Agnosticism and Preaching

Agnosticism and Preaching

[Last Friday, I wrote the first part of a review of Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be). I’ll try to get to the second and final installment of my review next week.]

Agnostism: not knowing.

It’s tough being a preacher when you’re an agnostic, when you are so perplexed by elements of the Christian faith that that you don’t know quite what to say or even what to think.

Sometimes, agnosticism can be a wonderful thing. On occasion, when a preacher acknowledges publicly, I do not know, this acknowledgement may draw questioners closer to the community of faith. Questioners in our audience hear our confession of not knowing as respect for their questions and their quest. We make it safe for them to continue their journey inside the community.

Private agnosticism can temper our preaching with humility. We are aware our insight into God is partial at best and defective in ways we cannot see. This awareness keeps us from bombast and pomposity. It helps us build bridges between God and the doubtful ones in our congregations.

Being publicly honest about what we don’t know can help questioners feel at home in church. Privately confronting ourselves during meditation and study with the limits of our knowledge helps us empathize with the perplexed and troubled. But when it comes time to preach, no matter how beleaguered we are by unanswered questions and doubts, we are called to say something good and true.

Preachers stand in the place of Jesus. We follow our master to the front of the congregation and stand to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim liberty for the captives, to declare the year of the Lord’s favor. We stand up to speak the truth.

Some who fancy ourselves as intellectuals could fill volumes with what we don’t know. Some of us could fill volumes with the stuff other people "know" that they shouldn’t know. But when it comes time to preach, forget all that.

There is something you do know, something only you know in just the way you know it. One reason God called you to preach is so that little bit of truth, that tiny facet of understanding, could be voiced aloud.

So whatever it is you don’t know, this week when you step in front of your congregation, go beyond it. Tell them something good. Tell them the truth.