James Forbes. The Holy Spirit and Preaching. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989.
You would think that you could expect something unique from someone who is ordained in two denominations ( The United Holy Church and American Baptist) and who is the first African-American pastor of Riverside Church in New York City. But unique is not the proper word for this book. I like evocative better. So, rather than a review, I would like to wander around with several words dropped here and there in the text. What else would you expect me to do?
Appointment
Appointment should be a rich word for those in the United Methodist ministry. I mean, after all, that we spend so much time under one. We are “under appointment” by the Bishop in the pastorates we serve. But we rarely, if ever, think about our appointments in the way that Dr. Forbes talks about appointment. For him, appointment is an expression of the anointing of the Spirit. Wow!!! What a concept!
For us, unfortunately, appointment is a word fraught with disappointment (how did that get in there?) and disdain. After all, we are appointed year by year to the charges which we are to serve. Spread out before us are opportunities for service provided by the Bishop and the Cabinet, and in some major sense, the congregations, who shepherd over us. Our responsibility becomes that of using the gifts and graces which we have found within ourselves, planted and watered by the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Church (hopefully), and which have been confirmed by the Church (inward/outward call), to encourage and strengthen the gifts and graces to be found (evoked, invoked) in our charges.
However, in the regularity of living, something gets changed. Appointment becomes entitlement. Perhaps in our heart of hearts we come to believe that we deserve to be where we are, doing what we do. It has now become a matter of rights.
And of jealousy. “He got the best appointment in the whole conference,” we mutter,” and he didn’t deserve it.” Being translated this means that we, or someone who is included in our circle of we, were the deserving ones and the powers-that-be passed we over in order to give it to him. We are forced to wonder, aloud or silently, what distasteful thing he had to do to earn such a promotion. Now appointment has become a solely human operation, rising no higher than the usual political level of all our other operations, but dressed up in our own peculiar ecclesiastical garb. Nowhere to be found are the basin and towel. Appointment has become our word – we own it and not the other way around. (In contrast, see “Superintendency of the Spirit” below).
It’s really a shame when the word loses its enchantment. Worse than that, we have to take all the responsibility for it.
The Superintendency of the Spirit
It was from Dr. Thomas A. Carruth that I first heard the term “lover’s quarrel” applied to the church. It stuck with me because it perfectly described what I had so often felt about the church. It is an institution, after all, with all the connotations that come with that word. It can be so impersonal, so seemingly uncaring, so apparently set on doing the exact opposition of what needs to be done.
But it is still the Church. I believe I can stretch Dr. Forbes’ term to cover all this. I appreciate the linkage that he gives when he follows up anointing and appointment to the superintendency of the spirit. After all, even before the anointing falls or when know the appointment, God is already preparing the way and the messenger, as well as the word and the hearers. Using that other big word, Providence, I can even believe that God uses our blusters and blunders. Naturally, it is harder to apply that to the institution, particularly when we group institutions among the “powers” that we must often fight against. The Spirit still assures us that God is in the mix and that when least expected, God shows up.
It also means that as we give God the glory that is rightfully God’s, we can let go of the blame that accumulates in the trying. If the appointment is from God, then, I tell myself, I can take the risk.
Or, as I have sometimes said when asked the question, “Do you believe God really works through the Bishop and the Cabinet?”, I can answer, “My God can even work in spite of them.” God did with Joseph and his brothers, and also with Jonah and the fish. I just need to remember that the latter may apply to me. And to apologize in advance to new bishops and district superintendents.