Hearing and believing. . .

Don't get me wrong.  It is our opportunity, our duty, and our delight to read God's Word every day.  Far be it from me to diminish or detract from this gift and blessing of accessibility and availability.  But nearly every time the Word of God is spoken of in Scripture, it is about a Word that is heard -- a Word spoken into our ears and not read with eyes and mind.  This is not because of the times and something that God would have said differently to us if the times had been different, if books had been as freely and cheaply available as they are today.  God has never been blind to the future and could have easily have said read a few more times to anticipate our situation today.  Instead, over and over again the focus is on hearing the Word.  That does not only or even primarily mean when the readings appointed for each Sunday are read, but to preaching itself.

The Word we hear is a Word spoken and preached.  Our Confession says this is the reason for the Office of Pastor.  The Augustana simply mirrors what St. Paul says.  Faith comes by hearing the Word.  Oh, sure.  You and I both know that God does work through the written Word but we must also admit that the primary way God has intended us to encounter His Word is in the ear.  From Genesis through to Revelation, God acts in His speaking.  In between He speaks and His Word makes baptismal water the womb of forgiveness and everlasting life.  He speaks and His Word is the power that absolves us of our sin and creates in us a desire, by the power of the Spirit, to amend our sinful lives.  He speaks and His Word is applied to us and to our lives by a preacher who lives among us as icon of Christ and the voice through which that Word is spoken.  He speaks and His Word gives to bread His flesh for the life of the world and to the cup His blood that cleanses us from all our sins.

The Word is not magic but it is a sacramental Word.  It does what it says and bestows what it promises.  It does not return to God empty no matter how much we long to see its results and do not.  It always and everywhere accomplishes His purpose in sending that Word.  That is a Word that comes from the outside into us, by the power of the Spirit.  By faith we grasp this Word and claim the gifts Christ has appointed for all who hear and believe.  God continually addresses us with a voice, a Word that is alive, a two edged sword, and a means of grace.  What we do with it surely affects its benefit and blessing to us but it is never a benign or symbolic or empty Word -- even when our stubborn wills fail to hear it, refuse to keep it by faith, or are too soon distracted by cares, joys, and the ways of the world.

There are those who wonder if preaching has a future (or, perhaps, even a present value).  But preaching will continue to live and thrive not because we are good at it but because this is how faith comes, faith is nourished, and faith is sustained.  God has said and so it will be just as it has been.  Preaching is profound not because the preacher is stilled at the craft (though this is an art every preacher should work on) but because God is in the speaking and God is in the hearing.  If our people are not listening, it could be due more to the fact that they no longer know or believe that God is speaker and God comes into the ear.  If our people are judging the craft of the preacher instead of the content, it could be because we have focused too much on the person and too little on the Word spoken and the Word that comes into the ear and the faith wrought by the Spirit.

Read the Scriptures.  Know the Scriptures.  Reading and knowing the Word of God will only help you hear the Word spoken and preached into your ear.  But reading and knowing does not replace hearing.