Sermons Should be Forgotten

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. 

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 One

Almost any preacher can be heard on the internet these days. The better speakers gather a following. They are not only interesting and colorful speakers, they are often insightful theologians. Some of my friends have become connoisseurs of this excellent, mass media preaching. It helps them in their Christian discipleship. I am glad such preachers are available and helpful to so many.

However, most preachers do not have a mass audience.  Many of them are good preachers who give sermons that are worthy of a wider distribution. However, for reasons of access or promotion or God’s providence their sermons remain locally heard and appreciated but never gain wide spread recognition.

Still, there are many preachers who are not scintillating speakers. They do not offer profound insights. People continue to gather and listen to these more modest preachers week after week. At times I have thought that the people have simply accepted with grace the limited ability of their preacher, and they have allowed their expectations of any improvement in preaching to sink. 

Recently, my thinking has changed. I’ve come to believe that many more people in our churches have developed a skill that all of us  who go to church need to develop: the ability to listen to a sermon, even a poor one and gain something of value. Mark Twain once said that he had never heard a sermon from which he did not gain something; he did add that there had been a few close calls. I’ve come to believe that more important than the skill of the preacher is the skill of the listener. I am writing this reflection on how to listen to a sermon because I believe we can improve our experience in worship if we develop listening skills that overcome the weaknesses of a preacher. 

One foundation for all good listening is the realization that our experience of preaching improves as we appreciate its context in worship. Unlike an internet sermon in which one listens to the preacher while jogging or commuting home from work or cleaning house the preachers we hear on Sunday morning are being heard in the context of a worship service in which the hearers are participating. People sing hymns, offer prayers for their friends by name. They listen to announcements for upcoming activities. They put their money in the offering plates as a part of their worship. They hear scriptures read. They spend time before and after the service talking with people they have come to know in the congregation. Many of these folks will have volunteered in Sunday school or volunteered as greeters or ushers, sung in the choir or stayed after service to count the collection. The sermon fits in the context of congregational life, particularly it is best understood as only one element in worship. So, people who have become good listeners to sermons are people who have thoughtfully realized or simply reached the understanding intuitively that the sermon is a part of worship and not the whole point of their participation. Certainly, the quality of the sermon alone does not determine the validity or power of their worship experience.

Because the preacher and the musicians are up front it is easy to think of preaching and worship leadership as a performance which we in the audience can judge to be good or bad. However, the people who manage to make the most of sermons have learned that the preacher is not performing for the congregation. These good listeners have learned that God is the audience, and the congregation members are the performers. The people are there to offer their worship to God. The preacher and the musicians are prompters who help the people remember their lines as they perform their worship for God. Worship is bigger than the preacher or anyone else who stands up front to sing or give announcements or pray or read. Worship rises to God from the people who are gathered together in the pews. A worshiper who is focused on God may become almost indifferent to the music or to the sermon. Just as a well prepared performer does not really need a prompter to feed him or her the lines in his or her part, so a person who becomes absorbed in worship may not need or even notice the people standing up front in worship leadership because the worship experience transcends the prompters. 

As a preacher I know that happens. I have on occasion received a compliment from someone about my sermon as the person was leaving the church after service. They repeated to me what they had heard from God through the sermon. However, I realized immediately I had never said or meant to say what they heard. They were engaged with God. He was speaking to them but not with the words that I had been using. 

The same phenomena happens with music. Particularly helpful to worship is congregational singing. People who join their voices with others in praise to God are often comforted, inspired, challenged and confirmed in their faith. The quality of the singing is not so important as the ease with which people can enter into the experience. Music is not meant for the people up front to be honored as performers. Applause in a worship service seems odd to the purpose of worship. Applause from the congregation for musicians reinforces the idea that the performers are the ones up front and it makes the people in the congregation an audience such as you would find at a concert. The music, especially congregational singing, helps the people to offer the performance of their praise to God. The only applause should be applause in heaven.

Applause is not a problem for sermon givers. Very few sermons offered in local congregations elicit applause. That’s just as well! In fact, limited ability preachers can serve God better than highly talented preachers. The limited preacher serves better if the congregation hearing a talented preacher thinks too much of the preacher and fails, thereby, to offer their thoughts and praise where it belongs, to God alone. The sign of a good preacher is his or her ability to help people turn their thoughts to God. Never does a preacher want the congregation to leave the service saying, “What a great preacher!” Always, the good preacher wants the people to leave saying, “What a great Savior is our Lord!” The same applies to music and to all of our leaders in worship. As John the Baptist said in reference to Jesus, he must increase, and I must decrease.

Congregations that listen regularly to good preaching will, hopefully, become accustomed to the preaching. They will not be surprised by good preaching. They will expect it week by week. Hopefully, the congregation will learn to listen for God through the good preaching. The encounter with God will be far more significant than the efforts of the hard working and talented preacher. In time people will no longer notice that their preacher is exceptionally good in his or her calling. They take good preaching for granted. Being taken for granted is probably good for the spiritual health of the preacher, and the reward for his or her efforts will not be applause, but it will be a congregation that worships with reverence and joy. 

Congregations that listen regularly to modest preachers with limited ability or even to preachers who could do better if they worked harder, can, also, learn in time to look past the preacher to God. It will be harder for these listeners, but there are ways to become a good listener even to preachers who offer poorly prepared sermons or sermons that seem on the surface to have little insight or challenge to offer. Even these sermons can become in the ears of a good listener the work of God. In my next entry I will give specifics.