All my adult life I have been a writer of sermons. I have worked hard at composition and delivery. I have done this work from a sense of calling. The church has supported me financially so that I have had the freedom to fulfill this vocation, and I am grateful. I am grateful for the calling, and I am grateful for the support. Along with the preaching vocation I have, also, been a pastor. To be a pastor and a preacher is the usual pattern. Some preachers only preach; they are evangelists or apologists or commentators of some sort. That model or way of preaching is not typical. It has special challenges I would think, but my life is the typical one: a life of writing sermons to give to the church in worship as a pastor. I believe these sermons of mine, and most sermons are best forgotten.
Sermons are forgettable because most sermons are meant to be effective as a part of a worship service. The sermon is part of something important that is happening in worship as the congregation is called to an awareness of God. When a congregation gathers for worship they enter a moment that cannot be repeated. The people gathered for worship in those particular circumstances will never in all eternity be together in the same way or have exactly the same experience.
A sermon given in worship cannot be repeated. Even a sermon preached to an early service on Sunday morning and then repeated at the later service on the same day is not the same sermon. It is not the same because the purpose of the sermon in worship is to point us toward God. Through the preacher we see a man or a woman struggling, hoping, working, sometimes finding an insight which brings us closer to the one whom we worship. The sermon’s purpose, and the preacher’s vocation find fulfillment in those moments when a window is opened, and a member of the congregation glimpses the glory of God. This glory is never captured, but what a gift is given to the people gathered in worship when a preacher opens that window if only for a moment. The sermon may be forgotten, but the encounter with God is eternal. That sermon is ephemeral, but the sermon is also ineffable; it is a holy and unrepeatable moment given by God.
