Leave the Rest to God

Preaching is a unique combination of art and science. As an artist, the preacher seeks to be creative. However, creativity doesn't mean preaching in such a novel way that people listening can't recognize the words and stories that are embedded in their memories. In the name of novelty, I heard about a minister who preached the Christmas story from the perspective of the donkey on which Mary road to Bethlehem. This was a talking donkey who kept asking Mary how she was doing. It was creative. Nobody had thought about a talking donkey, and there's good reason why nobody had ever thought about it. Obviously, some of our listeners may know little or nothing about the Bible. The task of the preacher is to proclaim a sermon that is vivid and alive and contains some of the biblical text. Why not assume that the Bible can be interesting to people even without a talking donkey? Preaching is also a science. I don't mean that we take our words into the laboratory, but there are...

Sometimes, I hear people question the need for the viability of preaching in the times in which we live. "My preacher is so boring," she said. "Doesn't my preacher know how to conclude a message? The sermon goes too long. There were places where he could have ended the message." The congregation was finished at 18 minutes, but our minister kept preaching and finally ended with something that sounded like, "That's all, folks". I've been a preacher and a professor of homiletics for most of my life. I'm retired, which may make me irrelevant to anybody under 40. There's nothing like an old preacher telling a new generation that has grown up in a different world, "This is the way you should preach." But I'm still preaching, and until my spouse, who's been my most consistent listener over the years, tells me that I keep telling the same stories and she really wants me to sit with her in the pew, I'll continue to preach. ...

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 9, there is a story with an unusual twist. A father whose son has been sick from birth comes to Jesus' disciples, and he asks the followers of Jesus to heal his son. The disciples try but fail. Not surprising! In Mark, the disciples can't heal, they don't understand Jesus' teaching and when Jesus talks about his death and resurrection, their concern is whether they can sit close to Jesus when he comes into his glory. Talk about a lack of sensitivity and empathy. Jesus is going to die. The disciples don't feel the pain. All they do is relish the power that may come to them after Jesus suffers and dies. Do you recognize the Church of St. Mark? Tending to others' wounds - out! Caring for folks who are suffering - out! Power and control - now we're talking church! Secrecy and transparency are serious problems in Mark. On the way to Capernaum (Mk 9:33-37), Jesus asks his disciples why they are arguing. The issue was, "Who is ...

I have to tell you something about me. I would like for you and everybody else to like me. In college I was president of my sophomore and junior classes and my senior year, I was president of the student government. What I remember most, though, is that I didn't get all the votes. In seminary I was vice president of the student body my second year and president of the student body my third year. Do you know what I recall the most? I didn't get all the votes. Remember, my vocational aspiration was to become a minister. I was going to lead a united band of congregants as we marched together to Zion. I was in seminary finishing my second degree. I had a successful student pastorate and couldn't wait until the phone started ringing with people wanting me to come to their churches. What you hear is the sound of silence. A church in Tennessee did contact me, but when the church sent me the list of questions, I knew this would never work. Finally I was contacted by a church ...

I grew up in a church where sin (disobedience to God) was seen as a personal issue. Preachers told us that each of us had disobeyed God. If we wanted to be saved and not go to Hell, we had to accept Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord. I can look back to that kind of preaching and see how true it was to a certain extent but how limited it was in so many other ways. If there was any call to discipleship, it was not to do certain things, such as dancing. Interestingly, the people of God often danced in the Bible, but I guess it wasn't slow dancing. This type of evangelism was "transactional". You believed in Jesus so you wouldn't go to Hell, and then you stayed away from certain things, many of which seemed like fun. While the word "evangelism" has good roots in the New Testament, coming from "evangel", which means "good news", still it's an unwelcome word among some followers of Jesus. Evangelism conjures up images of manipul...

Interesting how certain new phrases weave themselves into our vocabularies. Have you heard, "the new normal"? It's alliterative; it's succinct. But I would like to consider where it's abusive to use in some difficult situations. Recently, we were stunned by the killing of 50 worshippers in two mosques in New Zealand. What stunned us was the number of people murdered in a relatively placid country. "Well," somebody said, "This is a part of the new normal." Violence is a staple of our lives. In our own country, school children, worshippers in Jewish temples, Sikh temples, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches have been slaughtered for the "crime" of gathering to pray, read their holy books, and listen to a message from their spiritual leaders. Is this "the new normal"? Is this what we have to accept? The only answer to a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun? This is "the new normal"? Why does it ha...

New Testament scholars remind us that the Greek word, "charis", means both "grace" and "gratitude". From the standpoint of the person offering love, it is called grace. From the one receiving that love, "charis" is gratitude. Fred Craddock challenges us by saying that the final work of God's grace is to make us gracious. When I was a child, my parents taught me to say, "Thank you". Then, "What do you say, Chuck," my mother admonished when someone gave me a gift. "Thank you." My mother has died, but I had always wished that she had let me take the initiative. After countless, "What do you say, Chuck?", I could have said it without any prompting. I have been thinking a lot about Bob Payne. I started attending Training Union (which many of you don't remember). Bob was in his mid-20s, a banker and a graduate of Florida State University, where he had been a campus leader. I think Bob started me on th...