the good ones.

The best priests I have known, and those most loved by their congregations, did very little interpreting in their sermons. I have watched very closely, since these are my role models for my own impending ministy. Instead of "preaching" they taught. They taught history, language, psychology, etymology, epistomology, philosophy and occasionally theology. They did not typically end with a 'conclusion' in the logical sense, but rather put many ideas out, and clarified the issues brought up in the Bible readings appointed for the day. They often showed how the passages related to other passages, or how the different translations and meanings of the original text give a deeper and more complex and meaningful understanding than the NRSV shows at first glance.

A good priest is not content to simply tell people what to believe, but how to believe.

Love in Christ,