The minister's task in Johannine perspective is neither to entice people into accepting the gospel nor to consummate God's new creation; the ministerial vocation is to point to Christ and to the God of limitless love who sent his Son to save this world.

To preach the LORD'S word is to administer God's relief for this world's cardiac sclerosis with the shock of healing grace.

Preaching from the Revised Common Lectionary has its hazards. Living with the lectionary may nevertheless cultivate within us “a taste for holy conversation”: a deeper affinity for the God whom Christians prayerfully adore as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.