How To Hear A Sermon
Sermon
PROPHETS, PIONEERS AND POSSIBILITIES
Sermons for Pentecost [Last Third]
Walter Cronkite, the former highly-regarded CBS Evening News anchor, is an avid lover of boats. Some years ago, he steered his boat into Central Harbor, Maine. As he approached land he was amazed at the greeting he received. People lined the shore waving their hands at him. He could barely make out what they were saying but their shouts sounded like: “Hello Walter, Hello Walter.”
The boat sailed closer and closer to the shore and the crowd, still sending out their greeting to him, grew larger and larger. Shortly after Cronkite tipped his hat in grateful response his boat abruptly jammed aground. As the crowd became quiet he realized what the crowd had been shouting to him: “Low Water, Low Water.”
Do we hear only what we want to hear?
How is your hearing today? More to the point, how do you hear a sermon? Could it be possible that we think that we are hearing a sermon when in actual fact we are not hearing it at all.
Our Scripture passage gives us clues on how not to hear a sermon.
Micah did all he could to bid his congregation to hear. He prefaced his sermon with the following pointed words:
Hear you peoples, all of you:
hearken, 0 earth, and all that
is in it (1:2).
Micah had considerable gifts. He delivered the Word of the Lord with powerful similes and metaphors. But, he also knew that no matter how eloquent his words if they were not heard all would be in vain.
Some scholars call Micah’s prophecy a song, words that might be sung to music like a Medieval troubadour. Other scholars label his prophecy in chapter 2 a “wailing cry” or “a funeral lament.”
We must keep in mind that Micah was speaking to important people, rich and powerful landowners and public officials, in the capital city of Jerusalem. He was from the country. His hometown, Moreshath-gath was a rural hamlet, some 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. When he first came to the city the prophet was appalled by the greed and the corruption that prevailed. He was especially angry with the large landowners who were seeking to buy the property around his hometown, namely the small farms that meant so much to his people. The Word that he had received from the Lord confirmed his own suspicion that what they were doing was not right.
As I read and reread “the wailing cry” of the prophet I said to myself he was a prophet in the mold of our contemporary country singer Willie Nelson. Do not Willie’s songs have a wailing sound? Is he not the one who goes around the nation holding free concerts on behalf of the small farmers who have come upon hard times in our day? Maybe you too can capture something of the mood of Micah’s prophecy if you can imagine him singing these words in a wailing cry on behalf of the oppressed of his day.
Note some of the specific charges against the large landowners and public officials. He pictured them lying awake at night thinking up schemes to swindle the unsuspecting small farmers. Then, when daybreak came they put their plans into action. Their sin was covetousness. They had enough for themselves already, but they were not satisfied. They wanted more. They coveted houses and fields, the very inheritance of other people. Micah promised that the Lord had set aside a day, not too far off, when what they have done to others will be done to them. Foreigners will come in and plunder their property that they have stolen from others.
The prophet was particularly troubled that women and young children were suffering. Therefore, in the name of the Lord he pronounced “woe” or judgment upon all who did these things.
Also, within the body of our scriptural passage are fascinating words about the reaction to Micah’s preaching. His audience did not like his sermon. They called upon him to stop preaching, or, if he must preach, to stick to “religion” and not meddle in political, economic and social matters. Furthermore, they haughtily retorted that they would never be brought to disgrace as he insinuated. In a word, they wanted the prophet to speak soothing, comforting and positive words and eschew irritating, challenging and negative expressions.
Micah was frustrated in that he had a Word from the Lord, but he had no one to hear the Word.
If Micah’s audience was a poor example of hearing a sermon, what would be a better model? Are there are few practical ways in which we can hear the Word of the Lord in our own day?
Prepare To Hear The Word
First of all, if we are to hear a sermon, let us come prepared to hear the Word.
George Sheehan, a cardiologist and runner, describes his feelings right before running a race.
“Before I ever park the car, I can feel the adrenalin flowing. The sight of runners warming up sends a rush through my bowels. The smell of the dressing room sets my pulse to racing. The track under my feet makes me break out in a cold sweat.”1
Do you have similar feelings when you come to worship? Do you have an intense anticipation as the Word of God is about to be read and interpreted from the Scriptures? Are you prepared to hear the Word?
Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion radio fame recently published a book titled We Are Still Married. He married a woman from Denmark whom he had first met as an exchange student 20 years before at high school. I turned to the back cover of the book with the expectation of seeing a picture of his bride, but there was no picture, not even one of the author. What I found was an essay about a book. Among other things Keillor wrote: “The apostle Paul was not the host of a talk show, or else we’d be worshiping famous people on Sunday mornings; he wrote books, a Christian thing to do. The faith of Jews and Christians rests on God’s sacred Word, not on magic or music, and so technology burst forward into publishing…”2
Yes, Christians are distinctly a people of “the Book.” If that is the case should we not be familiar with the contents of the Scriptures? We would not approach another subject or an important assignment of work without adequate preparation, and yet we will come to worship without consulting the primary source of the Christian faith. Would it not be more advisable for us to read the Scriptures throughout the week so that the Book does not seem strange to us when we hear it read on Sunday mornings.
Further, we need not only read the Scriptures but also study them. Numerous small groups, classes and circles within most congregations meet not only on Sunday but during the course of the week to study the Scriptures. One of these groups is just right for you.
Still further, we have the matter of prayer. The Scriptures will remain a closed book until we ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to illumine the message for us. Prayer is essential for opening up the meaning of Word of God in the Scriptures to us. Do we approach the hearing of the Scriptures in a prayerful state of mind asking God to be with the one who speaks as well as with the one who hears?
Charles Haddon Spurgeon had extraordinary success as the pastor of his London congregation during the last half of the 19th century. When people would compliment him, he would invariably say that great things were happening in the congregation because he had people who prayed for him. His people came to hear the Word each Sunday with eager anticipation believing that veritably they would hear God’s Word addressed to their most pressing needs. How could he not be effective when his praying and expectant people came so well prepared?
Enter Into Dialogue With The Preached Word
Second, if we are to hear a sermon let us also enter into dialogue with the preached Word.
After the worship service one Sunday morning a man greeted the pastor with words to this effect: “We didn’t do so well today.” The pastor asked what he meant. He continued: “Your sermon was not as helpful as it might have been because I wasn’t working with you. There was something in the message that I was resisting.”
This man had the right idea about the function of a sermon. Preaching involves not just the person who is speaking but also the whole congregation hearing the message. Both need to be active, not just one person. True preaching is a dialogue with God communicating with the people through those who read, proclaim and hear the Word.
Eugene Peterson asserted: “The Scriptures are a mixed blessing because the moment the words are written they are in danger of losing the living resonance of the spoken word and reduced to something that is looked at, studied, interpreted, but not heard personally.”3 It is only when a word is spoken and heard that we have a true dialogue and the Word of God becomes alive for all concerned.
What is required is that first of all the preacher must hear the Word of God or else he or she will not have reason to speak to others.
Robert Hudnut, a brilliant student at Princeton University, was not certain of his vocation in life at graduation time. Therefore, he decided to explore different possibilities by accepting a Rockefeller Scholarship to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City for a year to see if the ministry was for him. At this time in his life Hudnut confessed that he never read the Bible any more than the next person. But during the year in Seminary he came in contact with a professor of the Old Testament who gave him a passionate desire to read the Bible. He still remembers a particular chapel service on September 25, 1958, when that professor challenged him by saying: “Go to your Bibles and listen.”
Hudnut decided to become a minister, and he has been listening to that Word in the Bible ever since.4
Likewise, the people of the congregation must also listen to the Word of God. Such a responsibility implies that people will not remain passive in the presence of the preached Word but will be thinking and feeling along with the speaker about the truth being expounded. There will be a meeting of minds and of hearts. Questions will be stimulated. Personal application will follow. All will be active participants -- speakers and hearers alike.
The speaker was not too far off the mark when he began the message with these remarks: “Both of us have a task to perform: I am to speak, and you are to listen. I hope you will not get finished before I do.” We are all in it to the end.
In our own young congregation from the very first Sunday we have had lay readers in worship. Such a practice not only gives the lay readers an appreciation for reading the Scriptures, an honor and solemn privilege in itself, but also gives the person an opportunity to do other things, too. I have always encouraged these adults and young people to give the Concerns of the Church including personal comments and an individual witness of their own. Hence, we have experienced the priesthood of all believers. Each Sunday lay readers bring a response to the Word out of the congregation and share with others something of what this dialogical interaction in preaching means to them personally.
Act Upon The Message Received
Finally, if we are to hear a sermon, let us act upon the message received.
David H. C. Read recently retired as pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City after serving for 30 years. In talking to a group of ministers a few years ago he mentioned that he had never yearned to hear the sound of his own voice. But one day he decided to check one of his radio sermons. The night before he set the alarm clock for the right station to come on for the 6:30 a.m. broadcast. What happened the next morning? In Read’s own words: “Sure enough I woke to the sound of my own voice -- and within a couple of minutes was sound asleep again.”5
If preachers are apt to go to sleep listening to their own sermons, how much more might we be susceptible to dozing off when the words are not even our own?
Of course, the aim of the sermon is not to put us to sleep, but rather to goad us to action.
Jesus’ parable about the sower is a story of how people respond to the Word of God. The seed distributed by the sower is symbolic of the Word. The different kinds of soils represent different human responses to hearing the Word. The best response, according to our Lord, is the soil that was fruitful. The fruit may be a hundredfold or sixtyfold or thirtyfold. The important point is that good hearing results in obedience to the Word and specific action.
In the Letter of James we have the truth put succinctly: “But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:22).”
If we have not been transformed in our conduct we have not heard the Word. If we have not reached out in love more after worship than before we have not heard the Word. If we have not left the sanctuary determined to forgive the one who has wronged us, we have not heard the Word.
We approach the hearing of the Word with great anticipation, and leave after receiving the Word resolving to put the Word into some form of concrete action as we become little Christs to our neighbors.
Tony Campolo tells the story of being invited to speak at a large, affluent church in the Washington, D.C. area. Everything proceeded “decently and in order” with the best in church music and a stately form of worship. Suddenly, a barefoot young man who was slovenly dressed and obviously spaced out on drugs stumbled down the middle aisle. He came to the chancel area and stopped. Everyone was filled with anxiety and suspense. What would he do? Finally, he sat down on the floor just to the right of the pulpit.
The minister proceeded as if nothing had happened, but everyone still felt uneasy. Then, an elderly, well-dressed man got up from his pew and made his way down the aisle toward the young man. He carried with him a walking cane. Some people thought he might try to use the cane to drive the young intruder away. Instead, the old man paused along side the dirty and ragged young man. He sat down with him and put his arm around his shoulder. They appeared to be a strange couple as they sat together in this manner throughout the remainder of the service.6
The people heard a real sermon that day. The sermon was dramatically portrayed for them by the two men sitting together on the floor near the pulpit. There could be no mistaking what they were expected to do; it had been shown them even before they had left the service.
Prepare to hear the Word. Enter into dialogue with the preached Word. Act upon the message received. That’s how to hear a sermon!
The boat sailed closer and closer to the shore and the crowd, still sending out their greeting to him, grew larger and larger. Shortly after Cronkite tipped his hat in grateful response his boat abruptly jammed aground. As the crowd became quiet he realized what the crowd had been shouting to him: “Low Water, Low Water.”
Do we hear only what we want to hear?
How is your hearing today? More to the point, how do you hear a sermon? Could it be possible that we think that we are hearing a sermon when in actual fact we are not hearing it at all.
Our Scripture passage gives us clues on how not to hear a sermon.
Micah did all he could to bid his congregation to hear. He prefaced his sermon with the following pointed words:
Hear you peoples, all of you:
hearken, 0 earth, and all that
is in it (1:2).
Micah had considerable gifts. He delivered the Word of the Lord with powerful similes and metaphors. But, he also knew that no matter how eloquent his words if they were not heard all would be in vain.
Some scholars call Micah’s prophecy a song, words that might be sung to music like a Medieval troubadour. Other scholars label his prophecy in chapter 2 a “wailing cry” or “a funeral lament.”
We must keep in mind that Micah was speaking to important people, rich and powerful landowners and public officials, in the capital city of Jerusalem. He was from the country. His hometown, Moreshath-gath was a rural hamlet, some 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. When he first came to the city the prophet was appalled by the greed and the corruption that prevailed. He was especially angry with the large landowners who were seeking to buy the property around his hometown, namely the small farms that meant so much to his people. The Word that he had received from the Lord confirmed his own suspicion that what they were doing was not right.
As I read and reread “the wailing cry” of the prophet I said to myself he was a prophet in the mold of our contemporary country singer Willie Nelson. Do not Willie’s songs have a wailing sound? Is he not the one who goes around the nation holding free concerts on behalf of the small farmers who have come upon hard times in our day? Maybe you too can capture something of the mood of Micah’s prophecy if you can imagine him singing these words in a wailing cry on behalf of the oppressed of his day.
Note some of the specific charges against the large landowners and public officials. He pictured them lying awake at night thinking up schemes to swindle the unsuspecting small farmers. Then, when daybreak came they put their plans into action. Their sin was covetousness. They had enough for themselves already, but they were not satisfied. They wanted more. They coveted houses and fields, the very inheritance of other people. Micah promised that the Lord had set aside a day, not too far off, when what they have done to others will be done to them. Foreigners will come in and plunder their property that they have stolen from others.
The prophet was particularly troubled that women and young children were suffering. Therefore, in the name of the Lord he pronounced “woe” or judgment upon all who did these things.
Also, within the body of our scriptural passage are fascinating words about the reaction to Micah’s preaching. His audience did not like his sermon. They called upon him to stop preaching, or, if he must preach, to stick to “religion” and not meddle in political, economic and social matters. Furthermore, they haughtily retorted that they would never be brought to disgrace as he insinuated. In a word, they wanted the prophet to speak soothing, comforting and positive words and eschew irritating, challenging and negative expressions.
Micah was frustrated in that he had a Word from the Lord, but he had no one to hear the Word.
If Micah’s audience was a poor example of hearing a sermon, what would be a better model? Are there are few practical ways in which we can hear the Word of the Lord in our own day?
Prepare To Hear The Word
First of all, if we are to hear a sermon, let us come prepared to hear the Word.
George Sheehan, a cardiologist and runner, describes his feelings right before running a race.
“Before I ever park the car, I can feel the adrenalin flowing. The sight of runners warming up sends a rush through my bowels. The smell of the dressing room sets my pulse to racing. The track under my feet makes me break out in a cold sweat.”1
Do you have similar feelings when you come to worship? Do you have an intense anticipation as the Word of God is about to be read and interpreted from the Scriptures? Are you prepared to hear the Word?
Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion radio fame recently published a book titled We Are Still Married. He married a woman from Denmark whom he had first met as an exchange student 20 years before at high school. I turned to the back cover of the book with the expectation of seeing a picture of his bride, but there was no picture, not even one of the author. What I found was an essay about a book. Among other things Keillor wrote: “The apostle Paul was not the host of a talk show, or else we’d be worshiping famous people on Sunday mornings; he wrote books, a Christian thing to do. The faith of Jews and Christians rests on God’s sacred Word, not on magic or music, and so technology burst forward into publishing…”2
Yes, Christians are distinctly a people of “the Book.” If that is the case should we not be familiar with the contents of the Scriptures? We would not approach another subject or an important assignment of work without adequate preparation, and yet we will come to worship without consulting the primary source of the Christian faith. Would it not be more advisable for us to read the Scriptures throughout the week so that the Book does not seem strange to us when we hear it read on Sunday mornings.
Further, we need not only read the Scriptures but also study them. Numerous small groups, classes and circles within most congregations meet not only on Sunday but during the course of the week to study the Scriptures. One of these groups is just right for you.
Still further, we have the matter of prayer. The Scriptures will remain a closed book until we ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to illumine the message for us. Prayer is essential for opening up the meaning of Word of God in the Scriptures to us. Do we approach the hearing of the Scriptures in a prayerful state of mind asking God to be with the one who speaks as well as with the one who hears?
Charles Haddon Spurgeon had extraordinary success as the pastor of his London congregation during the last half of the 19th century. When people would compliment him, he would invariably say that great things were happening in the congregation because he had people who prayed for him. His people came to hear the Word each Sunday with eager anticipation believing that veritably they would hear God’s Word addressed to their most pressing needs. How could he not be effective when his praying and expectant people came so well prepared?
Enter Into Dialogue With The Preached Word
Second, if we are to hear a sermon let us also enter into dialogue with the preached Word.
After the worship service one Sunday morning a man greeted the pastor with words to this effect: “We didn’t do so well today.” The pastor asked what he meant. He continued: “Your sermon was not as helpful as it might have been because I wasn’t working with you. There was something in the message that I was resisting.”
This man had the right idea about the function of a sermon. Preaching involves not just the person who is speaking but also the whole congregation hearing the message. Both need to be active, not just one person. True preaching is a dialogue with God communicating with the people through those who read, proclaim and hear the Word.
Eugene Peterson asserted: “The Scriptures are a mixed blessing because the moment the words are written they are in danger of losing the living resonance of the spoken word and reduced to something that is looked at, studied, interpreted, but not heard personally.”3 It is only when a word is spoken and heard that we have a true dialogue and the Word of God becomes alive for all concerned.
What is required is that first of all the preacher must hear the Word of God or else he or she will not have reason to speak to others.
Robert Hudnut, a brilliant student at Princeton University, was not certain of his vocation in life at graduation time. Therefore, he decided to explore different possibilities by accepting a Rockefeller Scholarship to study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City for a year to see if the ministry was for him. At this time in his life Hudnut confessed that he never read the Bible any more than the next person. But during the year in Seminary he came in contact with a professor of the Old Testament who gave him a passionate desire to read the Bible. He still remembers a particular chapel service on September 25, 1958, when that professor challenged him by saying: “Go to your Bibles and listen.”
Hudnut decided to become a minister, and he has been listening to that Word in the Bible ever since.4
Likewise, the people of the congregation must also listen to the Word of God. Such a responsibility implies that people will not remain passive in the presence of the preached Word but will be thinking and feeling along with the speaker about the truth being expounded. There will be a meeting of minds and of hearts. Questions will be stimulated. Personal application will follow. All will be active participants -- speakers and hearers alike.
The speaker was not too far off the mark when he began the message with these remarks: “Both of us have a task to perform: I am to speak, and you are to listen. I hope you will not get finished before I do.” We are all in it to the end.
In our own young congregation from the very first Sunday we have had lay readers in worship. Such a practice not only gives the lay readers an appreciation for reading the Scriptures, an honor and solemn privilege in itself, but also gives the person an opportunity to do other things, too. I have always encouraged these adults and young people to give the Concerns of the Church including personal comments and an individual witness of their own. Hence, we have experienced the priesthood of all believers. Each Sunday lay readers bring a response to the Word out of the congregation and share with others something of what this dialogical interaction in preaching means to them personally.
Act Upon The Message Received
Finally, if we are to hear a sermon, let us act upon the message received.
David H. C. Read recently retired as pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City after serving for 30 years. In talking to a group of ministers a few years ago he mentioned that he had never yearned to hear the sound of his own voice. But one day he decided to check one of his radio sermons. The night before he set the alarm clock for the right station to come on for the 6:30 a.m. broadcast. What happened the next morning? In Read’s own words: “Sure enough I woke to the sound of my own voice -- and within a couple of minutes was sound asleep again.”5
If preachers are apt to go to sleep listening to their own sermons, how much more might we be susceptible to dozing off when the words are not even our own?
Of course, the aim of the sermon is not to put us to sleep, but rather to goad us to action.
Jesus’ parable about the sower is a story of how people respond to the Word of God. The seed distributed by the sower is symbolic of the Word. The different kinds of soils represent different human responses to hearing the Word. The best response, according to our Lord, is the soil that was fruitful. The fruit may be a hundredfold or sixtyfold or thirtyfold. The important point is that good hearing results in obedience to the Word and specific action.
In the Letter of James we have the truth put succinctly: “But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:22).”
If we have not been transformed in our conduct we have not heard the Word. If we have not reached out in love more after worship than before we have not heard the Word. If we have not left the sanctuary determined to forgive the one who has wronged us, we have not heard the Word.
We approach the hearing of the Word with great anticipation, and leave after receiving the Word resolving to put the Word into some form of concrete action as we become little Christs to our neighbors.
Tony Campolo tells the story of being invited to speak at a large, affluent church in the Washington, D.C. area. Everything proceeded “decently and in order” with the best in church music and a stately form of worship. Suddenly, a barefoot young man who was slovenly dressed and obviously spaced out on drugs stumbled down the middle aisle. He came to the chancel area and stopped. Everyone was filled with anxiety and suspense. What would he do? Finally, he sat down on the floor just to the right of the pulpit.
The minister proceeded as if nothing had happened, but everyone still felt uneasy. Then, an elderly, well-dressed man got up from his pew and made his way down the aisle toward the young man. He carried with him a walking cane. Some people thought he might try to use the cane to drive the young intruder away. Instead, the old man paused along side the dirty and ragged young man. He sat down with him and put his arm around his shoulder. They appeared to be a strange couple as they sat together in this manner throughout the remainder of the service.6
The people heard a real sermon that day. The sermon was dramatically portrayed for them by the two men sitting together on the floor near the pulpit. There could be no mistaking what they were expected to do; it had been shown them even before they had left the service.
Prepare to hear the Word. Enter into dialogue with the preached Word. Act upon the message received. That’s how to hear a sermon!
