SIMON PHIPPS

The imperative mood is defined by exhortation. It is not difficult to find this mood in preaching and is found towards the end of the sermon, encapsulated in the "call to action": how will we act differently after the service.  This call to action is found across the theological spectrum in both conservative and liberal churches, typified by "pursue holiness", "spread the gospel", "spend more time in prayer and scripture reading", "spend yourself on behalf of the poor", "love others radically" etc.  Without this imperative, a sermon can end up sounding like a nice thought for the day. The danger with the imperative comes when we acknowledge our own lack of ability to carry out these exhortations. At best it can be something to be safely ignored with "so much on our plate already"; at worst it can become a crushing burden that weighs heavily on our souls when we realise our inability to carry these imperatives out (Lu...

The Indicative Mood Indicative  - explains or describes something, often used in the form of narrative. Most preaching spends a good deal of time in the indicative mood. Ford points out that the gospels are primarily in the indicative mood; telling stories about Jesus. Any good preacher knows that stories form the basis of a good sermon. For most preachers this comes naturally, as a text is usually used as the basis of a sermon, and so part of the sermon is spent explaining the text in question.  The Two Horizons This "explaining the text" is extremely useful; Biblical Scholar Anthony Thiselton has pointed out the gulf or divide that stands between the original hearers of scripture and us today. Thiselton calls this gulf 'the two horizons' ; the horizon of the original text and our own horizon. To this end, the preacher stands as a bridge between these two horizons by both helping the hearers to enter into the ancient world of scripture whilst also bringing the truth ...

Whilst training for ordained ministry I completed a Master’s Degree in theology, and my dissertation was on preaching, therefore it makes sense for me to write about some of the things I have learnt - hence this new series on linguistic moods and preaching. I hope that it will be useful for you, and help you to see preaching through a different lens.   For this series I am indebted to David Ford's insightful chapter in his book The Future of Christian Theology entitled 'Desire Above All'.   In the chapter, Ford writes about how each of the major moods within language are used in scripture and theology and how this impacts the message that the original writers were attempting to convey (it is worth reading the chapter if you find time).   As someone deeply interested in preaching practice it got me thinking about how preachers tend to use moods when preaching and how this impacts their message; after all, preaching is theology done out loud. For this series, the...

The Trinity has always been a complicated subject. After all, it is about God, who is himself complicated, as Paul exclaimed "who has known the mind of the Lord" (Romans 11:34). If we look past the complicated nature of the trinity then we can see the beautiful truth that at the centre of all reality is a community: Three persons in one being, who exist in perfect love and communion. It is from out of this community of love that all creation comes into being. God did not create humans out of a need to be loved, as he is already loved; and God does not create us in order to have something to love, as God already has that within the Trinity. Rather creation exists as the overflow and outpouring of God’s love. A couple that chooses to have a child does not do so because the love that exists between them is deficient or insufficient, but rather they do so as the overflow and outcome of the love that exists between them (at least in an idealised sense). So too does God create ...

May is an exciting time in the church calendar. We have moved through the expectant waiting of Advent and the joy of Christmas. We have entered into sorrow in Lent and celebrated the overthrow of death and sin at Easter. In May we come to the formation of the Church at Pentecost, and the eschatological (final) promises in the Ascension of Christ. At Pentecost, we as the church are formed and empowered to do Christ’s work on earth. The promised Holy Spirit arrives and gives great boldness to those first disciples. The people around them all thought that they were strange (in this instance, drunk in the morning), and society has found the church, when acting as it should, strange ever since. As our society moves more in a post-Christian reality the church begins to look more and more strange. The governing stories that have dominated the imagination for over a thousand years are shifting and changing. Students of disciplines such as art, history, and philosophy are having to learn the ...

Welcome to the final part of my blog series on Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy". Please look at the chapter list to move between the other parts of this series. What I learnt From This Chapter The final chapter is an attempt to create a vision of what the divine conspiracy is working towards. It is an incredibly powerful vision and speaks of a life that begins now and carries on into eternity. For me personally the conversation around materialism and the kingdom of heaven were very helpful (I particularly enjoyed the "God doesn't have a brain, and he has never missed it" line). I love Dallas's description of ourself becoming more christlike towards death and the end quote from Augustine's City of God is truly wonderful. Chapter List Introduction Chapter 1 - Entering the Eternal Kind of Life Now Chapter 2 - Gospels of Sin Management Chapter 3 - What Jesus Knew: Our God-Bathed World Chapter 4 - Who is Really Well Off? - The Beatitudes Chap...