photo credit Sonja Clemente, 2006

Not for Itching Ears:

A Collection of Sermons

By the Rev. Ronald F. Marshall

Introduction  

 I call this collection of sermons, “Not for Itching Ears.” This title comes from 2 Timothy 4:2-5 in which the Apostle Paul tells the young preacher, Timothy, to “be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort.” This is because his listeners won’t want to “endure sound teaching, but having itching ears will… wander into myths…. to suit their own likings.” So Timothy and all preachers will have to push God’s holy Word – since it goes against human wishes and the sinfulness that infects us all.  

Being Offensive

Preachers of Christ therefore must never forget that Jesus came to his own and they “received him not” (John 1:11). That he offended those who first heard him (Matthew 11:6). That his words sounded too hard for them to bear (John 6:60). And that his way, from the beginning, was hated by the worldly because it ran counter to their will and ways (John 15:19).

       I have therefore tried in these sermons to smash the myths St. Paul condemned, present sound teaching with urgency, and box our itching ears which lead us so easily astray. In short, I’ve tried to tell the gospel truth rather than what people want to hear (Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:4).

      I have not done this gladly. I take no delight in being confrontational – or preaching, as Stanley Hauerwas has said, “as though I had enemies” (First Things, May 1995). Nevertheless I have tried to do this following St. Paul who said, “be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5).  

Preaching Conversion

An evangelist? Am I doing the work of an evangelist in these sermons preached in church? Yes, indeed, I am, for Christians also need to be converted over and over again. Christians need evangelizing just as much as unbelievers do! [see my “Deathly Evangelism,” (1995) at google]. We can’t rest back on our laurels – thinking once we’re saved, we're always saved. For we can and do “drift away” from so great a salvation (Hebrews 2:1-3). 

Lutherans therefore reject the popular view that the “godly cannot fall again” [The Book of Concord (1580) ed. T. Tappert (Fortress 1959) p. 35]. So that drift has to be stopped. And this can only be done through the preaching of the Word of God. This in large part is what I have tried to do in these sermons – asking God to help and guide me.  

The Three Part Format

The format of these sermons comes from the Lutheran Confessions. They say “the sum of the proclamation of the Gospel is to [a] denounce sin, to [b] offer… righteousness for Christ’s sake…, and to [c] lead us as regenerated men to do good” (BC, pp. 185-186]. So in my sermons I follow this three step format – and in the order specified. This classic format is nearly gone from American churches today. So hearing these sermons will be a strange and foreign experience for most.  

       But I hope it will also become salutary, refreshing and edifying. I hope its formulaic structure will not bore you but help you understand God's word and what to expect from it. I also hope it will assure you of hearing "the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27).

 Quoting Martin Luther

I also quote Martin Luther (1483-1546) and his followers throughout these sermons. That's because in the Lutheran Confessions he is said to be our “most eminent teacher” (BC, p. 576).

       And it was Luther, by the way, who said Christians must be converted over and over again. Most famously he says this in his Large Catechism (1529) when he argues that baptism is a “daily” affair (BC, p. 445) (see also Luke 9:23) – something that we have to go through again and again.

       But he also makes this point more fully and more exactly in his Isaiah commentary from the years 1527-1530. There he writes that as it is “Christ’s business always to forgive, so it is our business, as we are engulfed by daily cares, to be converted day by day [quottidie converti]” (Luther’s Works 17:117). Only those Christians who think they are floating into heaven on velvet cushions (LW 23:362) and not bitterly engulfed in temptations, will shamelessly oppose this quottidie converti! I have explored this costly error more fully in my article, “Poisoning Baptism” (The Bride of Christ, Lent-Easter 1991 and on this webpage under Baptism). 

Further Reading on Lutheran Preaching

If you would like further information on why I preach the way I do, you can read my articles on “Somber Lutherans,” Lutheran Forum, Spring 2004 (and on this webpage under Publications); “Preaching Against the Cross,” Lutheran Partners, September/October 2003; “Christ as a Sign of Contradiction,” Pro Ecclesia, Fall 1997; and my booklets The Fatal Vice: Standards for Judging Lutheran Pastors (2006), Kierkegaard on Preaching for Salvation (2004), Kierkegaard’s Year 2005 (2005) and Making a New World: How Lutherans Read the Bible (2003).