Slow of Speech and Unclean Lips

Book excerpt: Historically, people who have risen to the occasion to speak of faith for their generation have been keenly aware of their own limitations-whether Moses, who was slow of speech, or Isaiah, who was concerned that he spoke with unclean lips. The question both Moses and Isaiah seem to be asking is, who am I to speak for God? And we wonder in turn, was it they who spoke, or God who spoke through them? These biblical images carry the weight of the question raised by the essays in this volume. How is preaching both the work of God and yet also a function of the individual's own person and identity? How is the preacher to conceive the identity he or she assumes when proclaiming the Word of God? Some of the leading educators in homiletics today propose a variety of possible preaching identities in this volume: preacher as messenger of hope, as lover, as God's mystery steward, as ridiculous person, as fisher, as host and guest, as one out of one's mind, and as one entrusted. The result is an open-ended invitation for readers to identify their own preaching identity either in concert with one of the images presented here or of their own making, appropriately contextualized to their own ministry and theology. Contributors: Andre Resner, Anna Carter Florence, Chuck Campbell, James Kay, John McClure, Lincoln Galloway, Lucy Hogan, Robert Stephen Reid, and Thomas Long