The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching - by Achtemier

8/12/2019 The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching - by Achtemier

1/15

The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching

E L I Z A B E H A C H I EMEI ER

Visiting ProfessorofHomiletics

Union TheologicalSeminary of Virginia

Understanding the form and content

of the Bible's hymns allows the sermon

to share their principal characteristic:

praise to the honor and glory of God

IF WE WERE TO CHARACTERIZE the greatest preaching of the

Christian pulpit, we would have to describe it in several ways: It is firmly

anchored in the biblical message; it therefore speaks to human beings as

they really are, in all of their glory and misery; its language is eloquent and

yet simple and pictorial; and it flows out of the preacher' s unshakeable

belief in and experienc ed knowledge of the Lord of the church.Above all,

we would have to say that the greatest preaching is preaching about

Godaboutwho God is as he has revealed himself inJesus Christ thro ugh

theHoly Spirit, about what God has done in sacred history, about what he

is doing now in our world, and about what he has promised hewill do in

the future. Great preaching is concerned with God. He is its primary

subject. Descriptions of him and of his character and doings take up most

of the sermon, and everything else falls into place in relation to his holy

person.

When one hears or reads sermons characterized by such concentrationonGod,however, one is struck by the fact that they share much in commo n

with the hymns that are found in the Psalter and in many other portions of


2/15


Interpretation

they call on individuals, the covenant people, and even all nature and

nat ion s to jo in in th at glorif ication:

O sing to the Lord a new song,

for he has done marvelous things!

His right hand and his holy arm

have gotten him victory (Ps. 98:1).

Make a joyful noise to the Lord,

all the earth (Ps. 98:4a).

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

the world and those who dwell in it!

Let the floods clap their hands;

let the hills sing for joy together

before the Lord, for he comes

to ju dge the earth.

He will jud ge the world with righteousness,

and the peoples with equity (Ps. 98:7-9).

Further, God is glorified in the hymns by telling what he will do, as in the

last two lines abo ve, or by tel ling what he has don e , as in this pass age fr om

the same psalm:

The Lord has made known his victory,

he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the

nations.

He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness

to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen

the victory of our God (Ps. 98:2-3).

Som et ime s Go d is glorified in th e hy mn s by des cr ibi ng his pe rs on :

Clouds and thick darkness are round about him;

righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

Fire goes before him

and burns up his adversaries round about (Ps. 97:23).

T h u s , God forms the subject of the hymns' sentences, and the description

of his person or deeds is pure, clean, almost objectified testimony to his

self-revelation. Human needs are not ignored ("He has remembered his

steadfast love an d faithfulness/ to the hous e of Israel"). T h e con seq uen ces

of God's activity are set forth ("All the ends of the earth have seen/ the


3/15

equity.") an d unde rs to od in its pr op er perspect ive.

The same things are true of hymn-forms in the New Testament. They

objectively describe the person and action of the divine:

. . . Christ Jesus , who, though he was in the form of God, did not count

equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the

form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. And being found in

human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even

death on a cross (Phil. 2:58).They also describe that divine person and activity by which the earth is put

right and seen properly:

He has shown strength with his arm,

he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts,

he has put down the mighty from their thrones,

and exalted those of low degree;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent empty away.

He has helped his servant Israel,in remembrance of his mercy . . . (Luke 1:5154).

Obviously, such hymns are powerful witnesses to God and bear in their

mess ages th e very hea rt of th e biblical go od new s. It is th er ef or e no

accident that numerous sermons of great preachers of past generations

have utilized the hymn-form in portions of their proclamations. Consider,

for example, this excerpt from a sermon on Zephaniah 3:17 (translated as,

"He will rest in his love") by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one of the great

Reformed preachers of the end of the nineteenth century:

Now you see the Lord Jesus Christ laboring in his love. Love fetched him

from his home in heaven; love disrobed him of his glories; love laid him in

Bethlehem's manger; love led him through this weary world three-and-

thirty years; love took him to Gethsemane; love oppressed him till he sweat

great drops of blood; love made him the great standard-bearer in the fight;

love made him stand erect, the focus of the war, when the storm gathered

round his brow, and every arrow of the foeman found a target in his heart;

love made him stand calm amid the bewildering cry, confident of victory;

love made him bow his head, and give up the ghost, that he might redeem his

people . Now, now that he is more than conqueror, he rises to heaven, and he

rests in his love.1


4/15


Interpretation

description which does not ignore the consequences of Christ's work for

human life, but which sets the stage for spelling out those consequences by

concentrating on what God has done in his Son.

Similarly, some of the great preachers of the past used hymnic descrip

tions of the person of God in his Son. The following quotation illustrates

this from a se rm on on Isaiah 53:3 by the re no wn ed n in et ee nt h ce nt ur y

British pr ea ch er , F. W. Ro ber tso n:

That which Paul was for a time [i.e., all things to all men], Christ is forever.That which Paul was by effort and constraint, Christ is by the very law of his

nature. He is all things to all men. He is the countryman of the world. He is

the mediator, not between God and a nation, but between God and man. He

was the Jew and the Gentile, and the Greek and the Roman, all in one. He

can sympathize with every man because he has, as it were, been every man.

There is not a natural throb which ever agitated the bosom of humanity

which Christ has not felt. The aspirations of loftiest genius and the failure of

humblest mediocrity, the bitterness of disappointment and the triumph of

success, the privations of the poor man and the feebleness of corporeal

agony . . . . He came into this world the Son and the heir to the whole race ofman . . . "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."

2

Here Robertson is telling who Christ is in his person, much in the same

ma n ne r tha t Psalm 97 tells wh o God is in his pe rs on, an d the me di um

which Rob er ts on choos es for his tes tim ony is th at of th e hy mn .

Such uses of hymns in preaching are by no means found only in the

sermons of past generations, however. Those pulpit voices that command

attention are still telling about God and his activity by borrowing the

hym n's objective prais e. Con si der for ex am pl e th e following exc erp t fro m

a Le nt en se rm on on the scarlet th re ad of Jo sh ua 2:1819 by G a r d ne rTaylor, a veteran black preacher recognized some time ago in Time

magazine as one of the ten outstanding preachers in the United States:

Christ is that scarlet thread behind which our souls are safe when the enemy

comes and the storm of battle rages. Christ is that scarlet thread behind

which we who trust Him may have the blessed assurance that it is well with

our souls. Christ is that scarlet thread, the sinner's perfect plea, the seeker's

end of the search, the saint's everlasting rest, a hiding place when the storms

are raging. I speak of Christ as the scarlet thread of safety and security when

enemies besiege our souls, when friends fail us and forsake us, as bread in astarving land and rivers of water in a dry and barren place. Christ, our


5/15

and the first of many brethren. Christ, Mary's baby and older than Abraham. Christ, our great High Priest. Christ our Scarlet Thread!3

Taylor is quite aware here of the significance of Christ for human life, but

he chooses to set forth that significance by concentrating, not on human

beings, but on the person and work of his Lord. He hymns Christ by

making him the subject of most of the sentences in the passage. Everything

else then falls into proper perspective.

Surely the modern pulpit could profit from these examples of the use ofhymnic elements in preaching, for it is characteristic of many modern

sermons that they concentrate largely on human beings. Human need,

human hungers, and human evil command the principal attention. In

deed, many modern sermons seem almost to exult in telling congregations

of their faults or of the faults of American society, and the healing for

those faults is then set forth in moralistic admonitions to "go out and do

good," or to believe more strongly. In content and tone, such sermons

have the characteristics, therefore, not of the Bible's hymns but of the

Bible's lamentsthe sinful situation of human life is lamented at lengthand in multitudinous illustrations. Compare, for example, the following

excerpts from some of the Lament Psalms, any one of which could easily fit

into many modern sermons:

In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor . . . .For the wicked boasts of the desires of his heart,

and the man greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord(Ps.10:2a, 3).

Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;with flattering lips and a double heart they speak (Ps. 12:2).

Yea, dogs are round about me;a company of evildoers encircle me . . . (Ps. 22:16).

The difference between these biblical laments and those of the modern

pulpit, however, is that all of the laments are: (1) directed as prayers to

God, and (2) usually end up by turning into hymns and thanksgivings. For

example , the Lament of the Individual in Psalm 22 ends with a hymnic call

to praise:

You who fear the Lord, praise him!

all you sons of Jacob, glorify him,and stand in awe of him, all you sons of Israel! (v. 23).


6/15


Interpretation

For he has not despised or abhorredthe affliction of the afflicted;

and he has not hid his face from him,but has heard, when he cried to him (v. 24).4

The Bible's laments end in such a fashion because the poets who sang

them were well aware of the fact that their true rescue could come only

from God, and they assured their listening congregations, by means of

public testimony, that God had indeed so saved them (for other examples,

see the Laments of the Individual in Pss. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and many others).

They hymned God's activity on their behalf or on behalf of their people

(for such a Communal Lament, see Ps. 124), and that hymn became a

glorification of God's person and activity. In short, they did what every

preacher is required to dothey proclaimed the good news of God's

saving deed and word. The modern pulpit sorely needs to follow their

example, and we therefore need to inquire how that can be done.

Before we can incorporate hymnic elements into our preaching, it is

necessary that we understand theformof a hymn, because those preachers

who use hymnic elements in their sermons often do so by imitating

elements of the hymnic form. Psalm 96 can serve as a standard example of

the genre. The hymn opens with a call to praise:

O sing to the Lord a new song;sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing to the Lord, bless his name;tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples! (vs. 12).There is then a transitional device, represented here in Psalm 96 by the

little word "for":

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols;but the Lord made the heavens (vs. 45).

4 In The Praise of God inthePsalms,trans Keith R Crim (Richmond Jo hn Knox Press,

1965,Claus Westermann has classified a description such as this in Ps 22 24 as "declarativepraise," whereas Gunkel would have named it an "individual thanksgiving," but both basetheir classification on the fact that the verse is describing a particular activity of God in


7/15

That "for" means "because" (in the Hebrew, the particle ki), and the

phrase it introduces gives the reason for the praise, namely, the theological

justification for glorifying God, which is the hear t of the witness. "For" is

therefore one of the most important words in this psalm, as indeed it is in

many passages in the Bible.

The body of the hymn then picks up the description of God given in the

tran sitio nal phr as es an d descr ibes God' s pe rs on or activity f ur th er :

Honor and majesty are before him;strength and beauty are in his sanctuary (v. 6).

Often, by way of conclusion, a hymn will then repeat the same structure,

an d th at is th e case he re with Psalm 96 :

Ascribe . . . )

Ascribe . . . )

Worship . . . ) Call to praise,

vs. 7-12.

Say . . . )

Let the heavens be glad . . . )

for, he comes, ) Transit ion,

for he comes to ju dg e the ear th. )

He will ju dg e the world with righteousness )

v. 13a &b.

Body, v. 13c & d.

and the peoples with his truth. )

In short, what we find in the hymn's description of God are a series of

phr ase s, in bot h the tran siti onal section an d in the body, setting for th th e

nature of the deity.

T h a t is qu it e simi lar to wh at we find in a pass ag e such as th e foll owing

exce rpt from a se rm on by Fred eric k Bue chn er :

The vulgarity of a God who adorns the sky at sunrise and sundown with

colors no decent painter would dream of placing together . . . the vulgarity

of a God who created a world full of hybrids like ushalf ape, half human

and who keeps breaking into the muck of this world. The vulgarity of a God

who was born into a cave among hicks and the steaming dung of beasts only

to grow up and die on a cross between crooks.5

Buechner uses the repetition of the phrase "the vulgarity of a God" to

i d h f hi d i i f G d' i i d h i h


8/15


Interpretation

to describe God and thus constantly to widen the testimony to him:

"Among you stands one whom you do not know . . . ." Unrecognized,different, strange. Breaking out of our neat little holy places, because wherehe is, every place is sacred, holy; shattering our safe and impossible idealsbecause he lives them out in unpredictable ways; bursting our safe, neatpropositional statements because how can you possibly package fire and lifeand love and hope and judgment? "Among you stands one whom you do notknow "6

An even closer approximation of the hymn form is seen when we compare

a hymn like Psalm 103 with an excerpt from a sermon by Helmut Thie-

licke. Psalm 103 has the standard form of the hymn, although the call to

praise is formed by the psalmist's address to his own self (vs. 12):

Bless the Lord, O my soul,and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,and forget not all his benefits.

Then instead of using "for" as a transitional device, this psalm makes the

transition from introduction to body by the use of a series of phrases

beginning with "who" (a translation of participial phrases from the He

brew):

who forgives all your inquity,who heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the Pit,who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

who satisfies you with good as long as you liveso that your youth is renewed like the eagle's (vs. 3-5).

The body of the hymn follows in verses 619a much longer body than

that found in Psalm 96and the hymn then concludes with a renewed call

to praise, this time to a universal company (vs. 20226) and finally once

again, to the psalmist's own self (v. 22c).

It is those "who" phrases that especially interest us here, however, for in

a sermon entitled "Journey without Luggage," Thielickeprobably not in

conscious imitation of the hymn-form, to be surewrites a series of

phrases beginning with "how," which remind the reader of the hymn's"who" phrases, and afford the preacher the opportunity of setting forth

G d' i i i d i i i h l l h l


9/15

We have the signed statement, sealed by the sufferings of Christ, that now

those who go aimlessly stumbling through life are literally surrounded with

joyful surprises because they will learn (on thisonecondition, that they really

dare to trust God) how God is always there, that his help is supplied with an

almost incredible punctuality. They learn how he sends some person to help

us up again; how he allows us to catch some word (which need not even be in

the Bible) to which we cling; how he brings money into the house and bread

to our table; and how in the hour of our greatest sorrow he may perhaps

send the laughter of a little child.7

Now certainly all of the examples that we have given of the use of

hym nic ele men ts in se rm on s have been r at he r leng thy, bu t it is also a fact

that hymnic elements within a sermon can be quite brief. Whe rev er o ne

finds eve n a sh or t series of ph ra se s with in a se rmo n tha t des cr ibe th e

pe rs on or activity of Go d or of Je su s Chr is t or of th e Holy Spir it and th at

ma ke these per so ns thei r subject, on e is dea lin g with the hym n' s objectified

witness to the divin e. It is a ha ll mar k of some of th e grea t pr ea ch er s of o ur

time that they punctuate their sermons with such brief hymnic elements,

and this has the effect of maintaining the concentration of the sermon onGo d even in th e mids t of a discussion of th e h u m a n situati on.

No one was a gr ea te r mas te r of this te ch ni qu e tha n was Ja me s Stewa rt of

Scotland. Stewart's sermons all have about them a lyrical, triumphant

quality, a clean objectivity that lends to them a soaring power not often

found in preaching; and Stewart's sermons achieve that quality by con

stantly inserting into their discussion phrases descriptive of God. Consider

the following exa mpl e of his pr ea chi ng from a se rm on entitled "V an gu ar d

and Rearguard," based on Isaiah 52:12:

"That vanguard on in front," [Isaiah] says, "that isGodGod at the head of

the hostthe spearhead of humanity's advance! Th at rearguard following

after," he continues, "that too, isGod, God coming up behind, God holding

the post of danger at the army's rear!" Tha t is Isaiah's vision"Onward goes

the pilgrim band," with God in front, and God behind, and your marching

soul in the midst, encircled by God, barricaded in by God, surrounded by

God as by a wall of steel and iron. And that is the promise which rings out

deathlessly to cheer us on our way: "The Lord will go before you; and the

God of Israel will be your rearguard."8

Note the descriptions of God in such a passage: "God at the head of the

host the spe ar he ad of huma nity 's advanc e . . . God com ing up be hi nd,


10/15

TheUseofHymnic Elements inPreachingInterpretation

God behind . . . God as by a wall of steel and iron." Those phrases are

hymnic praises of God's activity.

To be sure, Stewart's preaching has occasionally been criticized for

being excessively objective, and the re is some justification in the criticism

when one considers that much of his preaching was carried on during

World War II and yet rarely mentioned that global conflict! On the other

hand, it must be said that Stewart's sermons are timeless and that they can

be read today with quite as much profit in our situation as they lent to his

situation in the 1940's. They remain inspiring homilies, which speak forth

the word of God, much as the hymns of the Psalter still speak to every

generation, and they achieve that quality by their unrelenting con

centration on God rather than on the human situation.

This problem of the relation of objectivity to relevance in the proclama

tion of the sermon does raise a warning flag, however, for there is no doub t

that the use of of hymnic elements in a sermon can be overdone. One can

be so objective in one's testimony to God's person and deeds, so trium

phant in trumpeting his victories, and so concerned with telling about God

that one never deals with human beings with their failings and their

miseries and their terrible, terrible needs. The preacher must never

forgetas I do not believe James Stewart ever forgotthat God sent his

Sonintotheworld,and it is tha t meeting of God with world with which every

sermon must be concerned. Nevertheless, our modern attention in our

preaching has usually been focused on the world, to the neglect of God,

and it is the restoration of hymnic elements to our sermons that can

overcome that serious failing.

Where, then, do hymnic elements belong in the sermon manuscript?

They can be used, in the form of brief phrases, throughout a sermon, as

Stewart's preaching utilizes them. However, it is also clear that longer

hymnic passages can occur at the end of the sermon as a way of summing

up the though t of the whole. Such was the placement in the sermon of th at

excerpt which we quoted from Gardner Taylor; and when hymnic pas

sages are so used, they serve to recall the entire message of the sermon.

Most importantly, they serve to concentrate the attention of the congrega

tion, at the end, fully on God's person and activities as attested to in the text

for the day. It is the Lord thensolely the Lordto whom the congrega

tion is prompted to respond, and no rhetorical device could be more true

to the Gospel


11/15

entitled "The Journeythe Choice," on Deuteronomy 30:1520 and

Matthew 7:13-29:

It is hard to enter into life. But really, it is easy too. Because who can helploving the God who has brought us thus far on our journey. He has been byour side every step along the way. When we were still in our mother's womb,his hands shaped and fashioned us. In the marvelous words of Job, heclothed us with skin and flesh, and knit us together with bones and sinews.Day by day, he has sustained our breath and lavished on us his careplacing

us in home and family, surrounding us with a world of wonder. Everymorning his mercies are new, every evening his watch over us unfailing.When we walk through some dark valley of the shadow, underneath are hiseverlasting arms. When we know only joy and bright gaiety, he increasesgladness, by pouring out the glories of the morning, creating color andbird-song and light to aid us in celebration.

And now here we are, you and I, with that crucial decision before us . . . .9

It is a truism that homiletics students and even practiced preachers

sometimes have difficulty ending their sermons. They can develop the

first two points, laying out the situation of the text and the situation of thecongregation. Sometimes they can even bring text and congregation

together and apply the insights of the text to their people's lives. But then

how to end it all? How to bring the congregation to confront the text

firmly, without wavering or turning aside from it? How to prompt the

congregation to response and decision and action? How to affirm the faith

the people already have or how to prompt them to deeper faith? Some

preachers leave their congregations only with questions about how they

will respond. Some fall back on the feebly expressed hope or prayer that

their congregations will respond appropriately. But a hymnic ending to asermon, in which the message about God in the textistrumpeted in a series

of vivid pictures, can prompt response and decision and commitment in an

overwhelming way, as can be seen so clearly from the excerpt by James

Stewart quoted above. The good news in the text is summed up, mag

nified, and driven home; and it is, after all, that good news which gives

birth to genuine faith.

Hymnic elements can also be used to good effect within the body of the

sermon, and the quotations from Buechner and Thielicke given earlier

were taken from the middle of their sermons. Consider also this quotationfrom a sermon about worship, based on Exodus 19:10-19 and Hebrews

12:18-29:


12/15


Interpretation

There descends here into the midst of our worship, the God of holy power,

whose breath withers or makes alive, whose word ignited the sun, who

shakes the earth and sifts the nations, and measures the seas in the palm of

his hand.

Were we ready to confront such power when we came in here tonight. .. .10

The hymnic elements, imitating the "who" (participial) phrases of the

hymns of the Psalter, simply help develop the thought of the point being

set forth. In short, hymnic elements are appropriate in sermons whenever

and wherever the preacher wishes to enlarge on the witness to God.The use of hymnic language can also be an effective teaching device,

because it can set forth the sacred history or a portion of it in summary

fashion. T h e following ex ce rp t fr om a se rmo n on J o h n 14:111 gives such

a summary and can be classified as hymnic, although "we" and not Jesus

Chri st is the forma l subject of each sent ence . T h e passag e does , howe ver ,

despite its sentence structure, concentrate on Christ's story, in the manner

of a hymn:

We have seen the Father in Jesus Christ, and we have heard all his commandments. We have seen him attending a wedding at Cana and talking

with a divorced woman beside a well. We have seen him weeping with Mary

and Martha beside the tomb of their brother Lazarus. We have watched him

ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, and we have seen him on trial before the

power of Rome. We have watched him die on a cross as soldiers gambled for

his garments. And yes, we have met him alive in a garden, at the first rays of

Easter morn, and we have traced with the finger of Thomas the marks of the

nails in his risen hands. And because of that sacred story, we have con

fessed," My Lord and my God!" By the way of Christ, through the truth of

him, we have seen the Father.11

The fact that hymnic elements enable a preacher to give continually

developing pictures of God and continually expanding lists of his deeds

also lends to a sermon a feeling of movement and of progression of

thought, and this enables the congregation to be led along in a continually

deeper unders tanding.

Finally, the use of hymnic elements in a sermon can also develop a

metaphor from the biblical text to the fullest extent. As a final illustration

of hymnic preaching, I would like to present an excerpt from a sermon

entitled "The God Who Leaves Man Alone," written by Paul Scherer, one

of the two great preachers of the past generation (James Stewart being the


13/15

complicated form. In fact, some may argue that this is not a hymn. Yet in

its use of a series of phrases which widen the thought continually, and in its

con ce ntr ati on on Go d alo ne, it ca pt ur es that exalt ation of Go d wh ich

belon gs to the ge nr e. It is a leng thy quota tat ion , take n seri atim from th e

ser mon , but it is mar velo us pr ea ch ing and con su mm at e art:

He was torn as a father is torn who must leave some wayward, angry child to

itself before he can ever win it back; waits and remembers it still, yonder in

the years that are gone, with its little uncertain steps, his hands holding it up;

longs for the day to come when the sulking disobedience will be over; yet

denies himself every deep impulse to gather it swiftly in his arms and sweep

the barriers down! . . .

That's the loneliness of God. I wish you'd think of it, and not of your own

. . . a Love with its eyes wide open, struggling to hold its peace; letting you fail

if need be, and caring; letting you sin, and still caring! Standing there with its

hands I think gripped tightly behind its back, biting its lips! "I taught

Ephraim how to walk," holding him in my arms. How can I give him up?

How can I let him go? I am God, not man! . . .

It's the heart of God you're seeing, and the inevitable loneliness of it; thatawful severity withHimself,keeping back behind the bar of its own lips this

eternal passion: "I taught Ephraim how to walk" . . . Jesus died with that

pent up inside of him, spreading over our mute earth the speechless shadow

of a cross; until now it rests on all that we do to ourselves, and to one another,

and to God . . . .

Nothing over any of this broken world now but Calvary; and the silence,

which is God waiting, gripping His hands behind his back, biting His lips! "I

taught Ephraim how to walk!"12

Because hymnic elements used in sermons concentrate so on God, theycan inspire in a congregation all of the reactions to their message that we

find in the Psal ter . A h y m n can in sp ir e prai se (see Pss. 8; 95100) an d tr us t

(see Ps. 46). It can give knowledge of the holy history (see Pss. 68; 78;

103-105; 114; 135136). It can waken gratitude and the response of

service (see Ps. 119) or of missiona ry activity (see Pss; 96 ; 145). It can give

ho p e an d securi ty for the fut ur e (see Pss. 33 ; 47 ; 103). It can in spi re

repentance (see Ps. 19). It can afford anticipation of the coming Kingdom

of God (cf. Pss. 47; 96-98).

Since hym nic el eme nts us ed in ser mon s are able to do all thes e things , wemay well ask how we can preach without them. The proper subject of the

Chri stia n se rm on is God as he has be en re vea led to us in Je su s Chri st


14/15

TheUseofHymnic Elements inPreachingInterpretation

response to that divine person and activity, then certainly it has not

interpreted the biblical message.

To be sure, there are other rhetorical devices for preaching the Gospel,

such as the use of the genres of narrative and parable, of question and

answer (diatribe), of straight-forward exposition and exhortation and

teaching (wisdom and Torah teaching). In fact there can be proper usage

in preaching of the genre of the lament. Yet somewhere in all of those

forms, if God is magnified, hymnic elements should also creep in, for

ultimately it is the Lord with whom the Christian sermon is concerned, and

it is for God's glorification alone that the Christian preacher labors. One

may therefore call the modern pulpit to the task of hymnic preaching with

a summons from the Psalter:

O magnify the Lord with me,and let us exalt his name together! (Ps. 34:3).


15/15

^ s

Copyright and Use:

Asan ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use

according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as

otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.

No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the

copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,

reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a

violation of copyright law.

This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permissionfrom the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal

typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,

for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.

Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specificwork for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered

by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the

copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).

About ATLAS:

The ATLA Serials (ATLAS) collection contains electronic versions of previously

published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS

collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the AmericanTheological Library Association.

The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching - by Achtemier

Documents

Transcript of The Use of Hymnic Elements in Preaching - by Achtemier