Stanley Hauerwas - A Cross-Shattered Church: Reclaiming the Theological Heart of Preaching

A
CROSS
SHATTERED
CHURCH

A

CROSS

SHATTERED

CHURCH

Reclaiming the
Theological Heart
of Preaching

STANLEY HAUERWAS

2009 by Stanley Hauerwas

Published by Brazos Press

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.brazospress.com

E-book edition created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-1275-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Scripture is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

To
Javier Martinez
Archbishop of Granada
and
William Willimon
Bishop of North Alabama

Contents

Isaiah 26:29, 19; 1 John 5:16

John 20:1931

1 Samuel 16:113; Psalm 23

Ephesians 5:814; John 9:141

Matthew 13:2432

Ecclesiasticus 38:14, 610, 1214; Psalm 147:17

2 Timothy 4:513; Luke 4:1421

Isaiah 6:18; Revelation 4:111

John 16:515; Psalm 29

Philippians 2:111; Matthew 27:3237

Genesis 22; Psalm 22

Hebrews 10:125; John 19:137

Micah 6:18; Psalm 15

1 Corinthians 1:1831; Matthew 5:112

Isaiah 25:69; Psalm 24

Revelation 21:16; John 11:3244

Ezekiel 2:17; Psalm 123

2 Corinthians 12:110; Mark 6:16

Isaiah 43:1621; Psalm 126

Philippians 3:4b14; John 12:18

Jeremiah 3:214:2; 1 Corinthians 7:1723

Mark 1:1420; Psalm 130

Zephaniah 3:1420; Psalm 85:713

Philippians 4:49; Luke 3:718

Genesis 15:112, 1718; Psalm 27

Philippians 3:174:1; Luke 13:2235

Isaiah 42:19; Psalm 29

Acts 10:3443; Matthew 3:1317

Jeremiah 31:3134; Colossians 3:1217

Matthew 5:112

1 Samuel 15:3416:13; Psalm 20

2 Corinthians 5:617; Mark 4:2634

Appendix
Matthew: Making the Familiar Strange

Connecting Some of the Dots, or An Attempt
to Understand Myself

Collections of sermons are seldom best sellers. Even if they are bought they often go unread. That should make anyone think twice about publishing their sermons. I have thought twice about publishing these sermons, but I still think they are some of my best work and I hope they will be widely read. I hope these sermons will be widely read because, for better or worse, they are my determined attempts to show that sermons can develop strong theological claims and yet be existentially compelling.

Cross-Shattered Church, as well as Cross-Shattered Christ, DisruptingTime, and most recently the commentary on Matthew, are books that I consider to be my most important work. I write a great deal. I ask much of anyone who would read and understand what I have been about. But if you can only read a little Hauerwas, read one of these books. They are what I most care about.

I am indebted to Adam Hollowell for reading through these sermons and for helping put the book together. Carole Baker has been there from the beginning, which means she has responded to earlier drafts of the sermons and made wonderful suggestions for making them better. My wife, Paula Gilbert, has not only read these sermons but has also listened to most of them. Paula claims not to be a theologian, but without fail she makes astute comments that help me say what I was trying to say but would not have known how to without her help. To preach when Paula celebrates, which was true for several of these sermons, is a privilege for which I am deeply grateful.

I am extremely grateful to Alonzo McDonald and the Agape Foundation for supporting the sabbatical that allowed me the time to put this book together. Al, a former marine, believes theology should matter. He is even willing to support a theologian who is a pacifist because he thinks theology matters. What a gift.

The book is dedicated to two bishops. Will Willimon is the Methodist bishop of North Alabama. Javier Martinez is the Roman Catholic archbishop of Granada, Spain. Will Willimon is an old friend and is one of the best preachers of our day. Archbishop Martinez is a new friend who graciously hosted a conference in Granada in September 2005 to explore the developing theological agenda of John Milbanks and my work. Every morning began with the archbishop saying mass and preaching. Paula and I were often moved to tears by Bishop Martinezs sermons as well as his pain that we could not share the Eucharist. But we could share the Word. I dedicate this book to these bishops, whose office is the office of unity, in the hope that through the faithful preaching of the Word we will be united at the table prepared for us by Jesus.

I am a theologian. I am a modern theologian. Modern theologians are primarily at home in the modern university. Accordingly they write primarily for other theologians. Theologians may care about the church, but they do not assume that their most attentive readers should be ministers or laypeople. That most theologians teach in seminaries may seem to belie these generalizations, but even those who teach in seminaries write primarily for those in their professional guilds. The guilds, moreover, are shaped by the expectations of the disciplinary standards of the university.

Because modern theologians are first and foremost academics they tend to spend their lives saying why it is very difficult to do theology in modernity. As a result modern theology tends to be an extended exercise is throat clearing. But even after the theologians have cleared their throats it often turns out they have nothing to say. That is, they have little to say except to say that it is very hard to do theology in modernity.

And it is hard to do theology in modernity. But it has always been hard to do theology at any time. There are good reasons to exercise caution when speaking of God. From the beginning the theologians of the church have insisted that we know better what God is not than we know what God is. That our God is to be found in the belly of Mary is surely sufficient to make you think twice that you know what you say when you say God.

Yet I am determined to do the work of theology. I was raised a bricklayer. Bricklayers work. At the end of the day we like to get down from the scaffold to see what we have done. I confess I have never gotten the satisfaction from any essay or book I have written in theology comparable to the sense of accomplishment that comes from a well-laid wall, in which the bed joints are uniform and the head joints true. I assume that is the way it should be because the work of theology should never be finished.

I have, however, increasingly come to the recognition that one of the most satisfying contexts for doing the work of theology is in sermons. That should not be surprising because throughout Christian history, at least until recently, the sermon was one of the primary places in which the work of theology was done. For the work of theology is first and foremost to exposit Scripture. That modern theology has become less and less scriptural, that modern theology has often tried to appear as a form of philosophy, is but an indication of its alienation from its proper work.