Some thoughts about sermons

It's Saturday morning, and I am sitting in my office, having finished tomorrow's sermon. I'll be back tonight to go through it a couple of times, and back early tomorrow morning to review it again (out loud) a few more times. Hearing my words is important -- what looks good on paper often sounds awkward or unnatural to the ear.

I've quit apologizing for not getting my sermons done by Thursday! First, I've been thinking, studying, and ruminating about it all week, so I knew coming here this morning essentially what I was going to say. (In fact, I fell asleep last night thinking about how I would organize the sermon.) Second, it's fresh for tomorrow. I don't have to "re-learn" a sermon that I completed days ago. Finally, I'm just a deadline guy -- it's the way I've operated for my whole life, and I'm not about to change now. At semester's beginning in college and seminary I always thought what a good idea it would be to get that term paper out of the way in the first few weeks. But, inevitably, the last week of the semester found me rummaging through the library stacks with my 3 x 5 cards, working on my papers!

My goal in creating a sermon is quite simple --— to give my people a word from God. That means I need to "listen to the text" and organize my sermon around it rather than organizing the text to fit my ideas. Clearly, my personality and prejudices color what I say, and I will focus on issues that another pastor might not, but I work very hard to keep the TEXT in capital letters and my grid in the lower case.

As John Stott says, "We come to our reading of the Bible with our own agenda, bias, questions, preoccupations, concerns and convictions, and, unless we are extremely careful, we impose these on the biblical text. We may sincerely pray before we read, 'Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law' (Ps. 119:18), but still the same non-communication may persist. For even that introductory prayer, though to be sure it is taken from the Psalter, is suspect because it lays down the kind of message we want to hear. 'Please, Lord, I want to see some "wonderful thing" in your word.' But he may reply, 'What makes you think I have only "wonderful things" to show you? As a matter of fact, I have some rather "disturbing things" to show you today. Are you prepared to receive them?' 'Oh no, Lord, please not', we stammer in reply. 'I come to Scripture only to be comforted; I really do not want to be challenged or disturbed.'" [The Contemporary Christian (Downers Grove: IVP, 1992), p. 190.]

For me the most important ingredients of good preaching are humility, simplicity, and integrity. My life needs to be congruent with the text. I don't need to be perfect, but I do need to preach to myself before I can preach to my people.