In a sermon on St. Paul's conversion, Charles Kingsley Barrett, better knownas C. K. Barrett, shows us how he views preaching. He says:There is a difference between a sermon, on the one hand, and a lectureor essay on the other. A sermon is not simply a public address ona religious subject; it is not simply an exposition of a passage of Scripture. It is these things, yet if it really is a sermon and not a lecture, it issomething else too. It is a means by which God himself speaks to us.1 Thisis not an event the preacher can command or arrange. It is independentof his learning, his eloquence, his enthusiasm. But it does happen,and it is the only raison d'etre of preaching. Preaching, for C. K. Barrett, is not merely the conveying of informationor even an exercise in transformation, but an encounter with the living voiceof God speaking quite directly to the individual listener through the proclaimedWord. That is, God uses proper preaching to speak to us, sometimeswith the help of the preacher, and sometimes even in spite of the inadequaciesof the preacher. According to James Dunn's memoir, C. K. Barrett (1917-2011) will be longremembered as the "e;finest English language commentator on the New Testamentin the twentieth century."e; Dunn goes on to say, "e;As the commentatorwho mastered the central section of the New Testament-the Gospelof John, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's letter to Rome and his letters toCorinth, all of them served with weighty commentaries-Kingsley Barrettsurpassed his contemporaries."e; (Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the BritishAcademy, XII, 3-21. The British Academy 2013.)

In a sermon on St. Paul's conversion, Charles Kingsley Barrett, better knownas C. K. Barrett, shows us how he views preaching. He says:There is a difference between a sermon, on the one hand, and a lectureor essay on the other. A sermon is not simply a public address ona religious subject; it is not simply an exposition of a passage of Scripture. It is these things, yet if it really is a sermon and not a lecture, it issomething else too. It is a means by which God himself speaks to us.1 Thisis not an event the preacher can command or arrange. It is independentof his learning, his eloquence, his enthusiasm. But it does happen,and it is the only raison d'etre of preaching. Preaching, for C. K. Barrett, is not merely the conveying of informationor even an exercise in transformation, but an encounter with the living voiceof God speaking quite directly to the individual listener through the proclaimedWord. That is, God uses proper preaching to speak to us, sometimeswith the help of the preacher, and sometimes even in spite of the inadequaciesof the preacher. According to James Dunn's memoir, C. K. Barrett (1917-2011) will be longremembered as the "e;finest English language commentator on the New Testamentin the twentieth century."e; Dunn goes on to say, "e;As the commentatorwho mastered the central section of the New Testament-the Gospelof John, the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's letter to Rome and his letters toCorinth, all of them served with weighty commentaries-Kingsley Barrettsurpassed his contemporaries."e; (Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the BritishAcademy, XII, 3-21. The British Academy 2013.)