My spiritual father, also a preacher, is quick to remind me that we preachers do not have to preach… we get to preach. I believe he is true. At a preaching conference two summers ago, Rob Bell spoke of the preacher’s dilemma as the difference between “having something to say” and “having to say something.” In between these two reflections is the glorious burden of preaching.
I choose the word “glorious” because the Word that we bear is the greatest treasure the world can ever know. The Psalms speak over and over of the delight of the Lord’s commandments (Psalm 19:10) and how the Word of God is a lamp and a light to guide us (Psalm 119:103).
And yet preaching is also a burden. Not in the “have to” sense, but in sense that it is an immense weight to bear. It resembles for me the task of moving a huge rock from one place to another. This is heavy stuff, moving this glorious and heavy treasure into the hearts and minds and bodies of God’s people.
The Hebrew phrase kavod Adonai (the glory of the Lord) brings these two concepts together. In Hebrew, the glory of God is also something heavy, weighty, substantial. So it is with preaching.