Second Sunday of Easter
Narrative service Acts 5:27-32; John 20:19-31; Revelation 1:4-8
Some thoughts about the sermon.
The sermon is the best part of the worship service. The sermon is the most boring part of the worship service. The sermon is when I expect to learn something new about the text, the world or myself. The sermon is a time for hearing a good story, and maybe a joke or two. The sermon is the part of the service I expect to make me think. The sermon is the part of the service I expect to make me feel. What makes a sermon good is the fact that it moves me in some way. A sermon should always make me feel a little guilty about failing God in some way. A sermon should always make me feel better about my life and myself. A sermon should bring hope. A sermon should confront us with the realities of our lives. The sermon is when I begin free association thinking springing from the words the preacher offers. (For example , if the sermon mentions Jesus getting into a boat I may start thinking about taking a cruise in the near future or taking a canoe trip.) The sermon is when I day dream best. The sermon is when I finally have a few uninterrupted minutes to think. The sermon is when I plan the coming week. The sermon is when I feel closest to God.
Some thoughts about sermon writing. Writing a sermon has been compared to writing a quality short story or short research paper each week. With the advent of the internet it is now possible to read sermons preached from all over the country and from many different periods of history. It is almost impossible to reuse a sermon, since most of our sermons are posted on the internet dating back years. That doesn't mean you can't reuse a favorite story, illustration or quotation. It just means you better identify it for what it is. The classes a pastor takes in learning to preach are called "homiletics". What we learn is what every parishioner knows. There are different types of sermons and different ways of presenting them. There are lecture sermons and there are story sermons. There are teaching sermons, how-to sermons, judgmental sermons and grace filled sermons. There are theatrical sermons, musical sermons, dramatic sermons and entertainment sermons. There are rigidly structured sermons and loosely conceived wandering sermons. There are manuscripted sermons and spontaneous off the top of the head sermons. There are sermons that are totally Biblical and sermons that are completely focused on learning some life skill or even how to improve your financial situation.
I was trained to believe that if you read any three consecutively preached sermons it should be possible to roughly estimate when the sermons were written and preached because the references in the sermon would connect with events in contemporary history and people's lives. (This is another reason why sermons cannot be reused easily. Most people would notice references to the Vietnam War or President Nixon resigning.) My preferred approach to preaching is that described by the German theologian Karl Barth who believed a sermon was best preached with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
I have preached sermons to as few as four and to far more than four hundred. I have preached in stain glassed sanctuaries, gymnasiums and outdoors. I have preached from pulpits, lecterns, podiums and standing in the aisles. I have preached to yawning teenagers, screaming babies, distracted parents, world weary seniors and love struck newly weds.
Sermons can be quite long and very short. Five hundred years ago during the reformation, many pulpits were equipped with an hour glass that the preacher would turn as he entered the pulpit. He would be expected to preach until the sand ran out but not any longer, because that would be considered vain and self-aggrandizing. When I first entered the ministry, my internship church in Chicago expected a sermon to be at least 25 minutes long. Anything less would get me comments at the door like, "Not much of a sermon today." Now days with the attempt to keep each worship service to roughly one hour including prayers, music, communion and preaching, the sermon is generally 12-18 minutes in length. (And the congregation generally knows who will preach 12 minutes and who 18.) One of my homiletics professors taught that no sermon should try to say everything. "Leave something in the sermon for God to say," was his advice. "Leave room for the Holy Spirit to enter people's hearts and minds."
Over the years Chris and I have attended various preaching conferences. They have invited us to periodically reassess how and what we preach. Probably the best preaching approach I ever heard was the suggestion that at the end of every sermon it should be possible to identify at least one gracious claim that the sermon made on those who heard it.
Which brings us to the sermon on our lessons for this morning. Today is known historically in the church as "Doubting Thomas" Sunday since the gospel lesson for the first Sunday after Easter never changes. It is always the story of doubting Thomas. My best guess is that I have preached on this text at least 25 times over the years. So what more is there to say? And that may be the point of this morning and all preaching. It is not a matter of me saying more. Preaching is not about what the preacher has to say. Preaching is about what God has done and would have us to say and do.
The first Christian proclamation was that "He is not here, he is risen." A very simple sermon heard initially by only a few women. But the story was repeated. That, ultimately, is what the sermon is all about. Repeating the story to a new audience, retelling the story in different words with a different voice in the hopes that at some point the story will be heard and believed. Last Sunday we were told that the initial reaction to the first retelling of the Easter story was as if it were an idle tale, but even the confused and frightened disciples were not without reaction. The idle tale told by only women still struck Peter in such a way that he ran to the tomb to see for himself. At the end of last Sunday's gospel, Peter was left wondering what had happened. It would be later that Jesus would appear to him. Later, as in our gospel lesson for today. Jesus appears to the disciples in a locked room, only Thomas is missing. Imagine the differing sermons Thomas heard when he returned to the group yet there was one clear theme--Jesus is risen. Here we encounter the truth of each Sunday's sermon. Is it not enough that we hear the word once? Why do we need to repeat it over and over again? One answer is that someone is missing. Every Sunday there is someone hearing the story for the first time, I mean really hearing it. And the rest of us, sometimes we need to be reminded of what it means to hear something for the first time.
I was in Minnesota this week for a few days visiting my family. One morning my sister drove my parents, Chris and me to lunch at a shopping area in Owatonna, about 35 miles from the farm. I would have taken the interstate highways but she drove cross country on paved back roads. It was a slower way to go but she assured me far more interesting. The interesting part was that practically every farm we passed was identified for us by her or my parents with a quick story.
That farm family had a son who was injured in a field accident, the next farm had a daughter who married the young man from the farm over the ridge and their daughter just returned from mission work in Africa; and so the stories went from farm to farm woven together by the common threads of human suffering, service, triumph and tragedy.
That is what each sermon is all about. The common threads of our humanity that are touched by Christ. Thomas demanded that he be able to witness Christ's presence. That is what we do each Sunday as we come to worship. We want to be reminded again of the real presence of this Jesus who not only lived and died and rose from the dead but who lives even today. He lives in the word and sacraments that we see, taste, touch, hear and even feel. Each Sunday is an opportunity to relive what Thomas so yearned to experience. A real encounter with a risen savior. The stories of these encounters are many and varied. They are the stuff of congregation life. They are the reason we are each here this day. And when we truly hear the word, hear the word so truly that the Spirit of God touches us, empowers us, leads us to some deeper understanding about ourselves, others or the world, then we enter once more into the community of disciples who responded to the good news of the resurrection with lives given to service and following Jesus. It all begins with the word, proclaimed, preached and heard.
Amen