One of the greatest problems (in my opinion) with being an English speaking denomination - really a non-koine Greek speaking denomination is the devilishly hard time we have dealing with the word "parakalo". You might know this word in English - it's the source of the word "Paraclete" - a title of the Holy Spirit. In John 15 and 16, Jesus is promising the Holy Spirit, calling Him the... well... how do we translate this Paraclete word? Helper? Comforter?
Sure! Good translations... but not quite full.
See, a paraclete would be someone who would be along side (para) you in your trial and speak (kalo) to you whatever you needed to hear to get you through the trial. Your defense lawyer. Your Perry Mason. It's a word that describes a whole bunch of different activities. Help, aid, advise, console, comfort, encourage, exhort, chew in to you if you need to be chewed into... just like a good coach will do a whole bunch of different things.
So it's a very full word. That we tend to use very narrowly elsewhere... like when we translate the Epistles and take that same word and render it as "urge" or "exhort".
In fact, we hear all this talk about "exhortation" - and generally the word that gets translated as exhortation is just that "parakalo" word. Paul parakalos all the time... he speaks in the Spirit the Words that the people need to hear.
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So why is that so often reduced to "exhort"? Perhaps that says more about what people think rather than what the Scriptures actually say. I mean, we have people saying that we need to end sermons with exhortation! Perhaps there are times that might be the case... but I'd say our sermons need to be Paraclesis... need to be the Spirit filled words of comfort-help-encouraging-exhorting-coaching-consoling-advising that are apt to the time and situation of the people we are given to be paracleting at the moment.
See, just as "parakalo" can't be reduced to one specific aspect, neither can preaching. When one preaches, one is dealing with a real congregation full of real people in a real time and place. And where those people are at will always be different. Sometimes they might need a swift kick, sometimes they might need more of a warning, sometimes they might need a stronger emphasis on comfort or encouragement.
You know, what we used to call the Art of applying Law and Gospel... both of them... and both in their fullness; the Law in its sternness, the Gospel in its sweetness. And what might you have to emphasize on a given day to show forth the full sternness or sweetness - well, that really depends on your congregation and what they need to hear.
To simply say, "People need more exhortation" is as vapid as saying, "Coaches need to yell more at their team." Sometimes that may be true... often it's not. And often just having a coach scream more won't fix the problems with a team.
Sometimes a pastor coming down hard on a congregation will fix things... but not as often as we think. And certainly not as a response to the Culture War - if the problem is that the world around them is messed up, how does wagging a finger fix that or prepare them to endure in the face of a messed up word.
I mean, I love Bobby Knight not merely as much as the next guy, but if you think all he was as a coach was the guy who yelled and threw chairs, you don't know Bobby Knight. Don't reduce coach Knight to that... and don't reduce the Spirit and His work to finger wagging because of your fears over the crumbling of society.
Jesus wins. He rose. The Spirit still gives life. He works faith through the Gospel. People live in Christ.
They do. And if you yourself aren't seeing that, O Preacher, then perhaps you should shift your focus - let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and the It-is-finished-er of our faith.
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