Today is one of my sermon preparation days. That may come as a surprise to some of you. Yes, I DO prepare my sermons! It can take a whole day sometimes, and on other occasions it flows rapidly and takes less time. I wish I could tell which were better. (For Harry Hill fans, yes there is only one way to find out…)
The reality is that sermon preparation is a hit and miss affair. You read the passage in the Bible. You read the commentaries. You look up difficult or unusual words to find out their meaning in strange books that are all Greek to me (for the New Testament anyway, ha ha!). You try to arrange the thoughts you have had into a coherent whole that makes sense. You try to pepper it with illustrations and jokes that will help people to understand what you are saying. You leave it for a couple of days and go over it again before you are about to preach, making adjustments as necessary. You preach it. You go to the door of the church and receive the verdict:
Nice sermon.
Thank you.
I didn’t understand…
and so on.
I listened to some of the analysis of the political speeches at the recent political party conferences and wondered if it was the same sort of analysis that goes on in cars as people head home after the service.
He spoke a lot about…
The surprising thing was…
It was a good speech…
But these speeches only happen once or twice a year. And the speakers have a team of speech-writers to help them hone the speech, ensure that they get the message across and give them some pithy sound bites. And the popularity of the leader or the rousing nature of the speech guarantees them a standing ovation afterwards. I have yet to have any sort of ovation after a sermon.
I hope that by now some of you are very frustrated. I hope that by now some of you are shouting at your computer screens / phones / whatever you are using to read this bloggage.
Where’s the prayer?
What about the Holy Spirit?
Abso – bloomin’ – lutely! What I described at the start might as well have been any sort of speech given in any sort of context. I hope and pray that it is never fully descriptive of my sermon preparation. It’s not an academic exercise. It’s not speech-writing. It’s a partnership between me and God. It needs to be drenched in prayer and inspired by the Holy Spirit so that it points people towards Jesus and God can speak clearly to people through it
.
As I was writing this blog I had in mind that I was going to say that God delivers the sermon and I am merely a script-writer who hones the sermon, seeks to get the message across and illuminates. But that felt wrong. So I considered whether I deliver the sermon and God is the script-writer. But that also felt wrong. We work together. Between us we discern what the passage meant originally, what God might want to say through it today and how best to communicate that. Between us we seek to apply the truth in ways that will be relevant to those who are listening. It’s only a hit and miss affair when I dominate the partnership or try to do it on my own. It’s only at best a ‘nice sermon’ in those circumstances.
But when I have been in tune with God then it may be technically the worst sermon ever preached but God will have spoken to someone through it. It may be the most boring sermon ever preached, but God will have inspired someone through it.
And at the end, he should get the ovation, the praise, the worship, the adulation and the glory.
Because, as the ad says, he’s worth it!
One Sunday morning, the minister told the congregation that he was going to say a series of words, and he wanted them to sing the song that came to mind, when he said each word.
The first word he said was “rock” They immediately started singing “Rock of Ages.”
The second word he said was “Blood” and they sang “Power in the Blood.”
The third word was “Cross” and they began singing “The Old Rugged Cross.”
The fourth word he said was “Sex”, everyone gasped and then it got very quiet, then way in the back of the church an 87 yr old lady stood up and started singing “Memories.”
nukelearfishing 
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