Richard Lischer > Quotes

“A great many preachers die of style, that is, of trying to soar; when, if they would only consent to go afoot as their ideas do, they might succeed and live.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“I listened impatiently to the wisdom of the O'Neills for about twenty minutes until I could take no more (by this time Steve and Susan had me thumbing through the paperback). I slid the book across the desk at them and said, 'This is so much shit.'

That was a mistake because the word 'shit' on the lips of a pastor deeply offended their moral sensibilities. Such was the state of things among us. They took grave exception to the word SHIT, while I was expected to remain noddingly neutral toward their adultery. WELL, SHIT, I thought. Without apologizing, I tried to convince them I was merely 'upset' by the prospects of their separation. Gradually, I achieved the clinical tone that they so admired in the O'Neills and evidently expected in their country parson.”
― Richard Lischer, Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith and Discovery

“For the word of God is not received by faith if it flits about in the top of the brain, but when it takes root in the depth of the heart”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“Once you've caught a glimpse of the cosmos through the back doors of your church, it doesn't seem like such a big deal to suggest to a sweet young couple that they quit sleeping with other people.”
― Richard Lischer, Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith and Discovery

“What good, after all, do these two things do the man, who both admits that what has been said is true, and has high praise for the speech it has been said in, and still does not yield that full assent,”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“This is not merely the literary technique of overhearing”
― Richard Lischer, Our Hearts Are Restless: The Art of Spiritual Memoir

“The priest should treat those whom he rules as a father treats very young children. We are not disturbed by children's insults or blows or tears; nor do we think much of their laughter and approval.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“have pity upon those hungering ones immediately around you who must find life through your sermon or they will never find it at all. If some of your hearers sleep on they will of necessity wake up in eternal perdition, for they hear no other helpful voice.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“Augustine, the faithful interpreter of them, exclaims: "Our Savior, to teach us that belief comes as a gift and not from merit, says: `No one comes to me, unless my Father ... draw him' [John 6:44], and' ' . . it be granted him by my Father' [John 6:651. It is strange that two hear: one despises, the other rises up! Let him who despises impute it to himself; let him who rises up not arrogate it to himself.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“For the man, therefore, who has the duty of saying wisely even what he cannot say eloquently, it is supremely necessary that he should have the words of the Scriptures at his fingertips. For the poorer he perceives himself to be in his own words, the richer it behooves him to be in those of Scripture.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“credibility of doctrine is not established until we are persuaded beyond doubt that God is its Author. Thus, the highest proof of Scripture derives in general from the fact that God in person speaks in it.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“Thus when Isaiah in chapter fifty-three says how Christ should die for us and bear our sins, he has written the pure gospel. And I assure you, if a person fails to grasp this understanding of the gospel, he will never be able to be illuminated in the Scripture nor will he receive the right foundation.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“The parson exceeds not an hour in preaching, because all ages have thought that a competency: and he that profits not in that time, will less afterward; the same affection which made him not profit before, making him then weary; and so he grows from not relishing, to loathing.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“The interpreter and teacher of the divine Scriptures, therefore, the defender of right faith and the hammer of error, has the duty of both teaching what is good and unteaching what is bad; and in this task of speaking it is his duty to win over the hostile, to stir up the slack, to point out to the ignorant what is at stake and what they ought to be looking for.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“What troubles and vexations do you suppose a man endures if he enters the lists of preaching with this ambition for applause? The sea can never be free from waves; no more can his soul be free from cares and sorrow. For though a man may have great force as a speaker (which you will rarely find), still he is not excused continual effort. For the art of speaking comes, not by nature, but by instruction, and therefore even if a man reaches the acme of perfection in it, still it may forsake him unless he cultivates its force by constant application and exercise. So the gifted have even harder work than the unskillful. For the penalty for neglect is not the same for both, but varies in proportion to their attainments. No one would blame the unskillful for turning out nothing remarkable. But gifted speakers are pursued by frequent complaints from all and sundry, unless they continually surpass the expectation which everyone has of them.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“After all, if Queen Esther prayed, when she was going to speak in the king's presence for the temporal salvation of her people, that God might put suitable words into her mouth, how much more should you pray to receive such a favor, when you are toiling in word and teaching for the people's eternal salvation?”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“We are now more conscious of the problem of communication itself even in our own language. Familiar words have lost their meaning for many; or the same word means different things to different people. Jargon and cliches usurp the place of discriminating speech in many areas of life.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“even those foodstuffs without which life cannot be supported need their pickles and spices.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“The truth is, that as long as men reject Christ and do not savingly believe in him, however they may be awakened, and however strict and conscientious and laborious they may be in religion, they have the wrath of God abiding on them, they are his enemies and the children of the devil (as the Scripture calls all that be not savingly converted, Matt. 13:38; 1 John 3:10), and it is uncertain whether they shall ever obtain mercy. God is under no obligation to show them mercy, nor will he be if they fast and pray and cry never so much; and they are then especially provoking God under those terrors, in that they stand it out against Christ, and will not accept of an offered Savior, though they see so much need of him; and seeing this is the truth, they should be told so, that they may be sensible what their case indeed be.
To blame a minister for thus declaring the truth to those who are under awakenings, and not immediately administering comfort to them, is like blaming
a surgeon because, when he has begun to thrust in his lance, whereby he has already put his patient to great pain, and he shrieks and cries out with anguish, he is so cruel that he will not stay his hand, but goes on to thrust it in further, until he comes to the core of the wound. Such a compassionate physician, who, as soon as his patient began to flinch, should withdraw his hand and go about immediately to apply a plaster to skin over the wound and leave the core untouched, would be one that would heal the hurt slightly, crying "peace, peace," when there is no peace.
Indeed”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“But this is partly because men do not consider either how secret and lofty the heavenly wisdom is, or how very dull men are to perceive the mysteries of God; partly because they do not have regard to that firm and steadfast constancy of heart which is the chief part of faith.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“In Book 4 of On Christian Doctrine Augustine restates broad Ciceronian principles and transposes them into homiletical theory. He addresses standard considerations of audience, diction, rhythm, and style, but subjects them all to the authority of the Bible, which, in Augustine's treatment, is not only a source of doctrine but also a handbook of style. Thus the preacher not only exegetes the text but also uses it as a stylistic model for his sermon.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“Again, we can never forget in thinking of the preacher's personality that he is one who lives in constant familiarity with thoughts and words which to other men are occasional and rare, and which preserve their sacredness mainly by their rarity. That fact must always come in when we try to estimate the influences of a preacher's life. What will the power of that fact be? I am sure that often it weakens the minister. I am sure that many men who, if they came to preach once in a great while in the midst of other occupations, would preach with reality and fire, are deadened to their sacred work by their constant intercourse with sacred things.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“Never by any possibility must the minister's speech become a rival to his subject; that were to dishonor Christ, and not to glorify him.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present

“it will not be enough for the mind to be illumined by the Spirit of God unless the heart is also strengthened and supported by his power. In this matter the Schoolmen go completely astray, who in considering faith identify it with a bare and simple assent arising out of knowledge, and leave out confidence and assurance of heart.”
― Richard Lischer, The Company of Preachers: Wisdom on Preaching, Augustine to the Present