Jason and Teer (finally) catch up with Ken Jones (The Undomesticated Preacher) to discuss section 10.2 of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Theological Education at Finkenwalde.

From section 10.2(1):

The sermon derives from the incarnation of Jesus Christ and is determined by the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It does not derive from some universal truth or emotional experience. The word of the sermon is the incarnate Christ. The incarnate Christ is God. Hence the sermon is actually Christ. Godas human being. Christ as the word. As the Word, Christ walks through the church-community.

From 10.2(5):

The shape of the preached word is different from that of every other word. This word is not mediated truth, not a word of expression, communication [Mitteilungswort], or a goal. It is not expressing something other than itself. The essence of the word does not reside beyond it. The word is itself the content = the historical Christ who bears all humanity along with all its punishment and its suffering. Christ who bears in this way, that is the dimension of the preached word. This one condition of being taken up isthe basis of the perpetual bearing that the preached word itself undertakes; ethically this bearing = the bearing of good and evil; homiletically it means the address: you are to be challenged by God. Hence in correspondence to this one condition of being taken up, one must also say that human beings in their own turn bear Christ. This distinction must be made clear, not in terms of ritual but in terms of content. How does the preached word become the Christ-word, and how does it receive its original form?

Stay tuned because next up is 10.2.2, which dives into the questions posed by Bonhoeffer’s students.

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