Ah! Ha!

I was attracted to a commercial for Turner Broadcasting "The Closer." The star of this series was relating how in every good drama there is an "Ah! Ha!" moment. That moment when everything comes together. It is a moment of clarity. An instant when everything makes sense. I realize that she is talking about fiction. I know that it is only a Television Show. However, is this not also true of a good novel, a good story that is well told?

This moment occurs in a good crime drama or any mystery it is when all the clues, like pieces of a puzzle fit together to form uniform picture of the entire event. It has been said that a picture is "worth a thousand words." Is it possible for "a thousand" well placed or phrased "words" to paint a picture? These word pictures so well drawn that they convey these mental images. Images so bold as to be seared into our minds for eternity like Icon's on a computer screen. When we double click upon the Icon there is an immediate recall of story the image represents.

Then it came to me like a flash of lightening. Should there not be such an "Ah! Ha!" moment in the sermon? When the "Greatest Story Ever Told" is retold and the grandest drama ever written unfolds. When the most profound mystery is revealed for every ear to hear and every eye to see. Why would there not be a picture so bold, beautiful and breath taking that we all cry out in wonder and awe, "Ah! Ha!" May be we have "ears but do not hear," or have "eyes but do not see?" Or may be it is something else altogether.

Could it be that something is lost in the telling which has nothing to do with the story itself? I have heard and preached more sermons than I care to remember. Many are good stand up comedy routines. Some are more like reciting of a concordance with scriptures quotations strung together to fit the speakers agenda. Others would make good after dinner or motivational speeches. A sermon should be something more and even something different. It must be more than what the listeners want it to be, a message that is what we think it is. While it is communication it must be much more. It must produce transformation. It must contain an authentic word from God.

There must be a moment when we hear the voice of God. A wondrous moment when we experience the Spirit of God in such a profound manner that we will forever be changed. That glorious "Ah! Ha!" moment when his story becomes our story and we can never look at the world or its inhabitant's the same again.

This might require some serious reevaluation of preaching by both preachers and those who are preachee's (I know I just invented a new word, forgive me).

Just some things to think about along the way. "Ah! Ha!" I hope I will see you a little farther down the road.

Bob