Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Preventing Grace

Home
Evangelical
7 Takes On A Bad Sermon

7 Takes On A Bad Sermon

Last updated on: April 5, 2019 at 9:36 am by Anne Kennedy

7 Takes On A Bad Sermon 2019-04-05T09:36:53-04:00 Anne Kennedy

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s another gray Friday in Binghamton. The only antidote must be some takes about a sermon I listened to this week. And don’t worry, today I’ll change my privacy settings so that you can actually see my blog on facebook. And if you want something cheerier than what’s about to happen, here I am on the Persuasion Podcast lyricizing Holy Week. Hannah and Erin are so cool and also patient, letting me go on and on about my favorite week of the year.

And now on to our little treat—7 ways this sermon goes tragically wrong.

One
The preacher should never use himself as a good example, which he does twice in the course of this fairly rambling exposition of what it means to…the word he is looking for is ‘forgive’, though he never finds it.

The reason you shouldn’t use yourself as a good example is because you don’t want people to look to you or model their lives on you. You will fail, even when you’re trying to be good. And so, for every breath you expend in the pulpit, you want them to see Jesus, to love Jesus, to cling to Jesus, and most especially to seek forgiveness and help from Jesus.

Two
The preacher does not define or use biblical categories when grappling with each of his three biblical texts. He references verses in Romans, Galatians, and Matthew but not a single one is put in context nor exposited using the language and categories of scripture itself.

As you listen you’ll see that
‘not-perfect’ is used in place of sinner
‘jacked’ is used in place of sinning
‘baggage’ is used in place of a person condemned to hell for offending a holy God and
‘let it go’ is used in place of forgiveness

Three
The preacher describes Paul in Romans 7 as bemoaning the ordinary imperfections to which we all unhappily fall prey. We’re all forgetful, we’re all occasionally unkind, we all speak harshly when we shouldn’t. But we mean well. We’re all in the pot of imperfection together, and that can be frustrating. Paul understands, just like the preacher understands, because he’s not perfect either. He even raised his voice to his kids recently. We should remember this and not take offense at the imperfections of other people.

Unfortunately, this is not what Romans 7 is describing. We are not basically good. We offend God by our thoughts, words, and deeds and must be forgiven by the blood of Jesus or we will be separated from God for eternity. For those who cling to the work of Christ on the cross, the Holy Spirit is given as a guarantee of forgiveness and eternal life. That person then experiences the war between the old life of the condemned sinner and the new life of the forgiven child. This is a painful, rich, and at times terrible experience. It is not a trite, ‘don’t worry nobody is perfect’ experience.

Four
The preacher leaves behind one letter of Paul for another, Galatians, which he uses—out of context—to explain that you shouldn’t take offense when other people do bad things. If you are hurt by other people, which you inevitably will be, you might be carrying around a lot of ‘baggage’. That’s not the path to the good life, so just don’t pick up those bad things. Don’t take the offenses of other people personally. Remember that you do bad things too, and in this way, don’t pick up a lot of baggage that will make you even more unlikeable.

Of course it is true that you ought not take offense, this point is made in the scriptures all over the place. But sin is sin. When one person sins against another person, that sin has to be remediated, if possible, and forgiven, which is a painful and difficult process. It’s not just ‘baggage’, it is a kind of personal death for the sake of another person’s life.

Five
The preacher then jumps over to the parable of the Unmerciful Servant where he neglects to use the single crucial word that Jesus himself uses—forgiveness—but instead postulates that the Christian should just ‘let it go’. The servant had a debt that he could not pay and the king ‘let it go’. The servant turned around, then, and did not ‘let it go’ and this was very bad.

Whereas, when Jesus tells the story, the king had to absorb an impossibly huge debt in order to forgive the servant. The debt stands for sin, for the offense of the rebel human who does not obey a perfect God. The king did not just ‘let it go.’ He absorbed the cost of that debt in himself. That is the miracle of forgiveness. You have to take something appalling and intolerable into yourself so that the other person can go free. It comes at a high cost. It is not easily done. It is a terrifying proposition.

Six
By lightly skipping over these various texts and completely avoiding the whole question of sin, the preacher does not equip himself nor the congregation to deal with the dark-hearted depravity that is the property of being human and being human together. We are not ‘basically good trying to do our best.’ We need the terrible truth of the cross—that we do unspeakably evil things to each other, things that offend God, and that the only way out is for God himself to remove the filth of that awfulness, not just by innocent animals dying, which is itself an ugly and painful thought, but by God himself becoming human and dying.

Seven
The church in America isn’t so morally awesome right now that it can afford to breeze over the heart of the law and the gift of the gospel. Imagine going to church having suffered something terrible, or done something unspeakable, and leaving with the new and worse law—let it go—rather than being offered the mercy and grace of Christ.

Except that you don’t have to imagine it, you can hear it in sermons such as this in churches all across America. As we head into Holy Week, I’m going to implore God for faithful, true, rigorous preaching that offers the relief and mercy of forgiveness to a sinful and dying world.

Go check out more takes!

Sermons

Jen's 7 quick takes

the church year

Previous Post

April 4, 2019

#ThursdayThought: Utopia Will Be Awesome

Next Post

April 7, 2019 Self-pity in the Vineyard

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Children in Conversation culture watch Daily Devotions Demotivations with Anne faith alone for the grandparents GAFCON In conversation with children In the News Kitchen Notes Lambeth Learning Notes Life Going On Men are Human Notes from Home Pictures Reading the Bible Saturday Links Sermons Signs of the Apocalypse The Bad Word Association The Prayer of Jonah Travel Notes Uncategorized Witless Wednesdays Work and the Christian

Select a Month June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Each chapter except one is an acrostic poem following the Hebrew alphabet. How many chapters make up this book of mourning?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Seven Three Five Twelve

Books by This Author Books by Anne Kennedy

See All Titles »