One pastor friend told me he never thinks twice about his sermons after Sunday morning. I’m not one of those. I liked today’s sermon: “Don’t worry!” Luke 12:22-40. We can’t be ready for action if we are always worrying. However, as much as I pointed out a couple of key commands (6) and insights (“or proverbs”) (7), then wrapped it up with a systems-thinking-graph about why worry keeps us from seeing all of God’s options, I have never liked the unfinished aspect of a sermon.
What always remains unfinished? Today, three folks came up and said it was a good corrective to their thinking. This is not what finishes it for me, as much as I like compliments. I always feel like a sermon is unfinished. There is always more. Always something to leave out. Always an illustration that could have been stronger or tighter. However, redoing the sermon a day later or a month later doesn’t finish it.
For me, finishing the sermon cannot be done. It’s the most frustrating aspect of preaching. I like feedback, immediate and spontaneous. I like to know how a sentence is perceived, not a month from now, but right now. I want to know what someone else might add, or what someone else has read on the subject. As much as I read and study, I always leave something out. And this is true when I listen to other pastors preach. Though I am much less critical of late, there remains a fallacious heresy among the pews and folding chairs of Christendom that their pastor preaches “the whole counsel of God” in a sermon or two or fifty two. After twenty-five years of preaching, I know it can’t be done.
A beautiful, breezy, fall day with the temp at 75.
What do I do? After preaching in Luke for ten and a half months, and only arriving at chapter twelve, I can say that by far, this has been the most enjoyable preaching. After leaving this morning, I know there will be at least five groups of listeners who will complete the sermon in their cell groups. They will be studying along with me, some in Mark and some in John, but the picture of Jesus teaching, lambasting and testing their faith (“You of little faith!) will be fresh, will spark greater connections and some will even do a little study of their own.
Amid all the sounds and chores of this world, the little voice of the teacher behind the pulpit can sure get lost. The power of that little voice is in sticking to the Jesus who died a bloody death at the hands of ignorant people, who suffered the wrath of God in his burial and was proven to be the perfect sacrifice for sin in his resurrection. In these, how could anyone lose their way!
