The Pulpit

While some of today's preachers seem to have an aversion to preaching from a pulpit, it always seemed like a centering place for my preaching.  There were times when I wandered away from it, but it was also a place to which I returned.  It seems that part of the contemporary aversion to its use has to do with wanting to create a more personal and intimate moment for preaching.  However, what is often lost is some of the sense of authority that good preaching must have to be faithful preaching.    

Preaching is not about pleasing the people who hear.  Nor is it about an ego trip for the preacher.  Preaching is about speaking the Word of the Lord in the tradition of those prophets of the Old Testament who thundered forth saying, "Thus says the Lord...."   To speak in the prophetic tradition is to speak with authority.  What the preacher often forgets is that the authority comes not from the preacher, but from the sacred Word which should always anchor the sermon.  A strong sturdy pulpit is a reminder to the preacher and to those who hear that the sermon is not like some inspirational speech given at a civic club gathering, but a word which comes from the Lord who has spoken first in the Word and then again in the heart of the preacher.    

As I think back over the many pulpits from which I have preached over a life time of preaching, I am caused to remember the way each one kept me grounded and anchored to the truth of the living Word.  To be anchored to the pulpit does not keep the preacher from moving around as the sermon unfolds, but instead it serves as a reminder that the place from which the sermon is proclaimed is unlike any other speaking platform in our society.  It is a holy place where the Word of the Lord is proclaimed by those who dare to hear it and speak it.