Preaching John

by Robert Kysar

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 2002

Overview

The Gospel of John exhibits a peculiar Christian language and thought that need to be understood and employed in the preaching ministry. The preacher's task involves penetrating the thick and often confusing language of the Gospel and comprehending its frequently paradoxical theology. The preacher can find new and powerful resources for preaching in Johannine language and thought, as well as its use of narrative and discourse. These discoveries facilitate preaching John in ways that are consistent with recent trends in homiletic theory. The method of this book is to combine the practical (how to preach John) with proposals for understanding the Gospel. The author offers a variety of sermon ideas and designs throughout each chapter based on numerous passages selected from the Revised Common Lectionary.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Finally, we do well to remember that the basic theme and claim of the Gospel is revelation. God has been revealed in Christ. Because of Christ, we know something about God we did not know before, since Christ ‘exegetes’ the very heart of God (1:18). ‘Truth’ in John probably means the truth of the revelation. The consistent theme of John is that in seeing and hearing Christ we see and hear God (see 5:24 and 14:9). We are probably wise to ask of every text we read and preach on, how does this passage in some sense make God known?” (Page 46)

“Christ appears to address these people in the midst of their difficulty. The suggestion is that Christ always comes to us amid our difficulties, our suffering, and our troubles. We might think just the opposite is true. That Christ comes when we get ourselves straightened out, when our faith and confidence is the strongest. Rather the risen Christ seeks to address us in our neediest times and in our moments of failure.” (Pages 168–169)

“The second is that readers of John are never allowed to forget that this Jesus comes from ‘above’ and is a foreigner in the world. Jesus’ divine dignity is never compromised (see chapter 2). Finally, as we will discuss in the next chapter, John was probably written for a community separated from a society hostile to it. The fourth evangelist portrays Christ as one who comes from God’s love for the world (3:16) but who stands with Christians against the general society.” (Page 13)

“The first is the fact that in dealing with crowds, Jesus is often combative and stern.” (Page 13)

Product Details

• Title: Preaching John
• Authors: Robert Kysar
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 264

About Robert Kysar

Robert Kysar earned his Ph.D. in New Testament from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, after an undergraduate education at the College of Idaho. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Religious Studies of Yale University, 1973–1974. After seventeen years of college teaching (of which twelve were spent at Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota), he became co-pastor of Christ United Lutheran Church, Gordon, Pennsylvania, with his wife, the Reverend Myrna C. Kysar. He is now professor of Homiletics and New Testament at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

Among his several books are Called to Care and four books on the Gospel of John. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the Society for New Testament Studies.