"Boiling Water" or "Making Soup"
We frequently substitute technology, gadgetry and gimmickry for finely crafted words that paint a picture and communicate in the tones, tenor and rhythms that allow us to experience the depth of life in God. We are wordsmiths using the words that can evoke images of the beauty and wonders of a transformed life. Take for example three such individuals Abraham Lincoln,[1] Jonathan Edwards[2]
In addition, Martin Luther King Jr.[3] and the excerpts from some of their speeches where there use of words is imaginative and creative. These are intended to be examples of how a skilled wordsmith uses words. It is both their choice of words and their use of words to captivate, motivate and create. Their words leave us with images that are undeniably moving and unforgettable. We should strive to become true wordsmiths who give great attention to the words we choose to craft and create sermons that truly transform. This is correctly handling the word of God.
I have with great interest witnessed sermons, or what was represented to be sermons. Yet, they resemble something more akin to a stand-up comedy routine than a sermon. While Bill Cosby might be proud of such effort, I am not sure that this would be Jesus’ preference. We are forced to endure 15 minutes of jokes and random humorous antidotes, with maybe a few minutes of scripture to make it sound biblical. While humor is a useful tool, even Jesus uses humor to make his point, a sermon must be more. Never interject humor just for humor’s sake. It is not our calling to entertain but rather to transform. The sermon is not a comedy routine but a word from God (good news). In a preaching seminar by Fred Craddock this excellent preacher and professor of preaching said, “preaching is more than boiling water, it is making soup.”
We have become accustom to and even dependent upon the use video clips and power point presentations to present the message. By relying on these technologies so heavily, are we “just boiling water” or are we “making soup?”
These technologies are wonderful innovations and magnificent mechanical advances of our age, but still they are just tools. Neil Postman’s book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” points out the tendency of our generation to view everything in terms of entertainment and how this has influenced our generation. Thirty seconds to one-minute commercials and thirty-minute television programs grab our attention but fail to hold it. They make an emotional appeal but often fail to give a valid reason and frequently ignore the ethics of the speaker or of what is being asked of the listeners. How often do we click between programs, watching multiple programs at the same time? The remote, controls our lives rather than God.
Therefore, we frequently evaluate and even prepare sermons based upon how well they meet the criterion amusement, technology and emotion. Preachers are tempted to go a step further and even attempt to pass it off as good news and correctly handling the word of God. Sermons that must be no more than thirty minutes long and multi-media presentations that try to mimic Madison Avenue’s add campaigns are an accommodation to our culture. Culture does not dictate good news. Good news is the word from God.
I recently was involved in an elder’s meeting where our discussion focused upon the need to keep sermons and worship short so as not to impose upon the people’s time. The phrase that one of my fellow elders used repeatedly was, “we must be time conscious.” My position was that it would be of greater value for us to be more God conscious than time conscious. I have no morbid desire to endure an excessively long drawn out sermon, which rambles and aimlessly plods along with no apparent point. A sermon should never be an imposition either upon the people or upon God. Time is not God. What are we willing to sacrifice upon the altar of “time consciousness?” These accommodations to culture, I believe, fail the test of being good news, or correctly handling the word of God, and fail miserably.
One should remember that these technologies and techniques are very useful tools. However, they are just tools and not the essence of or foundation upon which the sermon is constructed. A skilled artisan never confuses his tools with his gift or skill in using the tools. The preacher must use all his tools and never allow the tools to use him.
[1] Abraham Lincoln. Second Inaugural Address. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
[2] Jonathan Edwards. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like reedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back.
[3] Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream” In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds. "But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
To be continued....
Bob Phillips
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