by Max Brennan, United Methodist Pastor of
St. Matthew and Eastern Hills United Methodist Churches
St. Matthew -- Sunday 11:00 A.M. -- Thursday 6:00 P.M.
off Meadowbrook - 1 short block east of Sandy, turn right to 2414 Hitson
Eastern Hills -- Sunday 9:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M.
off Meadowbrook - Jenson to Wilson - 1509 Wilson Road
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George Burns once said that a sermon "should have a good beginning and a good ending, and they should be as close together as possible."
Mark Twain said, "Few sinners are saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon."
Twain also told about hearing a visiting missionary who was so persuasive that he thought seriously about putting $400 in the plate. But the preacher went on so long that, by the time he got through, and the plate was passed, Mr. Twain was tempted to take a few dollars out!
A preacher has been defined as: "Someone who talks in someone else's sleep."
We joke a lot about preachers and preaching, about the length of sermons and people sleeping through them. But I love preaching. I love sermons. I heard a black preacher once - a guest evangelist in Bold Pilgrim Baptist Church in Kaufman, TX - who turned a sermon into a verbal symphony. I was lifted to heaven on the music of his words. Fort Worth's Helen Poe wasn't a preacher, but I heard her give a speech once, back in my college days, that was like a sermon. I shook with laughter - and then with tears. I remember much of it to this day. Fulton J. Sheen, the Catholic Bishop, was a great preacher. He helped me see the beauty of the Gospel - and the power of preaching to touch the heart.
Preaching is a great mystery to me. I do it all the time, but I don't claim to understand it. When I am preaching, I am also listening; just as if I were sitting in the congregation. The sermon can seem to have a life of its own. This, I think, is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes, after a sermon, I feel I have worked in close company with the Lord, who has allowed me to share in his witness. And then again, not long ago, I preached a sermon that didn't seem to make it. I felt I was pushing my way through it, and getting nowhere. After the service a young woman told me she had come to church feeling really down, but the sermon had lifted her with God's love.
And you know what that means: While I cannot preach without the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit can certainly preach without me. |
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This file last modified October 8, 2000
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