Sharing the poetry of grace: the theologian as preacher

Poetry is not the problem. In fact, Walter Brueggemann argues that poetic speech is the only speech worthy of the pulpit. We will return to this, No, the core of my discomfort is, I think, about the nature of the speaking and the listening, about the intentions of the speech and the climate of its receptions. The pulpit, for me, on a good day, symbolises a particular sort of speech and particular sort of listening. It is, in the wonderful words Graeme Garrett used to preface arecent sermon, the place where 'I speak, and we listen, in the name og God, Holy Trinity. The pulpit, from this perspective, a God-space, a sacred speaking-and listening space, the the same way that the altar is an offering-and-receiving place, the sacred space for a sacred meal.