Rev. Dr. Craig Dykstra
An address he delivered at the 2011 National Festival of Young Preachers January 6, 2011, and published in the annual book of sermons Waking to the Holy, edited by Rev. Lee Huckleberry (Chalice Press, 2012).
I.
In the early summer of 2008, the Academy of Preachers and the National Festival of Young Preachers was just barely a dream. Dwight Moody came to the Lilly Endowment after having retired as the Dean of the Chapel at Georgetown College in Kentucky, and he was trying to figure out what to do next with his life.
He came with three or four different ideas that he wanted to have a conversation about with us. We talked about one. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was a good idea. We talked about another possibility and then a third. All of them were thoughtful, interesting ideas. Then Dwight said he had a final one, one that was perhaps a little farfetched–an Academy for Young Preachers. This organization would give high school kids, college kids, and seminary students a chance to try out preaching in public and in community with one another.
I looked at my colleague Chris Coble. Chris looked at me. We both look at Dwight, and we said, “that’s the one. that’s the one you need to do, Dwight. We don’t know exactly what it is. We don’t know how to do it. We don’t know what it will look like, but why don’t you go back home and start thinking about it and decide if it’s the one you really want to do.”
He came back to us a little later and said, “Yes, this is it. We can do it. We need to do it. It has to happen.” Two and a half years later here you are …here we are.
Donors … benefactors …mentors …pastors … organizations that have seen the promise of this Academy. And above all, here you are: you young preachers!
We’re all here together. We’re having this feast. We’re enjoying this music. We’re hearing the gospel preached by a bunch of really wonderful young people. It’s been an astonishing day already.
II.
The stories each of us could tell about how we came to be in this place would no doubt be many and various…. But every one of these stories will be beautiful. And every one of these stories is important. Why? Because these stories and the journeys they represent all have to do with … with the preaching of the Christian gospel.
The good news of God’s deep, profound and sustaining love for all of us and for the whole creation is the greatest gift there is. And by God’s grace, it seems that year after year, generation after generation, century after century, God somehow lifts up human beings who feel a sense of call and have the courage to stand up in public and preach the gospel in their own words and in their own ways and say it with the kind of authenticity that redeems the lives of other human beings and helps to save the life of the world. This gift is a miracle, but it is a miracle that happens all the time.
We all have stories to tell about how we got here today and why we have come. and we all have histories that are carried by these stories–histories full of deep longings, significant events, critical turning points, wonderfully important and influential people in our lives, inner struggles, and a sense of call. And in recent weeks someone’s invitation has gone out to you, inviting you to come to this place at this time to preach God’s word publicly in front of a group of strangers, people you did not know even this morning, but who now by this evening have become new friends in Christ.
Opportunities like this are very rare, and they are absolutely crucial. they are crucial especially for those of you who are young and still finding yourselves, still finding your own voices, your own faith, finding the truth about yourself, and about the world and abut God. Opportunities like this are rare, and they are crucial: opportunities to speak, preach, and pray in public–out loud, in your own words, as a result of your own readings of these wonderful, deep, and profound texts. And not only to speak and be heard, but to be heard and respond to by others who hear your voice and hear the gospel coming from your lips. And also to hear others and to respond to them, to support one another, be changed by one another, and be moved by one another.
III.
This is a rare kind of place. I am deeply moved and grateful for what is happening here and for what is taking place in the Academy of Preachers as a whole. But I want you to know something. The roots of this gathering tonight lie not in a conversation between Dwight, Chris, and me at the Lilly Endowment; nor in the invitation you received to show up here at this time and place; nor even in the long history that brought you to be the kind of person who wanted to accept and receive this invitation.
The first sentence of John’s gospel says: “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word as God. All things came into being through Him. And without Hm not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life. And the life was the light of all people.”
The first sentence of the Bible says, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep while the wind of God swept over the face of the waters.? And then God said, “Let there be light. And there was light. And God called it good.”
The beginning begins not with our own stories … Nor does it begin with our parents or our forbearers who were formed by this faith. No, it begins with the Word. The Word of God that created the heavens and the earth in the first place. It begins with the Word that was with God and was God and who is the source of a light and life and love in the world. This Word created a community–a community that has been going on or centuries and centuries, beginning with Adam and Eve, with Abrham, Isaac and Sarah, with the People of Israel, with Moses and the prophets, and … in the coming of Jesus Christ and, by the power of the Spirit, with the formation of the church, which now crosses the globe and is present everywhere and in virtually every place, everywhere. Our stories, our experiences, our preaching, our words and our coming together tonight is simply another moment in the long history of this deep lasting community of faith: the communion of saints formed by the Word of God.
So, what we are doing at this Festival and in this Academy is not only finding our own voices and our own selves and telling our own stories. It is also and above all speaking the Word of God and the stories of God in a way that let’s good news shine and give life, that brings the gifts of God’s love to every human being who hears your voice, to everyone human being whom it is your gift, chance and blessing to meet and to serve. This is why we are here.
IV.
The Word was created in the very beginning by God, and God renews and replenishes this Word every day, every year, and throughout every generation. After being here today and hearing some of you preach, I can testify that God’s Word is alive and is being told with truth and power and faithfulness and significance in this generation. It is alive right now in these rooms, and it will be for years and years to come.
As you can tell, I am very excited to be here. This is a wonderful day for me and Christ and for all of us who have the privilege to be in your company. I am glad to meet you. I am glad to worship with you. I am glad to hear our preach. And I am grateful. I am grateful for you. I am grateful for that germ of an idea for an Academy of Preachers and a National Festival of Young Preachers. I am grateful that it is now becoming a movement that will expand and spread across the United States and begin to involve hundreds–indeed, thousands–more young preachers. As Dwight says, “There’s nothing else like it.” It is something we have long needed, and … we must nurture it, foster it, help it to grow, and help to sustain it for years to come.
Dwight, Lee, and all of you who have imagined so creatively and worked so hard to bring this dream into reality, you have my deepest thanks. To all of you who are donors, supporters, contributors, volunteers and affiliated partners, thank you for your enthusiasm, your support, and for your understanding of the significance of this dream. All of you who are pastors, mentors, guides, supporters of these very special young people, you have my admiration and appreciation. You are devotion yourselves to the nurturing of gifts given by God for the sake of the world.
Finally, to all of you young people who are preaching the gospel to one another this weekend–and who will testify to it in congregations and in the larger world for years to come–I extend my welcome to the ministry in which you are already engaged.
Whether you become pastors of congregations or not, whether being a preacher becomes your life’s vocation or not, you are people who have the Word of God on your lips already. And wherever God may take you, may this Word, in your voice, flourish for the sake of the life of the world. My prayer for us is that God will bless you with the fullness of God’s mercy, love, joy, support, and sustenance, and that God will lead you into the gifts that God has prepared for you. God bless you all.
