The practical and the heavenly

At In the Clearing, Bob shares some worthwhile thoughts on "practical" preaching:

The point is, the muck and mire of daily living can easily distract us from these heavenly realities. In the heavenlies, we are seated with Christ. But in the earthly, well, it ain't pretty. In most cases, the "already" ain't yet.

Which is why, I think, that Paul says elsewhere, "set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." You notice how so many of Paul's imperatives bring our attention back to the indicatives? I think that Paul would say that there is something very practical about setting our minds on heavenly realities. That in fact, from heaven we get the most truly realistic perspective on ourselves and our world.

This is not to argue against practical application in sermons, but I do think that the highest and correspondingly most difficult task of the preacher is to remind people and drive home to their imaginations the realities of the new birth, because all the practical advice in the world won't help if this is not first understood and grasped by faith.

Amen. Bob, by the way, has been influential through his blogs in convincing me that the "heavenly" approach to proclamation is in fact the most "practical."