作者：伦·哈尔马森  教牧学博士 廷代尔神学院兼职教授 现居加拿大 安大略省 多伦多市

美国散文家、演讲家拉尔夫·瓦尔多·爱默生这样说过：“我曾听一位传道人讲道，听完我就不想再去教会。”爱默生感叹道，这位传道人从未活出真理。“他所讲的道从未实践在生活中。” ¹

我长期写作，21岁时就出版了第一部作品。约在30年后，也就是2010年的秋天，我成为了一名专职牧师，每周都要在大型聚会上讲道。我开始体会到书面文字与口头表达的区别，但只是停留在理论层面。在会众倾听的压力下，我还没有机会系统地深入研究这种差异。

一个异样的世界

希伯来语中“言语”（dabar）一词兼有“言语”和“事件”的意思。字面和声音间的差异大于理论和实践——他们分属于不同的世界。对此，沃尔特·昂认为书面的文字是不完整的，他说道：“当一个本应脍炙人口的故事没有被真正讲述时，就没有被真正地赋予意义。”²

作家以特定的视角来看待世界：即观察者和解释者的视角。他们不断反思自己和他人的经历，逐渐形成了属于自己独特的风格和韵律。具体来说，他们把所创作的内容转化为富有质感和韵律的诗歌形式。在此过程中，语言就是他们的画板，用来定格现实。詹姆斯·K·A·史密斯这样谈论他作家的职业：“当你对语言或爱或恨时，就可知道自己正在成为作家：当你为句子的抑扬顿挫或短语的起承转合百感交集时——当你正经历令人抓狂的创作瓶颈期，却又无法转离正在辛苦耕耘的段落时；当你开始思考写一句话不是为了证明什么而是让其具有感动人心的力量时。总而言之，当你认为纯粹的语言游戏是你欢喜栖息的乐土时，就会发现自己已经是一名作家了。” ³

纹理和微妙之处

作家与语言、文字有着密不可分的关系。他们可以根据自己的世界观，用语言来照亮和探索世界。而一位基督徒作家的宗旨，就牧师而言，是修复破碎的世界，并将它与上帝的生命重新连接。他们邀请读者一同在上帝和世界的奥秘间徜徉。安妮·拉莫特指出，写作和阅读“加深、拓宽和延伸了我们对生命的感知：它们滋养人的灵魂……就像海上刮起可怖的风暴时，在船上唱歌。你无法阻止肆虐的风暴，但歌声可以改变船上旅客的心境与精神。” ⁴

这就是艺术的气息，它拥有音乐创作中一切的细腻。当我身为一名讲者在语言与交流的世界中探索时，我开始思考声音和文字之间的差异。艾略特说文学的目的在于化血液为笔墨。讲道则需要我们将笔墨变回血液。转化是做工的核心。当我开始以新的方式与语言和比喻角力时，才开始意识到这一点。当我在其中挣扎、探索时，我感到圣灵运行在近旁。

向其他传道人学习

约在我传道生涯的第六个月时，我看到了克莱顿·施米特的文章《讲道是真正的行为艺术》。在文章中，他指出了我面临的困境。我该分享多少个人经历，而使我的故事不至成为福音的藩篱？如果福音是关乎全心参与和道成肉身的，我又怎能不分享自己的亲身经历？当我听其他传道人讲道时，我开始关注新的东西了。我开始注意他们如何使用语气和转折。我观察他们的肢体动作如何使所传达的信息或加增或减损。特别是，我等待着如诗般的感受——比喻如何增加趣味性和丰富性，短语的遣词之美如何营造一种形象或感受。

我听很多故事以寻找这种感受。当这感受是真实的，并且自然地从故事中流露出来时，就能再现讲者的世界，并将其与听众联系在一起。理想情况下，传道人能够用他们的故事重新吸引全世界，将真理和美好再次连接。这样的时刻是神圣的：面纱被揭开，看得见的世界与看不见的世界相遇。上帝的话语不但被讲出来，而且在顷刻间被行出来。施密特写道：“从字面上看，英文中的‘performance’（即行为表现）一词意为通过某种形式传递信息。它是表达的工具，而不是将注意力引向表现者的手段。我们对行为表现的怀疑是基于对事实的描述，是一种行为病理学。”

“最终，传道人的言语若想成为生命之道，所呈现的道必须是一个可供听众栖息的世界。‘这不仅仅是’简单的搬运……想要真正理解行为表现这个词，需要从神学上理解道成肉身这一救赎计划中人类所担负的责任。” ⁵

传道人必须“创造一个可供听众栖息的世界”，这就要道成肉身：将上帝话语转化为生命。我们是作为肉体、智力和情感的整体被创造的。讲道需要讲者将身心灵全面展现在会众面前，这不是将听众的注意引向讲者本身——而是要顺从上帝的话语。情感的转化至关重要：当人们充满情感地展现在我们面前时，我们才能看见他们的全部。

讲演中表达情感最重要的两个因素是节奏和重点。过快的语速难以强调重点，破坏了信息的完整性，也无法实现其表达的意图。技能可以学习，但技能不是全部。圣灵的角色对我而言依然神秘。虽然我们可以寻求圣灵，但圣灵按自己的旨意做工。就像风随着意思吹，我们却不知道它往哪里去，但我们渴望见到这样的景象：圣灵在会众的上空盘旋，引领着传道人，自主地见证着上帝的话语。

完整

宣讲和行为表现本为一体，就像上帝的话语和圣灵。传道人真正的讲台是他们自己和他们真实的生活。讲道的艺术要求具体化，就是将文字化为生命，勾勒出他人能够进入的世界。最终的目标是复杂的，甚至超出我们的能力：使听众因得见上帝和祂世界的美好而转变。让我们所热爱的美好成为我们的行动。

今日，像往日一样，我们在空虚与惊惧中醒来。

不要打开书房的门开始阅读。

取下一件乐器。

让我们所热爱的美好成为我们的行动。

跪下亲吻地面的方式有千百种。

———————

1.克莱顿·施米特，“传道是真正的行为艺术”，《今日基督教》，2011年5月23日。https://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2011/spring/preachingperformance.html

2.《口头与书面：文字的技巧化》（英国伦敦：路特雷奇出版社，1982年），第11页。

3.詹姆斯·k·a·史密斯，“关注手工艺:成为‘作家’”，2011年3月16日。http://forsclavigera.blogspot.com/2011/03/

4.安妮·拉莫特，《一只鸟接一只鸟：写作和生活指导》(纽约州，纽约市：昂克出版社，1995)，237页。

5.施密特，“传道是真正的行为艺术”。

6.鲁米:《爱之书》科尔曼·巴克斯译（加州 圣弗朗西斯科：哈珀出版社 ，2003），123。

Let the beauty we love: The preacher’s art

Len Hjalmarson, DMin, is an adjunct professor at Tyndale Seminary, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist and lecturer, was quoted as saying, “ ‘I once heard a preacher who sorely tempted me to go to church no more.’ ” Emerson complained that the preacher in question had never learned to convert life into truth. “ ‘There was not a hint in all the discourse that he had ever lived at all.’ ”¹

I have always been a writer. I had my first written work published when I was 21. Fast-forward about 30 years to the fall of 2010, when I became a full-time pastor. Suddenly I was speaking to large gatherings every week. I realized that there was a difference between words on paper and those given voice, but I knew it as technical knowledge. I had not had the opportunity to explore the distinction personally and regularly under the pressure of a listening congregation.

A DIFFERENT WORLD

The Hebrew for “word” (dabar) means both “word” and “event.” The distance between page and voice is more than that between theory and practice—it is a different world. Walter Ong illustrates this when he comments that written words are residue: “When an often-told story is not actually being told, all that exists of it is the potential in certain human beings to tell it.”²

Writers have a certain orientation to the world: that of an observer and exegete. They develop a distinct cadence and style as they stand reflectively on the edge of experience, their own and that of others. Taking what was embodied, they translate it into poetic form with texture and cadence. In the process, they freeze reality with words—their palette is language itself. James K. A. Smith talks about the writer’s vocation like this: “You will know you’re on your way to being a writer when you have a love/hate relationship with language: when you can be either thrilled or vexed by the cadence of a sentence or turn of phrase—when you can’t quite leave the paragraph on which you’re laboring because there’s a tic of timing that’s driving you mad. Or when you begin to consider the force of a sentence in terms of its ability to move rather than prove. In sum, you’ll know you’ve become a writer when you consider the sheer play of language to be a country to which you’d gladly emigrate.”³

TEXTURE AND SUBTLETIES

All writers have an intimate relationship with language and words. Depending on their worldview, they can use language to illuminate and explore. A Christian writer’s aim, such as a pastor’s, is to make the broken world whole, to reconnect it to the life of God. They enter the mystery of God and the world and invite their readers along on the adventure. Anne Lamott notes that writing and reading “deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. . . . It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”⁴

Such is the texture of the art, one with all the subtleties of music composition. As I began to explore the world of communication and language as a speaker, I started to reflect on the difference between the voice and the page. T. S. Eliot said the purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink. Preaching calls us to transform ink back into blood. Embodiment is at the heart of the effort. I came to recognize this as I began to wrestle with language and metaphor in a new way. And I sensed the near hovering of the Spirit as I struggled and explored.

LEARNING FROM OTHER PREACHERS

About halfway through my first year as a preacher, I came across Clayton Schmit’s article “Preaching Is Real Performance Art.” He identified the tensions I was encountering. How much can I share personally before my story gets in the way? How can I not share personally if the gospel is about participation and incarnation? As I listened to other preachers, I began focusing on something new. I paid attention to how they used inflection and tone. I watched to see how their bodies either added to or detracted from the message. Especially, I waited for the poetic sensibility—how the metaphors added color and richness and how the beauty of a phrase evoked an image or feeling.

And I listened a lot for feeling. When feeling is authentic and rooted naturally in the story being told, it connects with the audience in a way that reproduces the world of the speaker. At their best, preachers re-enchant the world with their stories, reconnecting truth and beauty. Such moments are sacramental: a visible and invisible world meet, and the veil is lifted. Suddenly the Word is not only proclaimed but also performed. Schmit writes, “In literal terms, the word performance means to bring a message through (per) a form. It is a tool for expression, not a means of drawing attention to the performer. Our suspicions of performance are based on a caricature of the real thing, a performance pathology.

“Ultimately, if the preacher’s words are to become the Word of life, they must be presented in a way that creates a world for listeners to inhabit. [This is more than] delivery. . . . To truly understand performance requires a theological understanding of human responsibility in the equation of incarnation.”⁵

The preacher must “create a world for listeners to inhabit,” and this requires incarnation: the embodiment of the Word. We are created as whole beings: flesh and intellect and affections. Performance requires that the whole person appears for the congregation, but not to draw attention to self—rather, at the service of the Word. Embodied emotion is critical: we know we are meeting the whole person when they present themselves to us emotionally.

Two of the most critical components of feeling in speech are pace and emphasis. Excessive speed makes emphasis difficult, damaging the integrity of the message and rendering embodiment impossible. Though such skills can be learned, yet that still is not the whole picture. The role of the Holy Spirit remains mysterious to me. Although we can invoke the Spirit, His work is His own. And like the wind, we do not know where He is going, yet we long to see the effect: the presence of the Spirit as Guide, hovering over the congregation, directing the preacher, sovereignly witnessing to the Word.

INTEGRITY

Proclamation and performance belong together, much like Word and Spirit. The preacher’s real platform is their own person and the life they have lived. The art of preaching requires embodiment, transforming words to life, storying the world so that others can enter in. The final goal is complex and even beyond our power: that our listeners might behold the beauty of God and His world and be changed. Let the beauty we love be what we do!

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty

and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study

and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.⁶

1. Clayton Schmit, “Preaching Is Real Performance Art,” Christianity Today, May 23, 2011, https://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2011/spring/preachingperformance.html. ^
2. Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London, UK: Routledge, 1982), 11. ^
3. James K. A. Smith, “Attention to Craft: Towards Being a ‘Writer,’ ” fors clavigera (blog), March 16, 2011, http://forsclavigera.blogspot.com/2011/03/. ^
4. Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (New York, NY: Anchor, 1995), 237. ^
5. Schmit, “Preaching.” ^
6. Rumi: The Book of Love, trans. Coleman Barks (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003), 123. ^