William Willimon credits Thomas Long as saying that preaching’s turn to the listener is the most significant homiletical trend of the twentieth century. Willimon then agrees with that assessment and suggests that our homiletical thought has become more interested with rhetorical, rather than theological concerns. He goes onto add that this “accounts in great part for the impoverishment of contemporary preaching.”
It is no secret that Willimon is enamored with Karl Barth. If there are doubts, then read Conversations With Barth on Preaching. So it comes as no surprise that Willimon brings Barth into this conversation. In the discussion “How to Say What God Says” he concludes that Barth has convinced him that listening to God is so much more interesting than listening to listeners.
Barth has been referred to as a “theological poet” and Willimon himself says that he wrote “theology with style.” While Willimon thinks of Barth as a master rhetorician, he is doubtful that Barth would take that as a compliment. Instead, he credits Barth with the development of a new way of speaking about God, as if he invented a new genre.
His preaching took on an explosive manner. I am reminded that someone once said that his Romans fell like “a bomb on the playground of the theologians.” His concern was not for the hearer but for the subject matter – God. At the very least, we can agree that this move is counter to the way many contemporary preachers think about preaching. In Conversations, Barth comes across as thinking either that preaching is theological or “a trivial endeavor hardly worth the effort.”
Willimon also invites Aristotle into the conversation who believes that “speaking is a politically significant power play that ought to be used with care.” He goes on to say that most preachers “do not think of themselves as powerful people.” He goes on, “yet anyone who has the gift of words has the potential to alter the world.” Then he adds that “Anyone who stands up and utters, ‘Thus saith the Lord…,’ is thrust into a situation where issues of power and language become primary.”
I do not suspect that Willimon cares whether you agree with him on these things. Or that you are in agreement with Barth. I do suspect that he hopes that such conversations with Karl Barth spur contemporary preachers to “a recovery of nerve, of gospel-induced boldness.”
hermeneuts 
I like this. I remember hearing a Princeton seminary prof, who was a protoge’ of Barth, say that Barth used to say to his students, “Gentlemen, you must always begin at the beginning, and the Bible says, ‘In the beginning, GOD!'”
I also recall Barth’s famous dictum that, “God is not man said in a loud voice.”
Listening to listener’s is obviously important. Listening to God is the absolute beginning point for preaching.
As always, good stuff, Randy. I was looking at Luke 24 a couple of hours ago, the part about the two disciples from Emmaus, who were telling the others about what had happened on the road. “And while they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst” NASB. It reminded me of Acts 10, where Peter is simply declaring the mighty acts of God in Jesus to Cornelius–giving him the rest–the climax of the story. “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.” Luke seems to be saying that when the gospel is declared, Jesus shows up to do his redemptive work. Scott McKnight spends some time on this in, The King Jesus Gospel, saying that the rhetorically centered gospel bends totally to the aim of getting a decision but when the biblical gospel is declared in all its robust dimensions, the result is conversions. You’ve gotta’ be pretty stubborn to be a preacher.