Posted on 05/15/2014 9:40:21 PM PDT by ReformationFan
It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out.” That stunningly clear sentence reflects one of the most amazing, tragic, and lamentable characteristics of contemporary Christianity: an impatience with the Word of God.
The sentence above comes from Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today in an essay entitled, “Yawning at the Word.” In just a few hundred words, he captures the tragedy of a church increasingly impatient with and resistant to the reading and preaching of the Bible. We may wince when we read him relate his recent experiences, but we also recognize the ring of truth.
Galli was told to cut down on the biblical references in his sermon. “You’ll lose people,” the staff member warned. In a Bible study session on creation, the teacher was requested to come back the next Sunday prepared to take questions at the expense of reading the relevant scriptural texts on the doctrine. Cutting down on the number of Bible verses “would save time and, it was strongly implied, would better hold people’s interest.”
As Galli reflected, “Anyone who’s been in the preaching and teaching business knows these are not isolated examples but represent the larger reality.”
Indeed, in many churches there is very little reading of the Bible in worship, and sermons are marked by attention to the congregation’s concerns, not by an adequate attention to the biblical text. The exposition of the Bible has given way to the concerns, real or perceived, of the listeners. The authority of the Bible is swallowed up in the imposed authority of congregational concerns.
As Mark Galli notes:
It has been said to the point of boredom that we live in a narcissistic age, where we are wont to fixate on our needs, our wants, our wishes, and our hopes—at the expense of others and certainly at the expense of God. We do not like it when a teacher uses up the whole class time presenting her material, even if it is material from the Word of God. We want to be able to ask our questions about our concerns, otherwise we feel talked down to, or we feel the class is not relevant to our lives.
And Galli continues:
It is well and good for the preacher to base his sermon on the Bible, but he better get to something relevant pretty quickly, or we start mentally to check out. Don’t spend a lot of time in the Bible, we tell our preachers, but be sure to get to personal illustrations, examples from daily life, and most importantly, an application that we can use.
The fixation on our own sense of need and interest looms as the most significant factor in this marginalization and silencing of the Word. Individually, each human being in the room is an amalgam of wants, needs, intuitions, interests, and distractions. Corporately, the congregation is a mass of expectations, desperate hopes, consuming fears, and impatient urges. All of this adds up, unless countered by the authentic reading and preaching of the Word of God, to a form of group therapy, entertainment, and wasted time—if not worse.
Galli has this situation clearly in his sights when he asserts that many congregations expect the preacher to start from some text in the Bible, but then quickly move on “to things that really interest us.” Like . . . ourselves?
One of the earliest examples of what we would call the preaching of the Bible may well be found in Nehemiah 8:1-8 (ESV):
And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.
Ezra and his companions stood on a platform before the congregation. They read the scriptural text clearly, and then explained the meaning of the Scripture to the people. The congregation received the Word humbly, while standing. The pattern is profoundly easy to understand: the Bible was read and explained and received.
As Hughes Oliphant Old comments, “This account of the reading of the Law indicates that already at the time of the writing of this text there was a considerable amount of ceremonial framing of the public reading of Scripture. This ceremonial framing is a witness to the authority of the Bible.” The reading and exposition took place in a context of worship as the people listened to the Word of God. The point of the sermon was simple: “to make clear the reading of the Scriptures.”
In many churches, there is almost no public reading of the Word of God. Worship is filled with music, but congregations seem disinterested in listening to the reading of the Bible. We are called to sing in worship, but the congregation cannot live only on the portions of Scripture that are woven into songs and hymns. Christians need the ministry of the Word as the Bible is read before the congregation such that God’s people—young and old, rich and poor, married and unmarried, sick and well—hear it together. The sermon is to consist of the exposition of the Word of God, powerfully and faithfully read, explained, and applied. It is not enough that the sermon take a biblical text as its starting point.
How can so many of today’s churches demonstrate what can only be described as an impatience with the Word of God? The biblical formula is clear: the neglect of the Word can only lead to disaster, disobedience, and death. God rescues his church from error, preserves his church in truth, and propels his church in witness only by his Word—not by congregational self-study.
In the end, an impatience with the Word of God can be explained only by an impatience with God. We all, both individually and congregationally, neglect God’s Word to our own ruin.
As Jesus himself declared, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
There are some very interesting things in the Bible, including some good stories ( meaning stories a preacher should be able to make good sermons from— and yes, relevant sermons with good messages or “ bottom lines”) ). It’s hard to understand how how a cleric could be bored by it all. Perhaps he chose the wrong line of work ?
When I was growing up, you walked into the sanctuary with a certain reverence because you were walking into God’s house. There was music playing softly, and we would busy ourselves with meditative prayer allowing the Holy Spirit to prepare our hearts to hear what the Word had for us that day.
Today, people saunter into church in shorts and flip flops carrying a latte and a cell phone and sit there texting or checking out some website while electric guitars play in the background, and others are carrying on conversations about their kid’s schoolwork or last soccer game. When the service starts a bunch of people show up on stage and perform as though they were on American Idol, with all the focus on them. Finally the preacher gets up in his jeans and t shirt and expounds on the latest pop “Christian” feel good psychology with a few Bible verses thrown in for seasoning.
No wonder people balk when they hear a real sermon from the Word of God. It just ain’t hip. And you gotta be hip to fill those empty seats.
Hey, maybe THAT’S why their empty.
One of the reasons they don't teach/preach the Bible is that they have no idea of context because they have no understanding of history. They apply everything directly to today which is not only shallow, it's arrogant and discounts the millions of believers who lived before us.
But I think revival is coming (which will be centered on Biblical truth). It's taking a while but maybe the longer it tarries, the longer it will last.
No one has any interest in hearing Scripture that is not convicted of their own sin.
In fact, if they’re not convicted of their own sin, the last thing they want to hear is Scripture.
Why would they need to hear about being saved if they’ve done nothing that merits any punishment ?
They certainly don’t want to hear about sin if they’re not truly convicted of their own sin.
That conviction is very upsetting. It’s only then that one really throws oneself upon God’s mercy.
It’s only then that one develops the need to hear God’s Word like one’s need for food, for bread, when starving. What have I been doing wrong ? How can I be obedient ? Some things I thought were wrong were actually not.
Absent the grace of God, people simply do “not want to go there”.
bookmark
I wonder if anyone yawned when Jesus preached?
“It has been said to the point of boredom that we live in a narcissistic age, where we are wont to fixate on our needs, our wants, our wishes, and our hopes—at the expense of others and certainly at the expense of God. We do not like it when a teacher uses up the whole class time presenting her material, even if it is material from the Word of God. We want to be able to ask our questions about our concerns, otherwise we feel talked down to, or we feel the class is not relevant to our lives.”
People need to understand that this (meaning EVERYTHING we take in with our five senses) is not about US.
None of it. Everything is about Jesus. Everything.
I don’t understand what the author means by “preaching the Bible.” The Bible is ... the Bible. If you’re reading (or reciting from memory) the words of the Bible, then you are. If you’re not, you’re not.
By “preaching the Bible,” does he mean “telling the congregation what I think about something in the Bible”?
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
I ask: What else should be preached?
Mohler's article was written long ago and it is timeless. Right?
Perhaps some educational standards might be set for pastors.
Are there not possible errors that people may believe because they interpret the Bible differently from others?
Or doesn't that matter?
A sermon is not reading or reciting.
educating people about what’s in the Bible is essential.
I was amazed at the times I have been in a Protestant or non-Catholic Church. Once there was nothing preached, once a few lines from the Old Testament and the other time just some generalizations.
It puzzled me because I am used to hear Scripture spoken on every week.
May 16, 2014
Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Reading 1 Acts 13:26-33
When Paul came to Antioch in Pisidia, he said in the synagogue: “My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are God-fearing, to us this word of salvation has been sent. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him, and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets that are read sabbath after sabbath. For even though they found no grounds for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him put to death, and when they had accomplished all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are now his witnesses before the people. We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our fathers he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 2:6-7, 8-9, 10-11ab
R. (7bc) You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. or:
R. Alleluia.
“I myself have set up my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.”
R. You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. or:
R. Alleluia.
“Ask of me and I will give you the nations for an inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall rule them with an iron rod; you shall shatter them like an earthen dish.”
R. You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. or:
R. Alleluia.
And now, O kings, give heed; take warning, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice before him; with trembling rejoice.
R. You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel Jn 14:1-6
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Gospel Jn 14:1-6
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
I heard an interesting homily on the Gospel verse at Mass this morning. I don’t remember all of it, but Father summed it up by saying that whenever he hear the phrase, “I am the way and the truth and the life,” it is a powerful reminder that it is only by entering into a personal relationship with Jesus that we can come to the Father through Him and enter eternal life.
You both seem to be saying that, by "preaching the Bible," the author means, "Telling the congregation what he thinks the Bible means."
What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over a half century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio.
Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday . . . where Christ is not preached.
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