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April 2002 Article for Homiletics
Spirituality
You might think that Spirituality has nothing to do with Homiletics, but I think one has to be in tuned with Christ, God, the Spirit, before one can truly preach. So I thought I would share a few thoughts I had on the subject. I have been reading some books that about spirituality. All the books are by Catholic authors, and for the most part makes one think about ones spiritual journey. One book in particular speaks about God as the Essence, or the Divine, or the Mystery, the Holy, etc. As I was reading, I sensed that as the authors prayed they prayed to God and were ignoring Christ. It was a generalized idea of a God, but did not refer to the saving act of Christ through the cross and the resurrection. So that got me thinking, when I pray, who am I praying to? Do I think about God or Jesus, or the Spirit in my mind's eye as I pray? For me, I think about Jesus. For me, God is the creator, and Jesus is the saviour, the one who understands where I am in the human predicament of life. So I picture him as I pray. And it is the Spirit for me that answers, either in my thoughts, or in situations about me. I know that Jesus told us to pray Our Father, but if Jesus and God our one isn't he the 'Father' now that he ascended into heaven. Isn't Jesus "God with skin on" so for me it is easier to pray to him. These books for the most part they have made me think about my Spiritual growth. But in each of the books, The God Instinct, Heeding Your heart's Unrest by Tom Stellaby and Shaken Faith by Antonette Bosco,and in a magazine called Weavings, they all have a part which deals with heaven. And each says it is naive to think of heaven as a place out there somewhere, but heaven is here and now. It is how we make our life on this earth. And that brings me to a question. Where is heaven? What do you think? Is heaven a place we will go to some day, or is heaven in the here and now. As a Lutheran, I believe we have a foretaste of heaven now through the word and the sacraments, but there will be a time that we will ascent to heaven and be in our heavenly home. What do you think? Is it our purpose to see heaven in all that we are here on earth, or is it just a foretaste of what is to come? Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Spirituality in Homiletics/Preaching is owned by Tim Zingale. Permission to republish Spirituality in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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