Preaching to "felt needs" or problems has become popular today but for the Lutheran, we must admit that preaching about the problems we face is not the same as preaching God's Law. We struggle with many things that are wrong in our lives. Loneliness is epidemic. Marriages are struggling and failing all around us. Our economic circumstances confound and conflict us. The world is not a safe place. Violence is all around us. Medical diagnoses threaten our lives and the lives of those whom we love. These are real problems. We all feel them and they contribute to the constant anxiety of our lives. But speaking of these things and identifying them as the sources of our fear and angst is not the same as preaching the Law.
Sadly, the identification of problems as Law in preaching has consequences for the Gospel. Instead of being the answer of God to sin and its death, the Gospel becomes something rather weak and passive. God is present with you in your problems. God wants you to be happy. God can be called upon in your hour of need. All of these are true (well, maybe not quite the idea that God's greatest desire for you is your happiness!) but none of these are the Gospel. The Gospel cannot be removed from the cross where Christ suffered in our place for our sin and from the empty tomb where He rose that we might rise with Him to new and everlasting life.
Preaching can easily become formulaic. Even Lutherans are not immune. When we simply identify the problems people have identified and tell them that God is with them, we have not told them a lie or deceived them in any way but we have not quite proclaimed the Gospel to them. Preaching to the felt needs of the people can often become a simple exercise of identifying what things people are struggling with in their lives and then simply reminding them that they are not alone in their struggles. It may sound relevant and appear to be successful but it is not preaching God's Word faithfully. In the end, such preaching does little to help the people and everything to make it easier for them to fall away from Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Perhaps it is better than telling people to fix themselves and their problems on their own but it is not preaching the cross or empty tomb. It is not preaching Christ.
Problems can become ways of connecting what is happening in the lives of people to sin, helping them to connect the dots between the troubles of this mortal life and what sin has done to cause these troubles. Preaching can become a tool through which we connect people to their choices and to the voice of the Law condemning those choices when they are wrong. But simply identifying problems and reminding people God is with them and working on their behalf to resolve them is to fail in the preaching task. We might complain about moralism when it replaces preaching faithfully the Word of God but it is no different than preaching a weak idea of sin and what has done to us and a weak idea of what it means for God to love us and send forth His Son to be our Savior and Redeemer. God is not a silent companion in our lives. He has something to say. I guess we would rather not listen.
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Pertaining to the “Law,” each of us have related to it in its particulars and context, both literally and figuratively, and in its theoretical, theological, and practical applications. How so? Take a minute to look at the Law in broad terms, and consider how, when and where you learned about it, and began to apply it to your thinking. Thoughts, actions, subconscious motives, restraints on conduct, inherent prohibitions, learned through the Law, became internalized, and the knowledge of the Law not only convicts, but directs us. The Law is a guardrail around the soul, and the Holy Spirit is structured by God to keep one within the bounds of God’s will. As I see it in my mind, the Law points to grace, and grace is there to restore the wayward souls, and the Law teaches both wisdom and obedience. Those who dismiss the Law entirely, to focus on grace alone, miss the whole picture of redemption through faith in the finished work of Christ. When we are borne into this world, we are a blank slate, but soon capable of evil and good, of sinful choices made in ignorance, and like Adam and Eve, we need to be taught about the Law. The Law does not enslave us, but rather frees us, while grace keeps us. While we cannot keep the Law perfectly, we cannot dismiss it so easily to ficus on grace. When I was a child, my earthly father was the Lawgiver. He was the one whom God used to teach me the Law, to follow the commandments, and to stay out of trouble. The Catholic Order of the Sisters of St Joseph at my parochial school enforced discipline and obedience. It often felt heavy handed, unfair, capricious, yet it was for my well being, even if I did not appreciate or understand it at the time. My drill instructors at recruit training in Parris Island, SC, in June of 1963, administered Marine Corps regulations (more Laws) with the objective of disciplining the individuality out of us raw recruits, in order to create a collective fighting force prepared to fight and die on the battlefield. Again, the trials were often severe, but the aims were designed to help one survive during war. So what is the Law. Either we respect the Law, understand its benefits, or resent it. The Christian might look at the Law as it reflects God’s will, remembering that grace is there as well, but never despise the Law. The Lord had a reason for giving it to us. With the knowledge of the Law, the soul grows in grace. Soli Deo Gloria
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