Calvin's Careful Consideration

Preaching is a difficult task. In comparison with media that conveys a message with sound, special effects, music, light, and attractive casts, preaching is monotonous. Preaching with PowerPoint is the most a preacher can do. I think that if a preacher does more than that, preaching is not preaching. It may be turned into acting or sharing. There is definitely a message. But it’s not preaching. Preaching has to do with words: the Word of God and the words of the preacher. The Word sets boundaries for the words; the words explain, contextualize, and apply the Word. Preaching has to do with the plots of the words. The flow of the argument of the Word shapes the plots of the words of the preacher.

Preaching is a difficult task. However, it is the task we pastors must try to finish well every Sunday. John Calvin’s dictum on preaching is this:

“When I expound Holy Scripture, I must always make this my rule: That those who hear me may receive profit from the teaching I put forward and be edified unto salvation. If I have not that affection, if I do not procure the edification of those who hear me, I am a sacrilege, profaning God’s Word.”[1]

Preaching is an act of edifying the church as a whole in one occasion. It’s the time all church people listen to God’s Word being expounded and applied. It’s the time all church people say that we’re here to listen and obey God’s Word and be convicted and challenged by it.

“As present, God is sovereign Lord over his Church. It is by the preaching of his Word, which is the declaration of his will, that he governs his Church and consequently guides his people in his way. This is why Calvin calls the pulpit the throne of God…”[2]

The people of God is standing before the “throne of God” while the Word of God is being preached. Preaching the Word of God, in other words, mediates the presence of God and the worship of people.

“Calvin took his task as a preacher seriously. He saw the preacher as God’s ambassador to the church. Calvin thought that when he spoke as a preacher, it was God himself who spoke. This also meant that Calvin would have to account for every word he uttered. It was for this reason that Calvin could not ascend the pulpit without careful consideration, because he thought of it as ‘throne of God, and from that throne he wants to govern our souls.’”[3]

Calvin’s high view of the pulpit shows his pastoral godliness towards God and the ministry entrusted to him. While Calvin preached on the pulpit, he was operating the souls of the congregation.  This is Calvin’s theological understanding of preaching as a pastoral act.

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[1] T. H. L. Parker, Calvin’s Preaching (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992), pp. 11-12.

[2] Ibid., p. 42.

[3] Herman J. Selderhuis, John Calvin: A Pilgrim’s Life. Translated by Albert Gootjes (Downers Grove: IVP Academic; Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2009), p. 110.