The Tightrope of Preaching

For the congregation does not sit in judgement on the sermon as much as on the reputation of the preacher, so that when someone excels everyone else at speaking, then he above all needs painstaking care. He is not allowed sometimes not to succeed – the common experience of all the rest of humanity. On the contrary, unless his sermons always match the great expectations formed of him, he will leave the pulpit the victim of countless jeers and complaints. No one ever takes it into consideration that a fit of [dejection], pain, anxiety, or in many cases anger, may cloud the clarity of his mind and prevent his productions from coming forth unalloyed; and that in short, being a man, he cannot invariably reach the same standard or always be successful, but will naturally make many mistakes and obviously fall below the standard of his real ability. People are unwilling to allow for any of these factors, as I said, but criticize him as if they were sitting in judgement on an angel. (V.5)

And, above all, the preacher must be independent of his flock, seeking approval only from God:

Let the best craftsman be the judge of his own handiwork too, and let us rate his productions as beautiful or poor when that is the verdict of the mind which contrived them. … So too the man who has accepted the task of [preaching] should pay no attention to the commendation of outsiders, any more than he should let them cause him dejection. When he has composed his sermons to please God (and let this alone be his rule and standard of good oratory in sermons, not applause or commendation), then if he should be approved by men, too, let him not spurn their praise. But if his hearers do not accord it, let him neither seek it or sorrw for it. It will be sufficient encouragement for his efforts, and one much better than anything else, if his conscience tells him that he is organizing and regulating his teaching to please God. For in fact, if he has already been overtaken by the desire for unmerited praise, neither his great efforts nor his powers of speech will be any use. His soul, being unable to bear the senseless criticisms of the multitude, grows slack and loses all earnestness about preaching. So a preacher must train himself above all else to despise praise. (V.7-8)

I commend these points for your own reflection. I’ll offer more reflection on these tomorrow.

[Most of the excerpts here come from the SVS Press edition, although CCEL has the Stephens translation from the NPNF here. (Today's excerpts all come from Book 5.) While I don't have the Greek text at hand, the NPNF version appears to be more accurate, which is expected based on my experience, while the readability nod goes to the SVS Press edition. I note that my copy of the SVS Press edition is a 2002 printing; some of the Popular Patristics titles have been re-translated and re-issued (e.g., St Basil the Great's On the Holy Spirit). I don't know whether this one has or not.]

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