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...