What is the purpose of a Sermon?

I'm spending some time interacting with neighboring blogs before continuing some of my own series. Today I wanted to consider an issue raised at Conciliar Outpost about an Anglican's view of the purpose of a sermon. I'd encourage people to read the whole linked article but will sum up here enough for those who only read this continuation of the conversation. The linked post sees three main types of sermons as problems to be avoided: the moral to-do list, the call to social action (generally as political activism), and the academic lecture. It advocates this as the correct content of a sermon: 

The sermon is the preaching of Gospel to the congregation in a way that convicts them of sin while also preparing them for the Eucharist. A Lutheran may call this “Law/Gospel” preaching. There is a sense in which the sermon should destroy self-confidence in the hearer while also pointing them to the crucified Lord.

To be clear, the context is in a liturgical worship service, where the sermon is part of the bridge between reading 3 portions of Scripture -- the third of which is from one of the New Testament gospels -- and the Eucharist or Lord's Supper.

Again to be clear, I'm not writing this from any adversarial view of Anglicans or Lutherans.

But is that really what a sermon should be? Is there a one-size-fits-all answer to what a sermon should be, other than a faithful conveyance of the Word of God? The sermon should be faithful to the text being preached. What if the scripture reading for the day isn't intended to convict people of sin? How can it be faithful to the Scripture to insist that every sermon should serve to convict of sin when every scriptural reading does not? The sermon should serve as a means by which the shepherd feeds the sheep, as "Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word which comes from the mouth of the Lord."

The purpose of the sermon should be much the same as the purpose of the Scripture itself. In addition to the things already named, I can think of Scripture passages which also include the following among the right things accomplished by God's word:

• Building faith
• Encouragement
• Gaining wisdom and understanding
• Giving joy
• Increasing knowledge of God
• Renewal and regeneration
• Comforting and strengthening God's people

 I expect there are many more. I'd be glad to hear of others.

To Him, all are alive

When Jesus was in Jerusalem not long before his arrest, he said:

even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive. (Luke 20:37-37, with Jesus quoting and commenting on Exodus 3:6)

Today is the first time I celebrate Easter to commemorate Jesus' resurrection without my brother who, by his age, might have reasonably lived for decades to come. But God is God of the living. To him, all are alive. To God, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive. If to God all are alive, then to God my brother is alive. Resurrection and forgiveness: we're all sure to need them someday. Thanks be to God for his love in Christ Jesus.

He is risen indeed!

Lent and the Love of God

This week's Lent post is a response to the thoughts of Metacrock at his personal blog: Love: the Basis of Everything (expansion). Metacrock and I have several beliefs in common; the most important of those is that love is the core of God's nature. We find ourselves in agreement that love, as the nature of God, is the cause of creation and the basis of morality. More than that, we share common ground that love is the basis of morality because love is the basis of creation, and because it is the nature of God. God is the ground of existence; the ground of existence is love.

If the basis of our existence is the love of God, then breaking all ties with God amounts to cutting off the branch on which we sit. It's a fatal move, not because of some whimsical rule-system or vindictive payback, but because of the nature of our existence as contingent on God.


At one point Jesus told a parable describing God's love for people: a shepherd went looking for a missing sheep. In our days of city-dwelling and dwindling wilderness we do not think of the risk the shepherd would take to seek out a lost sheep. The wild was a dangerous place not just for the sheep, but possibly for the shepherd too.

Today marks the start of Holy Week: in the context of our broken relationship with God, it calls back to the time when Jesus knowingly stepped onto dangerous ground. Why did he have to die? Death is where all the missing sheep had gone, or would someday go.

Lent: Most Edifying Thing Heard Today

Over at Weedon's blog, the good pastor considers the account of Jesus and Barabbas. We can read that account and see a cruel and ironic twist that there were people who demanded for a murderer to be freed, and for a healer to be killed. The pastor suggests that these may be Jesus' thoughts:

You WANT Barabbas to be free. Love divine, all loves excelling.

It is what he came for: to set the captives free, and take away transgression.

We are Barabbas, are we not?

Growth and Gratitude

This post is a response to blog-neighbor Martin LaBar: Christians are expected to grow.

I'm looking back at the past few years and I have been grateful for a friend's suggestion that helped my spiritual growth. She taught me a simple exercise in gratitude that brought about growth and a changed perspective. It was an easy exercise:

Each day for 30 days, write down 3 things for which I'm grateful. Avoid repeating the same thing when I can. (Another variation of the exercise: exchange texts with a friend who is also doing the exercise.)

I had just come through some very dark times. I'd even been on medical leave at work and had taken a blog hiatus for health reasons. And I was not yet enjoying life again. I didn't know that I had much to be grateful for. But my friend was kind and open rather than bossy; she said she had done the exercise herself and found it helpful. She shared her experience and hope rather than giving advice, and she encouraged me to do it as a personal exercise, to try and see.

The first few days were a struggle against my own anger at my situation. But by the time a week or two had gone by, I was beginning to realize just how much was still good in my life and that my anger was blinding me to it.

I still maintain the exercise, not with the same rigid "3 entries per day" rule as when gratitude was new to me. Still, gratitude often appears as part of my end-of-the-day routine.

I'd be glad to hear of other spiritual growth exercises based anyone else's experiences.

The life well-lived: By what measure does a Christian measure success?

I'm a day late posting. I'm traveling and certain of my on-line accounts "helpfully" recognized that I wasn't using my usual device or my usual location, and set up a few extra hoops before I could access my accounts even with the correct credentials. 

I'm currently visiting a relative as he celebrates a very round birthday. If I should reach the age he is currently celebrating, I'd find my own celebration mixed with the thought that it might well be the last of the very round birthdays. At that point, when the inevitable comes, no one will say the passing is premature; it's a milestone at which the comments turn to the "long, full life" that has been lived.

What makes for a full life, for a Christian? I am here thinking specifically about the shape it has taken for the person I'm here to celebrate.

• A loving, faithful marriage spanning decades until death parted them some few years ago
• A solid career that enabled him to both provide well for his family and to help others generously
• A lifestyle of hospitality, with his door and his heart always open to a new friend
• A consistency of warmth and kindness that has built many friendships and earned much trust
• A genuine concern for others

He is deeply Christian, and so it is fitting to see his character in terms of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love -- the greatest of which is love. I don't know that he would see it that way; he might say he is a "people person", or "tries his best". The focus of his life is -- and has always been -- the human connections. To watch what motivates him, his most frequent motive is love.

There is value in recognizing someone's virtue. Of course that act of recognizing helps cultivate virtue in the mind, too, but I think mainly it helps in building our own love.

In memory of Jesus

"Do this in remembrance of me." -- Jesus, basically the last thing he did before going to be arrested on capital charges

Sooner or later we all give some thought to our legacy. What will we leave behind? What will they remember about us? When will people think of us?

With Jesus, he asked us to continue remembering that his life wasn't all about himself: it was about his love for us. And that his love is the guarantee of our forgiveness.

Without forgiveness, a relationship becomes about perfection and expectations, and fear of being less-than, and dishonesty about who we really are. Without forgiveness, it's a matter of time before things become about excuse-making and finger-pointing and image-management. The quest for human connection and love, without forgiveness, becomes impossible for us. Multiply that by the billions of people in the world.

May I remember forgiveness every time I need it; may I remember forgiveness every time someone else needs it too.