated to the actual problems of religion in their current
lives.
Our
controversial history has also geared us to reactionary “hearing”
and preaching. Perhaps older men like myself (what am I saying)
who have debated Faith Only, Holy Spirit, etc., tend to hear “weakness”
along those lines — because we know what former opponents
would do with some of the state-
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-ments we read and hear these days.
Younger men, who have not and may never meet such teachers of
error have a tendency to cast all this aside as “unnecessary
in the first place.” We should be patient with the sincere
young man who is testing his studies against current problems;
and he would do well to appreciate value in lessons learned the
hard way, in the battles of yesterday.
There
is far too much haste in cataloging brethren by the way we “hear”
their statement — without taking into consider- ation their
background and the setting in which they spoke or wrote. It is
one thing to point out error, or even to show that consistent
application of that error would produce a certain end; and quite
another thing to assert that the author accepts all
consequences. One does not have to join the “Jesus People”
movement in order to advocate simple, sincere worship of God
free from “traditional hypocrisy;” nor is a long-
established practice in worship necessarily “hypocritical.’
We need not ascribe to the abuses of the S.O.T. journal in order
to teach the true nature of the church. One may work for better
government, as a Citizen. without joining protestors intent on
overthrowing law by revolt. One is not necessarily a “Sommerite”
because he sees error in the professional “Pastor” system,
or questions the practice of some school.
Maybe
the “point” we thought we heard was just following a groove
we dug for it. We challenge the musical taste of one who plays
our own song.
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