The purpose of the sermon is the preach the Gospel, that is, to actually deliver the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the hearer, to bestow forgiveness and peace, to proclaim the love of God for all men and in particular for those who hear. It is not to teach the catechism. It is not to explain the Scripture text. That is the rub. This is often misunderstood.
In the seminary, preaching classes are usually nothing more than courses in Bible Study and interpretation. The student preachers are taught to undergo onerous academic study of the text. They translate from the original language. They read commentaries. The cross reference and outline. After pursuing whatever list of steps they’ve been given, and in the midst of an academic environment full of footnotes and references, their “sermons” wind up not as proclamation but as Bible lectures. The worst are moralistic. The best are facts about God and man. If the Kingdom of God is proclaimed in such a context, it is pure accident.
I suppose that’d be fine if I was only talking about student preachers, but I am not. Some of these students are called to pulpits without ever knowing the distinction between a sermon and a Bible study or an academic paper. To make matters worse, and I could be wrong about this, but I suspect that most hearers do not desire absolution from the sermon. Their main hope is to escape boredom and perhaps hear some interesting nugget to expand their knowledge. That is fine in as far as it goes, and surely God does desire us to grow in Christ and learn things, and certainly He works through the clumsy sermons of men. But it behooves preachers, nonetheless, to give some attention to what the real purpose of preaching is.
It is not to educate. It is to call the hearers to repentance and give them forgiveness. Sometimes they will learn things in this call and gift. Sometimes they will be taken to emotional and spiritual mountaintops. They might even occasionally enjoy themselves and be entertained with a clever or engaging sermon. But none of those things are the goal. The goal is that they would receive forgiveness, life, and salvation. If anything is to be taught it is simply that we more clearly see ourselves as sinners in violation of the Ten Commandments and also peer more deeply and with greater appreciation into the mystery of the Incarnation and Atonement.
If you would like to know, this is the great burden of preparation for preaching a sermon. If all I had to do was “teach,” then preaching would be easy. I spend about two or three hours preparing a typical one hour Bible Study. But, I probably spend 10 to 15 hours preparing a typical 15 minute sermon. At my weakest or busiest moments, I am tempted to slide into an instruction mode, teaching factoids and interesting tidbits. But, this, ultimately, is doing less with the pulpit than I am called to do.
For what its worth, if you would like to know more information about the Bible readings from church, come to Bible Class afterwards or come to Men’s Bible Study the week before. There, I thoroughly discuss the text, including, yes, the Greek, the commentaries, the theology, etc. These things are important. And, all Christians need them. But, this forces the great dilemma. If only a fraction of parishioners attend Bible Study, then when will the rest learn this stuff? Thus, many well meaning pastors use their sermon to teach, teach, teach. But, I won’t do it. It is tempting, and, in many ways, it would make my work easier. But, Christians do not “need” to be smart, they need the Law and the Gospel. It is always what they need. They do not need to know things about the Law and the Gospel. They need the real thing. It might be possible to remain in the faith without Bible Study, but not without the living proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
