It's Sunday night, another day of preaching and church fellowship in the books. Today I preached about how Jesus is not who people expected he would be (from Luke 5:27-6:5) and then tonight I did a meditation on the importance of joyful praise from Psalm 111. I don't know that either sermon was great, but both seemed to get a good response...probably because both of them were absolutely true.
One thing I have really tried seeking in recent years when it comes to preaching is truth. If it's not true, and if it means that I have to fudge things in order to have something to say, then I won't preach. I have sat through too many sermons in my life that were not true. Sermons that said that I had to interpret a Scripture in a particular way that took it wholly out of its context, or sermons that were more interested in damning others rather than looking at our own problems, or sermons that had nothing to do with reality but sought out a life that God never promised. There's too much preaching both inside and outside of Churches of Christ...TV preachers, personality-driven preachers, 'faithful brotherhood' preachers, dull and lifeless and scared preachers. I have heard enough of them to know what I never want to be.
This isn't to say that I always get things right. I misinterpret Scriptures, because I am not perfect in my knowledge. I misunderstand the nature of God, because he is God and I am not. And I mistakenly think I know what is in the hearts of others, when instead they alone must stand before God just as I alone must stand before God, and we both only have Jesus as our advocate.
But truth is something that must be pursued, even if people don't want to hear it. Our job as preachers is the incredibly difficult job of ensuring that hard truths will be at least considered, even if not easily acceptable. I'd like to think that our little church here trusts me well enough to know that even if they don't like what I say, they will at least hear me out and consider whether or not this is the will of God. If that's what I've been able to do, this is enough. They know that I love God and love Scripture and love them enough to try to make sense of it all. Again, I will fail in this at times, but I am grateful that the church lets me at least take a shot at this.
This week I go back to the task of preparing more sermons for the next time I preach. We have a guest speaker on Sunday and then a devotional on Sunday night, so the next time in the pulpit is two weeks away. But truth will be truth, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to pursue it.
