{"id":35809,"date":"2017-03-04T11:54:22","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T17:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=35809"},"modified":"2018-12-18T16:04:17","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T22:04:17","slug":"ars-praedicandi-preaching-and-themes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/ars-praedicandi-preaching-and-themes\/","title":{"rendered":"<i>Ars Praedicandi:<\/i> Preaching and &#8220;Themes&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In my parish the liturgy planning group each year reflects together on the readings of Lent and arrives at a &#8220;theme&#8221; that will be highlighted in the homilies, musical choices, and other elements of the liturgy.<\/p>\n<p>I think there are plusses and minuses to such a practice. On the plus side, it provides a consistent message that can be driven home over the course of weeks, perhaps making the message more likely to be remembered once Mass is ended. As a preacher, it provides me with input from parishioners as to what resonates with them at this particular moment in the Scripture readings. \u00a0The leadership at the semi-famous <a href=\"http:\/\/www.churchnativity.com\/\">Church of the Nativity<\/a> in Timonium, Maryland (home of <em>Rebuilt<\/em>) <a href=\"http:\/\/nativitypastor.tv\/?p=2218\">swears by the idea of the preaching \u00a0&#8220;message series&#8221;<\/a> and organizes all of their preaching in this way.<\/p>\n<p>On the minus side, one might argue that such &#8220;themes&#8221; are an artificial layer placed on top of the Church Year, often distorting the emphases that are &#8220;organically&#8221; present in the Scriptures and other elements of the liturgy. A theme might tempt the preacher to pack more into the homily than it can bear. Likewise, a theme might unduly hobble the homilist, so that he is unable to respond to events that occur long after the theme has been arrived at.<\/p>\n<p>This year the theme that we arrived at for Lent was &#8220;Conversations of Conversion.&#8221; This was suggested to us first by the long gospel readings of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent, which all seem to pivot on the conversations Jesus and others engage in. Also, we have a catechumen this year (being a small parish, this is not a given every year) and we thought that this would fit well with the Scrutinies, highlighting their significance for the whole assembly. It seemed to be a theme that grew naturally out of the readings and would, we hope, suggest\u00a0a focus for parishioners in their celebration of Lent.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, a theme is not much good if you can&#8217;t communicate it to the assembly. Below\u00a0is my homily for the First Sunday of Lent, which attempts to introduce the theme, to offer a kind of &#8220;teaser&#8221; for the coming weeks, as well as to break open the Scriptures that have just been read. It&#8217;s a tall order.<\/p>\n<p>So &#8220;themes&#8221; in preaching the seasons: \u00a0A good idea all of the time?\u00a0A good idea some of the time? A good idea none of the time?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s news suggests<br \/>\nthat you really should be careful<br \/>\nabout who it is that you engage in conversation.<br \/>\nFor example, if you are a highly-visible supporter<br \/>\nof a major political party\u2019s presidential candidate\u2014<br \/>\nparticularly if you are someone<br \/>\nwho could possibly get appointed as Attorney General\u2014<br \/>\nyou might not want to have private conversations<br \/>\nwith the Russian ambassador.<br \/>\nAt the very least, it just looks bad,<br \/>\nand little good can come from it.<br \/>\nThis week\u2019s Scriptures similarly suggest<br \/>\nthe potential dangers<br \/>\nof conversation with the wrong person.<br \/>\nFor example, if you are one of the first humans,<br \/>\nnewly arrived on the scene<br \/>\nand not too experienced in the ways of the cosmos,<br \/>\nyou might not want to engage in conversation<br \/>\nwith that oh-so-helpful serpent<br \/>\nwho suggests to you<br \/>\nthat you have been deceived by God,<br \/>\nand that doing the one thing<br \/>\nthat God has asked you not to do<br \/>\nmight possibly turn out really well.<\/p>\n<p>Notice, in contrast, that Jesus, in today\u2019s Gospel,<br \/>\ndoes not engage the Devil in conversation;<br \/>\napart from quoting the words of Scripture,<br \/>\nthe only thing he says is, \u201cGet away, Satan!\u201d<br \/>\nHe knows that the devil has nothing worthwhile to say.<br \/>\nIndeed, it is actually one of the directives<br \/>\nin the Church\u2019s Rite of Exorcism<br \/>\nthat one ought not engage<br \/>\na demon in conversation:<br \/>\nno good can come of it.<br \/>\nThough John Milton made Satan<br \/>\nsomewhat glamorous in <i>Paradise Lost<\/i>,<br \/>\nthe truth is that the devil is a tedious liar and a destroyer<br \/>\nwhose God-given intelligence has been reduced by sin<br \/>\nto an animal cunning focused entirely<br \/>\non turning people away from God.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps one reason we human beings<br \/>\ncan so easily be lured into conversations<br \/>\nfrom which no good can come<br \/>\nis that we are, by nature, conversational.<br \/>\nOne of the glories of being human<br \/>\nis our ability to use language to engage others,<br \/>\nto communicate and so enter into communion<br \/>\nwith another person.<br \/>\nWe are, you might say, conversational animals,<br \/>\nwho need communication with others<br \/>\nas much as we need food or sleep or shelter.<br \/>\nAnd like any good thing that we deeply need,<br \/>\nthe good of conversation can be turned to an evil purpose,<br \/>\nas when we gossip or berate or tempt.<\/p>\n<p>But conversation has other possibilities.<br \/>\nIn addition to those conversations<br \/>\nfrom which no good can come,<br \/>\nthere are those conversations<br \/>\nfrom which great good can come:<br \/>\nthe casual chat that begins a profound friendship,<br \/>\nthe frank airing of differences that leads to reconciliation,<br \/>\nthe final conversation with a dying loved one<br \/>\nin which you say and hear those things<br \/>\nthat had previously been left unsaid.<br \/>\nThese conversations can be life-changing,<br \/>\nwhich is perhaps no surprise<br \/>\nsince the words \u201cconversation\u201d and \u201cconversion\u201d<br \/>\nfind a common source in the Latin word convertere,<br \/>\nmeaning \u201cto turn together.\u201d<br \/>\nTo have a conversation we must turn toward the one<br \/>\nwith whom we wish to converse,<br \/>\nand in so doing our life is changed.<\/p>\n<p>In the holy season of Lent<br \/>\nwe turn again to the Lord who calls us to new life.<br \/>\nIn our Lenten Gospel readings<br \/>\nwe will hear Jesus engaged in many conversations:<br \/>\nwith the Samaritan woman at the well,<br \/>\nwith the man born blind at the Pool of Siloam,<br \/>\nwith Mary and Martha at the tomb of their brother Lazarus.<br \/>\nAll of these are conversations of conversion,<br \/>\nin which people turn<br \/>\nfrom shame and weakness and fear<br \/>\nand turn toward Jesus who is living water,<br \/>\nthe light of the world,<br \/>\nand life itself.<br \/>\nAs we eavesdrop on these conversations,<br \/>\nwe also hear the voice of Jesus calling <i>us<\/i><br \/>\nto turn toward him in conversation and communion.<\/p>\n<p>One of the traditional disciplines of Lent,<br \/>\nalong with fasting and acts of charity,<br \/>\nis a commitment to deepen our life of prayer.<br \/>\nThis is for many of us a frightening prospect.<br \/>\nGiving up things for Lent is relatively easy,<br \/>\nbe a bit more generous is a small sacrifice,<br \/>\nbut prayer is hard.<br \/>\nIt is hard because life is busy<br \/>\nand prayer can seem like wasting time.<br \/>\nIt is hard because it involves opening ourselves up<br \/>\nto a love that might very well change us forever.<br \/>\nIt is hard because, unlike the garrulous devil<br \/>\nwho yammers away in our Scriptures today,<br \/>\nGod\u2019s response in the conversation of prayer<br \/>\nis most often experienced as silence.<\/p>\n<p>But this silence speaks eloquently of God\u2019s love.<br \/>\nFor in the conversation of prayer<br \/>\nGod does not seek to trick or persuade,<br \/>\nbut rather lets our spoken and unspoken yearnings<br \/>\necho in the vast space of his infinite compassion,<br \/>\nso that our desires return to us transformed<br \/>\nby our encounter with God:<br \/>\nreoriented, reinterpreted,<br \/>\nreleased from selfishness.<br \/>\nIn that echoing silence<br \/>\nGod creates a place of freedom<br \/>\nin which we can slake our thirst for living water,<br \/>\nin which our eyes can be opened to the light of the world,<br \/>\nin which we can find the new life that comes forth<br \/>\nfrom the empty tomb of Christ.<br \/>\nLet this season of Lent be for us<br \/>\na time to turn away<br \/>\nfrom conversations from which<br \/>\nno good can come,<br \/>\nand to turn back again<br \/>\nto this frightening,<br \/>\nfrustrating,<br \/>\ntime-wasting,<br \/>\nlife-changing conversation<br \/>\nthat offers us nothing less<br \/>\nthan the infinite love of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Themes&#8221; in preaching the seasons:  A good idea all of the time? A good idea some of the time? A good idea none of the time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3118,3294,46,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-ars-praedicandi","category-homiletics","category-liturgical-year"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ars Praedicandi: Preaching and &quot;Themes&quot; - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/ars-praedicandi-preaching-and-themes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ars Praedicandi: Preaching and &quot;Themes&quot; - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;Themes&quot; in preaching the seasons: A good idea all of the time? 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