Sunday, August 03, 2008

Preaching

So I did three services today at three different nursing homes. Boy am I tired, but I feel pretty good about how I did. It’d be interested to know if folk who preach on a weekly basis begin to build up stamina for this kind of thing?
Before I went out to preach this morning I turned on the TV to see what other folk are preaching. Ed Young preached about God wanting us to have the best sex possible and that that is the point of marriage. He did this in front of a giant bed.
Dennis Swaggert let his audience know that Black Liberation theology is really an attempt to kill God, that if you see a female angel its actually a male angel in drag, and that he is really angry at McCain for refusing to call Islam a religion of the Devil.
A no-namer I flipped to let me know that prophetic images of lions eating lambs is really about where America is headed, another was tracing his family tree, and a third was letting parents know that if they don’t disciple their children enough they won’t obey God.
I don’t know what to say about all this other than the sermons on the TV seemed either irreverent, irrelevant, unintelligent, or unintelligible. I guess the thing that surprises me is how many people are listening to them, not only the hundreds in attendance live, but also those whose homes their message is being broadcast to. What do people see in some of these preachers? I know one of our professors at LTSP keeps telling us it sometimes isn’t what the pastor says, but what the congregation hears. That some of the most embarrassing sermons we and others give will end up transformed by the Holy Spirit into God’s word and grace in the lives of those who hear us, but still, what are people possibly hearing from these messages?
Enough from me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you professor. There have been several sermons that I preached that I thought,"what a dog of a sermon", but then on Monday I get a phone call and someone says "You really spoke to me." It's gotta be the Holy Spirit, because when I look back, it's still a dog of a sermon!

Nice blog, thanks for sharing it with the blogosphere.