Listening to a Sermon-Part Three

Listening to a well prepared sermon delivered in an effective manner is not difficult, and such sermons can help people in their worship of God. What’s difficult is listening to a poorly prepared sermon. In the first and second essays of this series I suggested the importance of a listener taking responsibility for the worship experience, and I listed five practical strategies for listening to bad sermons with the idea that an active listener can benefit even from a bad sermon. However, there are sermons to which we do best not to listen.

For this third essay the most important matter to remember is the fact that a poor sermon is not limited to sermons that are boring or sermons that seem superficial. A gifted orator who seems profound can preach a bad sermon, and the worshiper is more likely to suffer harm from such gifted and attractive preachers than the ones we usually call poor preachers. Paul the Apostle warned against false teachers and warned that they can appear winsome and intelligent which is no surprise, since, as Paul wrote, “even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds” (2 Corinthians 14-15).

Even if a sermon is a delight to the ears and the preacher is pleasant to watch as he or she delivers the message, the sermon is a bad one if it fails to be true. The repercussions from false teaching are serious for the life of the church and individual listeners, especially young people. Bad teaching has been a problem from the first century until the present. 

Here are some examples: legalism and its opposite, moral relativism (“do your own thing”). Whenever a preacher emphasizes rules and regulations the preacher has lost hold of the Bible’s message of salvation through faith and grace. Such legalism creates despair as people fail to meet the legalistic standards of the sermons. Then comes hypocrisy as some people pretend to meet those standards even though they cannot; in fact, the preacher cannot meet them either, and the church becomes filled with suspicion and accusation as people see their own hidden sins and suspect that others are hiding sins, too. One errant way to relieve the guilt of self accusation is to accuse others of the sin hidden in one’s own life. Such behavior in a church is, indeed, toxic.

The opposite approach is bad, too. Some preachers proclaim an easy or cheap grace (see Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship) and the result is a church in which people lose sight of the message of holiness and righteousness which are the qualities that arise from God’s grace. The message of grace and faith and hope and love bring a lifestyle filled with gratitude and joy. The bad teaching of relativism which holds that there is no absolute law is as bad as legalism. Both approaches misunderstand the Gospel and the power of spiritual transformation. 

Reliance on the Bible as the sole authority for faith and practice is an important sign of true preaching and will help the preacher avoid the failures of legalism and relativism. A good preacher will speak from the Bible and will shape his or her messages to conform to the teaching of the Bible. Doctrines taught in the sermon will arise from the preacher’s knowledge and continual study of the entire Bible.

Unhappily, bad preachers can quote Scripture. Even demons can quote Scripture. It is important that the preacher yields his or her own opinions to the clear teaching of Scripture. It is important that every sermon includes and depends upon the Bible’s message of God’s salvation in Christ.

Even if a sermon has truths in it, that sermon is a bad one if it fails the Gospel.  A sermon on prayer or social justice or Bible study is not a good sermon if it fails the Gospel. There is a place in the church for teaching, but the teaching ministry never replaces preaching of the Gospel.

The Gospel is the message of Jesus’ birth, the incarnation; God has come to us in person. The Gospel is the message of the cross, Jesus’ death. Through the cross Jesus defeated sin and death by giving himself up on behalf of the world and winning the victory over evil. The bodily resurrection of Jesus is essential to the Gospel; the resurrection illuminates the cross and shows us Jesus as Christus Victor (see Gustaf Aulen). The Gospel is the promise that Jesus will return to make all things right. In the end justice will prevail. The Gospel is the message of Jesus’ life which calls us to live with the power of the Holy Spirit, as disciples or learners. We are being saved or transformed day by day as we await our own resurrection to the next life which God the Father has prepared for us who believe. This message is the heart of true preaching. (See C. H. Dodd, Gospel and Law, for a review of Scripture on this subject.)

Another essential theological teaching is the Trinity. Christians are Trinitarians. Christians believe that God is one in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If a preacher fails to lay the foundation of the Trinity in his or her preaching then that preacher is giving a bad message. Usually, the error shows itself in a diminution of Jesus. In some way the preacher hints from time to time that Jesus is a good teacher, a good man, and a good prophet but not divine. When the preacher refuses to acknowledge and affirm in the clearest terms that Jesus is God in person, in flesh then the message is bad. In bad messages one will often hear how there are many wise religious teachers in history from Zoroaster to Buddha, Mohammed and Gandhi. Without, perhaps, saying it directly the preacher will imply that Jesus belongs in that list but is not divine. Such preachers have strayed from the Bible and strayed from the doctrines long established in the ecumenical church. A good preacher will give attention to the Trinitarian message that God is Father, Son and Spirit and will give the right emphasis to all three persons in preaching and teaching.

Another way that preaching goes wrong is the political sermon masquerading as prophecy. To use the pulpit to express political opinion is not prophecy, but it is bad preaching. The best way to address political issues is for the preacher to teach Biblical principles from the pulpit. The people in the congregation can take these principles into their personal lives, including their politics. Most congregations have Democrats and Republicans sitting side by side. The preacher does well to respect the faith of Christians who hold different political opinions. To attempt to think for the people or to demand that they think the same way the preacher does on political issues is bad preaching, not prophecy. 

Much attention has been rightly given by critics to the error of what is called the “Prosperity Gospel.” It is a popular message because it promises that God will always deliver material and emotional security to people who have the right faith practice. Any such message that teaches that a Christian can avoid suffering is bad preaching. In reality good and faithful Christians suffer. They may be persecuted. They may be caught in tragic circumstances. They may be materially poor. God’s grace sustains us in all these circumstances, and with God’s grace and with our trust in God’s providence we can make our suffering redemptive. We may not see the results of our witness in this life, but we live and are justified by our faith. It is bad preaching that downplays or ignores redemptive suffering which is, of course, most clearly seen in the cross of Christ.

Theology as expressed in preaching is a big subject. Although much more could be written, hopefully this essay raises some questions for the reader and will help listeners to evaluate sermons theologically as well as rhetorically. So, what can a listener do when the preacher does not speak the truth? My conclusion seems simplistic; however, if a preacher persists in teaching that fails the Gospel, the Trinitarian message, the call to grace, the authority of the Bible and offers false prophecy, then, simplistic as it is, the answer to bad teaching and preaching is, finally, “don’t listen!” 

Listening to a Sermon Part Two

As promised in my last entry I am writing in this essay about specific strategies we can take when listening to a sermon. Just as Jacob wrestled with God through the night to gain a blessing (Genesis 32:24), the worshiper will sometimes feel that he or she is in a wrestling match, too. It can happen because the sermon is poor or it can happen because the worshiper has come to the service with distractions from home or work or is simply tired and needing rest. For multiple reasons it can be hard to listen to a sermon. 

When struggling to listen to a sermon it is important to remember that the struggle is a spiritual one between the worshiper and God. The struggle is not between the worshiper and the preacher. For some reason God has brought the worshiper to this service at this time. The preacher has a responsibility to God as well, and the preacher will be required to answer to God for his or her work, but the worshiper’s main concern is not the preacher. The chief issue in worship is to encounter God and to make the effort to discover the purpose of the time ahead. 

If we give some thought to the matter we realize that thirty minutes is a short period of time. We can easily waste thirty minutes on a tasteless story in the newspaper or a magazine or waste thirty minutes watching a mindless situation comedy on television. We can spend thirty minutes playing a game of solitaire without complaint. Sometimes, many of us just sit for thirty minutes day dreaming. 

Our resistance to the sermon is a hint that something spiritual is happening. For some reason we resist this time in the pew. It bores us or makes us uncomfortable or it even can make us angry. All of these emotions we do not feel when we waste time elsewhere; so, what is happening? Why has God brought us into this difficult struggle?

We may not immediately discover the reason for the resistance in ourselves, but we can pray to have the grace to understand that our resistance is not primarily the preacher’s problem. We pray to accept our responsibility to make something good happen in the half hour ahead of us. We can pray that whatever kind of sermon we hear, good or bad, we will find a way to make an offering of worship to God. That prayer and commitment to take responsibility for the sermon is the first strategy of the listener.

Once we decide to take responsibility as a listener for the sermon then we can employ other strategies, and we will need them from time to time when we hear a bad sermon. Bad sermons are often opaque. We cannot see the purpose or the importance of them. The preacher does not make it clear why we should listen to this particular message, and he or she does not explain what help we should expect to receive in listening. It seems that we are looking at a dark cloud of words that communicate nothing of substance to us. When listening to such a sermon the good listener will not attempt to make sense of the whole sermon. It is likely, because of poor preparation, that even the preacher is not sure what the message is supposed to be. Bad preaching makes one feel lost in the dark. 

However, if one listens carefully one will hear a single sentence that makes sense. It will be like a flash of lightening in the dark night. It is brief but for a moment there is power and illumination. It is almost impossible to speak for thirty minutes and not say one productive, meaningful, applicable sentence. The listener will wait and watch for that sentence. When such a sentence flashes it will be worth the entire thirty minutes of sitting. An insight will be gained. A resolution will be made. Something good will have happened. The listener will have won the wrestling match. So, here are the first two strategies for listening to a sermon: first, take responsibility for the sermon’s impact on the listener; second, listen for one helpful sentence.

Here is a third strategy. Although it often happens in bad sermons, that the preacher does not really speak from the Bible, the listener can listen for some passing reference to the Scripture and turn to the reference in his or her Bible. A careful listener will identify questions that arise from reading the text that are not answered or even addressed by the preacher. Those questions can be a guide to the listener in the coming week to do more Bible study, to talk with friends about the questions or if the opportunity arises, to ask the preacher, “What about this?” In that way the sermon becomes useful to the listener and, perhaps, to others as well.

A fourth strategy is to enter into a mental dialogue with the preacher and with God. In some church traditions the people in the pews will speak aloud to the preacher. This back and forth or call and response practice is used in many African American churches (see The Hum by Crawford). When a member of the congregation says, “Amen,” aloud then the preacher is affirmed and encouraged to continue along the same line of thought. Occasionally, the preacher will hear someone in the congregation, praying aloud, “Help him, Lord!” The preacher in that situation will realize that he is floundering; the sermon is not working, and some change is needed in that very moment. I have had the experience of someone saying to me as I preached, “I can’t hear you!” or “Say it again!” Although disconcerting to preachers who have not been accustomed to such dialogue, the practice can be helpful. In a dynamic and vocal way the congregation that enters into this back and forth exchange is taking responsibility, along with the preacher, for the sermon and the worship experience.

For churches in which the congregation does not speak aloud to the preacher, the call and response can be a prayer to God, “Help her, Lord!” It can be an exclamation of silent praise, “That’s the sentence I’ve been waiting to hear!” It can be a prayer in which the congregant admits to the Lord, “I am finding it hard to get anything today; help me.”

Some people in the congregation will write notes in which they enter a dialogue with the preacher. It may not be possible to get a good outline from a bad sermon, but one can raise questions to write in the notes. One can record ideas that arise which may or may not be in reference to the sermon but simply come unsought as one sits and listens. Whatever form it takes the person in the pew is practicing active listening. It doesn’t depend entirely on the preacher. The listener is working to bring meaning to the worship experience.

A fifth strategy for listening to sermons is to manage our distractions. The preacher may create distractions, and the worshiper may bring distractions into the service. A brief prayer before worship helps. Whenever one feels a distraction arise one can say a prayer, too. In fact, God may send the distractions to help us pray. In the middle of the service we think of someone in the congregation who is ill or who is going through a divorce or has lost a job or is struggling with faith. Our minds go to that person and so can our prayers. Those distractions seem to be a movement of the Spirit in our hearts, and we ask the Lord to use the sermon to speak to that person.

Sometimes the distractions arise from our own health. We may be hurting and finding it difficult to sit on a pew or hard chair. If our bones are hurting so badly we can’t sit easily we may choose before the service to sit in the back where we can rise and stand without bothering others. Preachers and worshipers understand this need and if done thoughtfully it does not disturb worship for anyone. Those who notice will hopefully say a prayer for someone who is hurting.

Distractions can come because we have a challenging week ahead and find ourselves thinking of the work before us instead of listening to the sermon. Again, the best strategy is to pray. If we miss the sermon completely because we are distracted, but we spend the thirty minutes in prayer we will have made good use of the sermon time.

Some distractions come from the preacher or other worship leaders. The way someone dresses can distract us.  We find ourselves thinking about the clothing instead of the leader’s message or announcement or song or Scripture reading.

Preachers can distract people with their mannerisms. A person’s accent can distract us. If the preacher uses poor grammar it can distract. If a preacher licks his or her lips or paces or bobs the head or twists a ring or clenches or wrings his or her hands it can distract us. If the preacher is low energy or too high in energy it can distract. If the preacher talks too loudly or too softly it can distract us. Speaking too fast or speaking too slowly can distract us. This list doesn’t end.

Distractions will come. Sometimes they are sent by God to help us pray, but sometimes the distractions can be described as the work of the devil. They keep us from active listening and our spiritual responsibility. The strategy is to manage the distractions. They will come, but we can manage them. Sometimes we avoid them. Always, we can pray which will be our best strategy.

The reader can add to my five strategies: taking responsibility for one’s worship experience; listening for one helpful sentence; using the Bible for reflection whether the preacher does or not; joining a mental dialogue with God and with the preacher, if only to say, “Help him, Lord”; and finally, managing distractions in a way that makes them work for good, not bad, in one’s worship experience. 

When one begins to develop strategies for listening then it becomes a delightful challenge. It is an intellectual and spiritual exercise to be an active listener. You will grow in your ability and range of listening strategies. You will enrich your worship experience.

One final essay is coming on the listening experience. There are bad sermons that cannot be heard without damage to one’s life in Christ. These sermons are to be avoided. My final entry will give a description and warning. Sometimes, the best response is, “Don’t listen.”