The Word Made Fresh: Preaching God's Love for Everybody (George Mason) --- A Review
THE WORD MADE FRESH: Preaching God’s Love for Everybody. By George A. Mason. Edited by Ann Bell Worley, Gail S. Brookshire, Jack Hall, Julie Merritt Lee. Canton, MI: Front Edge Press, 2023. Xxv + 401 pages.
All
Baptists are not alike, which is a good thing since there are a lot of Baptists
out there. There are conservative Baptists, such as the ones we find affiliated
with the Southern Baptist Convention, which calls for women to submit to men in
authority and recently moved to expel all member churches that have women
pastors, whether they’re lead pastors or not. There are Baptists who are
committed to taking dominion over the government, which is odd since the
earliest Baptists in what is the United States, people like Roger Williams and
John Leland argued for a full separation of church and state. There are other Baptists,
who are more moderate or even progressive. They support the role of women in
ministry and adhere to the principles espoused by Williams and Leland. One who fits this latter category is George A. Mason, the recently retired pastor of Dallas' Wilshire Baptist Church (it’s affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, not with the SBC!).
The
book under review, The Word Made Fresh offers us a collection of sermons
preached during Mason’s thirty-year ministry at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas
Texas. The collection, as published, was put together by a set of editors who
wanted to present the collection to Mason on his retirement as a testament to
his many years of faithful service to the church he served, and the broader
church, service that is captured in his many sermons. This set of sermons
offers us a more progressive Baptist vision, one that might resonate with folks
who are not Baptist (people like me, though I spent time among the Baptists
through the years).
Before
I get to the collection itself, I would like to share a bit about Mason for
those who might not know him (people like me who did not know about Mason before
I read the book). Mason is Senior Minister Emeritus of Wilshire Baptist Church
(Cooperative Baptist Fellowship) and the Founder and President of Faith Commons.
Faith Commons is an interfaith nonprofit organization that amplifies diverse
faith voices for the common good. Over the years Mason has contributed to the
op-ed page of The Dallas Morning News, is a co-founder of the
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and teaches at Perkins School of Theology
(Southern Methodist University).
Sermon
collections were once very common. Well-known preachers such as Harry Emerson
Fosdick and Edgar DeWitt Jones (my predecessor several generations in the past at
Central Woodward Christian Church) published collections of their sermons. They
were once considered attractive devotional books (and might also serve as
helpful fodder to overloaded preachers looking for some good ideas. That is
less true today, in large part because sermons are so localized. So, if sermons
are published, they are, as in the case of several of my books, repackaged to
speak to a larger, more generalized audience.
This
collection will be most attractive to Mason's fellow Baptists, especially those
who are part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He is an important figure
in that movement but whether he is known outside that circle or Dallas is not known
(at least I had never encountered him before receiving a review copy from the publisher.
Nevertheless, even if Mason is not well
known outside Baptist circles, he does offer readers a vision of Christian faith
that is deeply rooted in Scripture and Christian tradition. It is also open to
new currents present in the world, including the full inclusion of LGBTQ folks
in the church (you can imagine how conservative Baptists, who struggle with the
idea that women might be called to preach would look at LGBTQ inclusion). In
fact, several sermons address the difficult decision of his congregation to
make the church fully inclusive. Interestingly, that vote coincided with the
very divisive 2016 elections.
The
editors of the volume, who hail from the congregation, note in their preface
that "at its best, preaching delivers a prophetic word to a congregation at
a specific place and time, taking into account not only the scriptural passage
at hand but also current events in the local community, the nation, and the
world" (p. xv). There is much truth in that assessment. Therefore, this
volume could easily serve newly ordained clergy or seminary students as a
source of exemplary sermons (if any choose to preach the sermons as is, they
will be well-advised to make that clear to the hearers).
The editors
have divided this collection of sermons into twelve parts (the book is nearly
400 pages in length so that division makes sense). Each section is introduced
by a friend and colleague. The sermons cover all matters of theology, Christian
formation, mission, Christian civility, calling to ministry in its various forms,
pastoral care, stewardship (for those who, like me, have never enjoyed
stewardship sermons, it’s clear that Mason isn't afraid to talk about money),
the Free Church roots of the Baptist tradition, ecumenism, interfaith relationships
(I should note that while Mason is open to dialogue and friendship, he also
stands firm in his Christian faith), peacemaking and nonviolence, and how faith
might be present in the public square. Regarding that final emphasis, when one
gets to Part Eleven, which focuses on bearing witness in the public square, he
addresses marriage equality, the capitol insurrection, and the invasion of
Ukraine. In these sermons, we see examples of how one might take up difficult
topics and address them directly even if not everyone in the congregation is on
the same page. When we get to Part 12, we encounter what can be difficult
sermons since their farewell sermons. Mason’s final two sermons are included in
the collection. As one who has said goodbye to a congregation and entered
retirement, I can testify that these sermons are often difficult to deliver.
Nevertheless, they are important discourses as they can speak not only to the
past but offer words of hope for the future of the congregation that one has
served faithfully for a long time. That is what Mason does. So, his final words
are these: “Do not be afraid. Fear Not. Take courage. God is with you, carrying
you on as you carry one” (p. 395).
The
final sermon isn’t the last word from George Mason. The editors allowed him to
write an Afterword. He tells the reader that he hopes it gives hope to all who
read the sermons in the book. Noting Martin Luther King’s dictum that the moral
arc of the universe might be long, but it bends toward justice (despite what we
might currently be seeing going on in society). With that in mind, he reminds
us that God prefers to work with us than without us. Thus, “we are in the bending
business with God, . . . hastening the day when all shall be well. We do that
through word and deed. The performative language of preaching combines the two
as it brings new realities into being through speech” (p. 396). That is a good
word for preachers and non-preachers to hear.
One
doesn’t generally sit down and read a sermon collection from cover to cover,
word by word. Such collections require time to ponder and contemplate the word.
Sermons, especially sermons preached over more than three decades of ministry
will speak to people differently. Thus, one might skip around, taking in specific
words that speak at a particular time and place. It can be used devotionally,
even if not every sermon will speak in the same way. It is important to
remember that these sermons are offered to the reader as they were preached.
Therefore, they address people and situations in particular at that particular
moment. Because of the particularity of sermons, some of what is presented by
the editors won't speak as directly to the reader as other sermons. That is because
some of what is presented here speak in ways that transcend time and place. And as a preacher, I know that this is the way
it should be. So, readers will find different pieces speaking to them, while others
won’t. What I can say is that this collection offers us a vision of what can be
said in the pulpit that represents to the larger world a positive/hopeful
vision that is not naïve about the realities we face. One need not be a Baptist
to benefit (though Baptists who know Mason will likely share a common set of
understandings) from reading and contemplating the message recorded here (I’m a
retired Disciples of Christ pastor so I share some of the background but not
all of it).
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