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!” 

John 6:51-61 God's Hyperbole: the Church

John 6:61 “ . . . Does this offend you? . . .”

Jesus offended the people who had witnessed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000.  In words most shocking he said that he was giving his flesh for the world to consume. Going further he said, “ . . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (6:53) Later in history the enemies of the church would use the words of Jesus and reports on the observance of the Lord’s Supper in order to charge Christians with human sacrifice and cannibalism.

Hyperbole shocks. By definition hyperbole is not meant to be taken literally. For Jews the idea of eating blood was unthinkable, just as cannibalism was. They knew that Jesus, a Jew, did not intend to be taken literally. Thoughtful people, then and now, even if they are adverse to Christian faith, understand the use of hyperbole. By taking offense at his language the people around Jesus were able to avoid facing the authentic challenge in those words. It was easier to be shocked at his words than it was to engage with him on the meaning of salvation and the claim of Jesus to be God’s redemption.

The church is God’s hyperbole. The church often shocks and offends the world. Perhaps, the world takes offense at the pious language of an evangelical preacher or the exuberance of a Pentecostal. Perhaps, the world finds Catholicism too ritualistic or the Anglican way too self-important.  In the eyes of the world all churches are equally subject to the charge of hypocrisy, and it is true that seldom does the church live up to the message it preaches. The church is flesh and blood. It is human. Being shocked at its failed humanity is to miss the point of hyperbole. It is to avoid the real offense of the Gospel. 

The claim of Jesus to be the incarnate God and the means of salvation does offend. His claim shocks us with the seriousness of sin; in order to remove sin the shedding of blood is necessary. God comes in Christ to give that blood. The offense of the Gospel is the message of the cross, the impossibility of human works bringing us to God and the realization and acceptance that salvation comes only by the grace of God’s work in Christ.

As the church, the body of Christ, and the hyperbole of God we will always offend. All our efforts in ministry are shockingly human. Yet, it pleased God to entrust to the church the message of the cross, and the real offense to the world is the cross. Foolishness to the world but to all who have heard and answered his call it is the power and wisdom of God.

John 12:20-33; 12:42-43 A Reflection with Some Personal Additions

John 12:29 Some said, “. . .it thundered.” 

Gentiles came to see Jesus. (20) Their inquiry was the sign that the ministry of Jesus would soon overflow his homeland and sweep through the world. However, for that great movement to start Jesus had to die. Like a kernel of wheat that dies by falling to the ground and then lives by producing many seeds, so Jesus accepted his death on the cross.

His crucifixion was the event set by God to drive evil from the world. Lifted up on the cross Jesus promised to draw the people of the world to God and away from evil. The cross of Christ defeated sin which is any action, word or thought that takes us away from God and takes us to our death. Jesus who was himself the fullness of God in flesh died so that sin could do its worst to him, but  then in the resurrection Jesus defeated death and the power of sin, and he fulfilled his promise to lift all who would look to him out of the clutches of evil and give them eternal life.

This mission of Jesus to enter that darkness away from God troubled his soul (27), but he took his cross so that the light of God would shine in the world, into every dark corner until God’s glory could be seen by all. So, Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your name!” A voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” (28)

Some heard the voice. Some said it was thunder. (29) Amazing but true, some people were in the presence of Jesus and could not hear or see that the kingdom of God had come upon them. Those who believed were blessed by God’s grace. Those who only heard “thunder,” as it were, would have done well to have prayed for grace. Yet, worst of all, some believed but chose not to obey. (12:42-43) Troubled by the cross or fearful of criticism or anxious that they might be expelled from leadership, some who knew better chose to walk away. Through the centuries some believers, even Christian leaders, have lost their way. They have heard the voice of God and called it thunder. 

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Books. Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul, Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty by John M. Barry. The author shows the development of the two understandings of America that were born in tension in the 17th century and continue to live in tension today: America as a Christian nation and America as a secular state that protects freedom of religion. This book is very heavy on history but worth the effort to read. If one wanted to take a short cut it would be possible to read the last 100 pages and still get much to make one think.

Trivial Prayers. “Praying frequently, then, really means learning to live our whole lives with God, praying to him out of the very stuff of our lives. Often this will mean that our prayer will seem very trivial, because much that happens to us is trivial. It is in fact an excellent lesson in faith and in humility to have to pray trivial prayers.” (Prayer, Simon Tugwell, p. 7)

Mark 8:31-38 A Reflection on the Cross with Some Personal Additions

Mark 8:33  -  “Get behind me, Satan!” (v. 33)

Certainly this encounter between Jesus and Peter causes any follower of Christ to take pause. If Peter who was a leader of the disciples could be the instrument of Satan, then the possibility exists that any of us could, also, find ourselves opposing the message and ministry of Jesus. Peter received the chastisement of Jesus because he attempted to dissuade Jesus from the cross. Any retreat from the message of the cross puts us over against Jesus.

The disciples were willing to fight for Jesus, and they were willing to die in that fight. In Gethsemane a sword was drawn and a blow was struck. (Mark 14:47) They would fight and die, but they were not willing to take up a cross voluntarily. Peter and all the disciples, despite their protestations, deserted Jesus when he surrendered to the cross. (Mark 14:19; 29;71)

The message of the cross is self-denial. (Mark 8:34) The message of the cross is total abandonment of one’s life to the Gospel. (Mark 8:35) The message of the cross is the decision to choose God’s way over the ways of the world. (Mark 8:38)

Peter found himself following the ways of the world, of evil, of Satan, when he attempted to substitute his own judgment for the Lordship of Christ. The good news is that God’s grace brought Peter to repentance and faith. He embraced God’s  forgiveness and in the light of the resurrection received a new understanding of God’s plan in Christ to reconcile the world. Our first natural response to the cross, like Peter’s response, is to flee. Only in the strength of the Spirit can a disciple bear the cross. Yet those who bear the cross are promised the power of resurrection.

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Witness to the Cross today.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) “Ultimately evil is done not so much by evil people, but by good people who do not know themselves and who do not probe deeply.”

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Grandchildren. We were sitting around the dining room table explaining to Mr. Happy (age 3) his given and family names. He has uncles from both the Burke and the Smith sides of the family who are named William; I told him that he and I share that name too; he responded, “Congratulations!”  We laughed. Then we proceeded to name all the Smiths in the family. Another burst of laughter when he summarized, “God is a Smith!”