The views expressed in this article are of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
Sacramental Preaching: Sermons on the Hidden Presence of Christ
Hans Boersma
Baker Academic (2016). 240 pp.
In the last decade, Hans Boersma has written a number of helpful books on recovering pre-modern interpretation and learning from the exegesis of the Church Fathers. [1] In this volume, however, the rubber hits the road as he displays how his recovery of pre-modern interpretation affects his sermons. The book consists of lightly edited manuscripts of fourteen sermons that Boersma preached in his own church, and each sermon is following by 4–5 pages of preaching notes.
The book is structured around the theme of “happiness.” As Boersma writes, “The large majority of Christian theologians have understood our aim in life to be happiness, that is, the eternal possession of Christ as our greatest good” (p. xxiv). Therefore, following an introductory sermon from Acts 2, the book has three main sections: Sensed Happiness, Pilgrim Happiness, and Heavenly Happiness. One might say that Boersma brings us on a beatific journey as we move from sermons on finding happiness in the created world as we now experience it and gradually moving toward our ultimate happiness in the presence of God himself.
Boersma’s sermons are rich and full of theological and devotional insight. I was personally encouraged reading them; therefore, the book is worth reading for its devotional value alone. Beyond this, however, the book has great value as a model of a pre-modern interpretive approach to preaching. Boersma is explicit about his exegetical intentions: “Underlying the sermon is the conviction that Old Testament narrative functions as a sacrament that contains Christ as its real presence” (p. 11); “Exegesis is first and foremost searching for the reality of Christ” (p. 25). Whether one is satisfied with the label “sacramental exegesis,” I find it difficult to deny that the apostles and their successors were looking for the presence of Christ in the Old Testament and that their example encourages us to do the same.
Of course this short review will not allow us to evaluate fourteen sermons across the Bible, so I will not attempt to evaluate his readings of specific texts. However, along with his appeal to “sacramental exegesis,” we can note that some of the key interpretive methods that Boersma emphasizes are allegorical readings and spiritual interpretation, appeals to the affections, and Christological-theological exegesis with an emphasis on our participation in him.
While self-consciously rooting his sermons in the text of Scripture, Boersma also differentiates himself from many modern exegetes. In his explanation of a sermon on Matt 2:13–21, he explains, “This sermon is expository in the sense that exegesis informs every aspect of it . . . But it will be evident that, for the most part, my preaching is not strictly expository. First, I do not sequentially follow the biblical account verse by verse or even word by word. Instead, I look for a theologically significant word, theme, or quotation that plays a prominent role in the biblical text” (p. 78). With apologies to Boersma, I would still label his sermons expositional. He attempts to faithfully explain and apply key aspects of the theology that emerges from the text itself. This does not mean we cannot come to the text with questions or theological presuppositions from elsewhere (which is inevitable). Rather it means we let the text speak to our questions and presuppositions. To be sure, however, advocates of a strict “literalgrammatical-historical” exegetical method will be less than satisfied with the sermons, regardless of whether they are working from a historical-critical perspective or a version of a dispensational hermeneutic.
The “Preacher’s Notes” that follow each sermon are excellent supplements to the sermons themselves. They are particularly helpful for understanding Boersma’s method. However, without reading his previous work on “sacramental exegesis,” one might have a more difficult time tracking with Boersma’s exegetical and homiletical moves. Therefore, I’d recommend reading his earlier volume Heavenly Participation before picking up this book. With this background in place, the notes will likely be of more immediate use for a pastor. Also, while this is not a critique of the content per se, it also may have been useful to include introductory notes before the sermon itself. I consistently found myself turning back to the sermons to reread sections while reading the notes.
Finally, reading this book both seemed simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar to me. On the one hand, the sermons in this book often bring to mind the exegetical methods and preaching styles of Irenaeus, Augustine, Calvin, and the Puritans. On the other hand, these sermons are different than many of the exegetical sermons that I hear. Boersma is not shy about his debt to the exegesis of the Fathers, so it should be no surprise to find his sermons reflecting (while not exactly mimicking) them. Although he does not cite them often, Boersma’s sermons share many features with the Puritans as well. His Christological and allegorical readings of the Old Testament are much closer to both John Owen and John Chrysostom than they are to most modern expository sermons. Boersma himself notes, “I am convinced that most Christian use of allegory is anything but arbitrary . . . As a result, there tends to be a great deal more similarity in exegetical outcome among advocates of spiritual interpretation than among those who restrict themselves to literal or historical exegetical methods” (p. 148). Therefore, it should not surprise us to find these similarities.
While it is true that the Reformers and Puritans pushed against a perceived minimizing of the literal sense in the late Medieval era, it is important to observe that our modern exegetical readings are often influenced by methodological naturalism far more than we realize. Even when I disagree with some exegetical approaches or conclusions, I found myself edified by the sermons and better instructed in how to read and preach more faithfully. Therefore, I highly recommend this volume as a resource for devotional reading and for instruction in faithful theological preaching.
Notes
[1] These include Nouvelle Theologie and Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017); Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011).
Chris Bruno (PhD, Wheaton College) is the President of Oahu Theological Seminary where he also serves as Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology. He has written and contributed to many books, most recently The Divine Christology of the Apostle Paul (IVP, 2024, with John J. R. Lee and Thomas R. Schreiner). He is a member of the St. John Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
