Skip to main content

The Lord Spoke

From Annie Dillard, quoting something she had read in Hasidism: “Rebbe Shmelke of Nickolsburg, it was told, never really heard his teacher, the Maggid of Mezritch, finish a thought because as soon as the latter would say ‘and the Lord spoke,’ Shmelke would begin shouting in wonderment, ‘The Lord spoke, the Lord spoke,’ and continue shouting until he had to be carried from the room” (The Writing Life, p. 35).

Shouldn’t we preachers be similarly overwhelmed over the fact that the Lord spoke?

Shouldn’t we be so overwhelmed that it is hard to move past our state of being overwhelmed and on to a posture of preaching?

Shouldn’t we wonder if we are ready to preach if we are not in the midst of our preparation and our delivery continually overwhelmed to know that the Lord spoke?

Comments

  1. I love good preaching. I am so fortunate to have a priest at my parish that preaches the Love of Christ in such a way that most are really moved. Better than being moved we try and live his preaching. He even leads contemplative retreats for Baptist ministers.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amazing Belief (Mark 6:1-6)

(Preached at Rocky Creek Baptist Church, Forsyth GA, on July 8, 2018) I wonder how much we really believe in Jesus. That may sound like a strange thing to ask people who have come to church, but it’s something we should give some serious thought to. We may have more in common with the people of Jesus’ hometown than we care to admit. When Jesus encountered the people in Nazareth, “he was amazed at their unbelief” (v. 6a). We may be amazed at it too. After all, they knew him. They had probably heard about his teachings and healings, and now he was coming home. We might expect them to welcome him as the hometown boy made good. But they didn’t. They instead “took offense” at him. Given the questions they asked, we might express their attitude as something like, “Who does he think he is, anyway? After all, he’s one of us, and he’s no better than we are.” They even seem to put him down a little bit: “How can a man who works in construction also work miracles?” The bottom li

An Experiment in Preaching

A friend who in his late fifties took a new pastorate said that he had written the last sermon he ever intended to write, meaning that he planned to use the vast collection of sermons that he had built up over his career and produce nothing new. I have in my paper and electronic files every sermon I have ever written; I even have the outlines, some of which were lifted straight out of the back of my trusty Thompson Chain Reference Bible, from my first halting efforts, which were quite different than my later halting efforts. I have at times “re-preached” some of my “greatest hits”; in so doing I heeded the wise words of my wise father who once told me, “If it was worth preaching once it’s worth preaching twice.” And if it’s worth preaching twice maybe it’s worth preaching thrice or more! Over the last twenty-five years I have written full manuscripts for 99% of the sermons that I’ve preached and 90% of the time I’ve taken that manuscript into the pulpit with me. Last Sunday I began an

What I’ve Been Trying to Say: Practice Love!

(A sermon based on Philippians 2:1-18 for Sunday, April 26th, 2015--my last sermon as Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Fitzgerald, GA) When all is said and done, it all comes down to love. So “love” is the word and the reality with which I want to leave you. Well, actually it all comes down to worshipping God. But God is love—that is, God is most defined by God’s love and so to worship God is to worship the One who is perfect love. And actually it all comes down to following Jesus. But Jesus showed us what kind of love God’s love is so to follow Jesus is to practice God’s kind of love. To worship God is to worship the One who is love. To follow Jesus is to follow the One who showed us what love is. So it all comes down to love. I decided long ago that I would in living my life always try to come down on the side of love. I decided long ago that I would in carrying out my ministry always try to come down on the side of love. I decided long ago that I would in lead