Today I preached a sermon about the risk of following Jesus, and how Jesus then takes a risk to save us. Luke 5:12-26 shows a man who crossed quarantine boundaries from Leviticus 13 and another man and his friends who crossed social boundaries to make his way to Jesus when the path was blocked. Jesus then touches and heals the leper, and he forgives then heals the cripple, even as the Pharisees are aghast that he would do such a thing.
It was a good sermon, I think. But one thing that I struggled with is that I have the order backwards...ultimately, God is the one who takes the first risk, and then we respond. The sermon made it as if we are a people who risk everything to come to God, and then he follows.
Sometimes preaching has a way to obscure some truths as it enlightens others. The process of communication means that something vital is being said, but the fallible nature of humanity means that something is lost in the process. Often times the good of the truth is more important (and even more obvious) than that which is wrong, but somewhere, I am certain, people will misunderstand things. Even in the best of times, with the best of sermons, I have people who come up to me to thank me for saying something that I did not say.
This is why preaching must in the end be Spirit-based. As preachers and teachers we necessarily screw things up at times, because we are still people who on our own are filled with sin. Only by the grace of God do we end up at all good, and even then we obscure truth along the way.
