Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Trinity 4 (July 5, 2009)
Luke 6:36-42

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The God of mercy”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read.

What does it mean to be merciful? We talk about mercy a lot in the church. But usually when we talk about mercy, we’re talking about an attribute of God. God is merciful. Or maybe we’re talking about the school playground. MERCY! Stop hurting my hands! I give up! You win! You know the game.

Jesus, however, is not really interested in a word like mercy simply being something you hear on Sunday morning. He calls you to live a life of mercy. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. When we talk about mercy as this attribute or perhaps picture of God, it has to be concrete. It has to have flesh and blood. So let’s look at mercy and think through what it might mean in our common life together here at Messiah. Here are a few examples of mercy:

Mercy means helping those who can’t help themselves. It means looking around you, every day, all the time, and asking how you can serve the people God puts into your life every day.
Mercy means not assuming the worst about your neighbor. Jesus also puts it another way and says don’t judge. Don’t assume that you know all the trials and difficulties that those around you are facing. You don’t. Only God does. Don’t judge doesn’t mean that the Law doesn’t matter. Some people and circumstances demand judgment. But what it does mean is that we don’t ever pretend to be greater than those around us.

This has real live, concrete conclusions. Let me give you a few examples from our context here at Messiah:

What this means is that when the child in the pew behind you is being too loud, don’t assume it’s because the child has terrible parents. Don’t judge and be merciful means offering to help instead of fuming on the inside.

Now of course, that goes both ways doesn’t it? Just as the folks in front or behind the noisy kid judge and assume the worst, in the same way the parents can easily become callous and crass toward the people around them. It’s hard to hear with a child hollering in the row behind you, and the point of church is to hear what God has to say. Sometimes being merciful means taking your child out and disciplining them, rather than keeping them in church to teach them a lesson.
Be merciful means showing actual, real kindness toward those around you. If one of our elderly couples needs help in the parking lot, offer to move your car so they can get closer. If you have offended someone, even if it isn’t your fault, apologize and make things right. If your neighbor needs help with their yard because they’re running behind, help them. Can you help with the We C.A.R.E. Program here at church? Do it.

Be merciful also means never assume that you are more pious, a better Christian, or a better person than someone else. Maybe you don’t have any of your family in jail. So what. Maybe your job is more secure than your neighbor’s. So what. Maybe you do help those in need around you, so that in your mind you give more than anyone else. It doesn’t matter. You can never be merciful enough. You can never get everything right, always show kindness to those around you, and be there when the chips are down.

This, of course, is what Jesus is talking about when he speaks of hypocrites, specks and planks. The more time we dwell on the problems, sins, and faults of others around us, the less time we spend in repentance, prayer, and in receiving the gift of forgiveness that only God can give. Repent. You are a hypocrite. So am I. You do judge those around you. So do I. You are unmerciful, self-righteous and full of your own holiness. So am I. Repent.

God, however, is merciful and gracious, long-suffering, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Jesus points these things out to you so that you will despair of your own works and rely solely on Him. And what a beautiful One that is to rely upon! He is always merciful. He always listens to your trials. He understands them because He has taken them into Himself. Where others migh tsk tsk and secretly judge your failings, Jesus went to the cross to die so that you might live and have hope. The judgment that Jesus puts upon you is not guilty, because he has paid the price for all your sins and shortcomings.

That’s the Gospel, friends. It is for you mean spirited and hard hearted. It is for you self-righteous and judgmental. It is for the weak in faith and for those who think they are strong. The Gospel is for everyone. Jesus is for you.
So this day, as we feast again on our Lord’s precious Body and Blood, repent and believe that Jesus died for you and rose again so that you might have new life. Put off that old self, and wear your baptismal robes that cover all your sins. Come and feast and receive the Life that only He can give, the life of service, the life of mercy, the life that is yours in Christ Jesus. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

Preaching the Resurrection to the Mentally Ill | I Trust When Dark My Road

Teacher Notes on the Seminar

Covenant Sermon

Reconciliation Sermon

Propitiation Sermon

Hymn and Text Suggestions

If anyone else gets any sermons or other notes written on this series, please let me know so I can post it!

-LL

As a result of this fine work, I’ve also put together our schedule of hymns and readings for the midweek series. Here they are:

2009Crosswords.doc

2009Crosswords.pdf

I will post PDFs of the sermons as soon as I get them scanned. Enjoy!

And thanks, Pr. Beisel, for an excellent presentation.

-LL

One of my gentle readers wrote this post regarding preaching that referenced one or my posts about preaching from around Christmas time. It seems worth discussing a little here. This is the link:

Not Alone: In the Name of Jesus

Here’s the final paragraph:

When this is what God works through sermon preparation, how can I speak of being bored or burned out? For any pastor who finds himself telling himself that he is bored or burned out, all that you really need is to stand back and remember whose Word you are called to preach. Then you will remember the great privilege and blessing of preaching. Then it will not seem like a laborious obligation, but a cause for rejoicing. The preaching office is Christ’s office, who Himself counted it a joy to suffer and die on the cross to provide this office with its power. This powerful office that opens the very gates of heaven to you and to all whom it rules over has been entrusted to you, dear pastors! Whenever you imagine that your office is boring or that you have become burned out, remember this! Remember what it really means to be a preacher of the Gospel!

I think it is fair to say that the author basically missed the point. We are not automatons. We are sinner/saints. And as a sinner/saint, I get frustrated, bored, burned out, whatever you want to call it with preaching. Just like anyone in nearly any vocation will not find satisfaction and happiness in the work God has given them to do.

I understand perfectly well the importance of preaching, the joy of preaching, that it is Christ’s office and work, and the like.

I also, by way of comparison, understand the importance of being a father, the joy of fathering, that it is God’s office and work, and the like. But as a human being, I get frustrated, tired, bored, out of energy, and easily distracted.

Why, gentle readers, would it be different for preachers? And furthermore, what is the solution?

I’ll tell you what isn’t the solution. The solution is not a variation of GET OVER IT, BE HAPPY, KNOW HOW IMPORTANT IT IS, or REMEMBER WHAT YOU’RE DOING. Those are all Law, and we know that the Law does not produce good works.

I would suggest that the solution is A) The Gospel. Be forgiven, be fed, hear God’s promises to you. B) Rest. Being a pastor is hard work. It’s not easily measurable, but that does not make it any less easy. Take a break. Breathe. Play. Do something else. And C) Know that you aren’t alone in your trials. Nearly every pastor I know recognizes the challenges of preaching. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Anyway, those are some further thoughts. Have I missed anything?

-LL

A Lenten Preaching Seminar

The Presentation of Our Lord and the Purification of Mary

February 2, 2009

Hosted by
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin

Cross + Words

The holy apostles used several words to preach about the work of Jesus on the cross. Among them are “reconciliation,” “redemption,” “justification,” “covenant,” and “propitiation.” These words were not drawn, as it were, out of thin air but were already part of the Biblical vocabulary of God’s Old Testament people. By examining these “cross words” in their Old Testament contexts, one will gain a deeper appreciation of what the apostles meant when they used them to proclaim the atoning death of Christ. Based on the book by Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, this Lenten Preaching Workshop will explore the Old Testament roots of these words and give suggestions on how to develop this theme into a Lenten sermon series.

Come and learn about the art and gift of preaching in Lent, flowing from His Holy Word, leading to His Body and Blood, and giving us the very gifts of heaven.

WHAT YOU WILL RECEIVE

* The forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

* Great insights into the art of preaching.

* Practical advice about how to preach in Lent.

* Sample outlines which may be used.

ABOUT OUR PRESENTER

Rev. Paul Beisel is a 1997 graduate of Concordia University in Nebraska, where he majored in English and pre-seminary studies. He is a 2001 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, where he recived his M.Div. He also recived his S.T.M. in exegetical theology from CTS in 2004, where his thesis was on the Gospel of Matthew. He is the pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Warsaw, Illinois, and Messiah Lutheran Church Keokuk, Iowa. He is also an Adjunct Instructor for John Wood Community College. He and his wife, Amy, have four children.

THE SCHEDULE

Registration 10:00-10:30 a.m.

The Feast of the Presentation
of our Lord and the Purification
of Mary (Festival Divine Service) 10:30 a.m.

The Reverend David Juhl, Preacher

Welcome and Opening Remarks 11:15 a.m.

First Presentation 11:30 a.m.

Lunch 12:30 p.m.

Noonday Office 1:15 p.m.

Second Presentation 1:30 p.m.

Break 2:30 p.m.

Third Presentation 2:45 p.m.

Break 3:45 p.m.

Q&A and Closing Comments 4:00 p.m.

Vespers 4:15 p.m.

OPTIONAL

Check into hotel & supper on your own 4:30 p.m.

Evening Event TBD 7:00 p.m.

Evening Prayer 8:30 p.m.

TUESDAY MORNING

Matins (with Academy) 8:15 a.m.

HOTEL INFORMATION

There are several excellent hotels in the area. The one we recommend is the Country Inn and Suites. To make a reservation, please call:

COUNTRY INN AND SUITES

7011 122ND AVE

KENOSHA, WI, US 53142

(262) 857-3680

We will also be providing housing by congregation members for those interested, as it is available.

HOW TO REGISTER:

You may either email me (toddpeperkorn +at+ mac dot com)

Or call 262-551-9081

if you have any questions

Let us know you’re coming so we know how much food to prepare!

www.messiahkenosha.org

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Ad Te Levavi (Advent 1), November 30, 2008

Matthew 21:1-11

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The Way of the Lord”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on the words from Zechariah, Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation.

In Psalm 24, which we prayed after the Old Testament reading, we hear the following:

“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Psalms 24:3-5 ESV)

Who indeed? Who can come into God’s presence? God’s holiness, His mighty presence in the world isn’t worshipped much today. In our world today, God is analyzed, critiqued, discussed in court, put on bumper stickers or coffee table books, and generally kept some place private and out of the way, like those pictures from when you are a kid. You’re glad you have them still, but you don’t really want people knowing about them all that much. But worshipped? No. That’s not what we do today. We don’t worship. We play. We worry. We work. We get stressed. But we don’t worship.

But our God reminds us through the Psalmist that only those with clean hands and a clean heart are able to stand in His holy presence. We sort of assume that God will always be there when we get around to him. I’ll come back to him later, when I’m done living my life. I’ll come back another time, when I’m not so busy. I’ll come back when I’m good and ready. And he’ll be waiting for me, like the girlfriend left behind while her man goes off to war. He’ll be waiting. Won’t he? St. Paul, however, tells us this:

“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” (Romans 13:11-12 ESV)

God knows that your heart isn’t pure. God knows that you will never come to Him on your own. He knows your weaknesses. He knows your rebellion. He knows the anger in your heart, the bitterness, the shame, the sorrow, the hurt, the fear that is within you. He knows these things better than you know them yourself. He knows that you cannot go to Him. You are dead in sins. You are blind to the light of His truth, deaf to His Word, and that you cannot sing or speak His praises.

God knows all these things and more. So He comes to you, lowly and riding a donkey. He comes to you, just and having salvation. He comes to you humble, riding only His Holy Word. He comes to you know meek and mild, not arrogant and proud. He comes to you as the God who loves you with every fiber of His being. He comes to you know in peace, bringing healing in His wings, and having the mighty gift of salvation upon His holy lips.

He comes to you now, and what does He want? One church father put it this way:

Let us spread before the Lord’s feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in His grace, or rather, clothed completely in Him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before Him. Let us show him honor, not with olive branches but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that entering us with the whole of His being, He may draw the whole of our being into Himself and place the whole of His in us. (St. Andrew of Crete)

Now that’s a lot of beautiful language and fancy words, but what he is getting at is this. Jesus does not want your money. He doesn’t want your house. He doesn’t want your job. He wants you. All of you. This is essentially the theme of Advent. Our King is coming. He is just and having salvation. He is coming, and He is coming for you. He comes to reign in your heart, not by fear and trembling. He comes to give you Himself. He comes so that He may use you to show His love to a dying world.

This king of ours is not like the kings of this world. His motivation is not fear, but love. Paul Gerhardt put it this way:

Love caused your incarnation; Love brought you down to me

Your thirst for my salvation, Procured my liberty.

Oh, love beyond all telling! That led you to embrace

In love all love excelling, Our lost and fallen race. (LSB 334: 4)

Our God is always coming. He is coming to you even now, in Word and Meal. He comes again and again with words of forgiveness, love and hope. When things are dark, when your future is unsure, when you don’t know what is coming next this you can know: God is here for you. God’s thirst for your salvation will not be slaked by anything less than your peace and joy in Him. He enters into Jerusalem on a donkey, He goes to the cross in sorrow, and He comes forth out of the empty tomb in light eternal. All for you. All for you. All for you.

So rejoice this day, as we await the coming King! Rejoice and remember His mercy. It is everlasting. It is rich and deep. And it is for you. Let us pray:

Stir up your power, O Lord, and come to rescue us from the threatening perils of our sins, and save us by Your promised deliverance; for You now live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.

That is why I am so utterly mystified by confessional Lutheranism today.

As Rev. McCain pointed out to us in a recent survey his offered in connection with Cyberbrethren, there is little uniformity amongst practitioners of the historic lectionary. This is no surprise. Since no major publishing house has really supported it in a couple generations, those of us who use it are left to our own devices to come up with translations and practices that fit our given parishes. I can understand that, but it doesn’t make me happy.

But that’s not the real problem. The real problem as I see it is this:

1. While it is in the hymnal, it isn’t really supported or “resourced” by Concordia Publishing House, beyond the production of the lectionary book for LSB.

2. It isn’t taught or supported in any meaningful way to my knowledge at either seminary. I am very happy to be proven wrong on this.

3. It’s been dropped from the Thrivent Calendar, and I don’t believe it is in the more recent CPH pastor’s calendar either.

4. It is not only not taught or “resourced”, I hear pretty consistent anecdotal evidence that it is specifically disdained by liturgical scholars throughout the synod.

Please don’t get me wrong here. I’m not pointing fingers, trying to start a fight, incite liturgical or lectionary rebellion, or in any other way be difficult. It’s really this simple:

Why? Is it marketing? Is it money? Is it ecumenism with other churches today? Why is there not only a lack of interest, but a near irrational hostility to this lectionary? What is the deal?

Please. Help me out here. This is truly a mystery to me.

-LL

Solutions for Tired Preachers of the Gospel

By Reverend Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church, Kenosha Wisconsin

St. Michael’s Liturgical Conference
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Fort Wayne, Indiana
St. Michael and All Angels, 2008

Introduction

We’ve all faced it at one time or another, maybe often.  Those of us who use the traditional lectionary of the Western Church perhaps face it more than most.  You sit down to write your sermon for Sunday morning, pull up all of your usual sermon helps (Parsch, Gerhard, whatever else is on your go-to shelf), and you are ready to go.  You look at the text, and realize two things: 1) You’ve preached on this exact text about eleven times, and 2) You have nothing more to say.  You get up, get a cup of coffee, maybe try to pull out something different from the shelf.  Maybe you look at the Old Testament reading, or the Epistle.  You surf the web, look around for inspiration.  Nothing.  You dust off your Greek New Testament, in the hopes that the heavens will open and an incredible homily will drop down, based on the word qa¿rsei or prose÷feron or some other word that you’ve looked at a thousand times.  Zip.  Time to go make a call, play a game, or do something else.  It won’t happen today.

The next day, it’s rinse and repeat.

By the time Sunday morning rolls around, you’re starting to feel guilty.  You know you should have a new sermon.  It’s your job.  It’s your call.  Furthermore, you like preaching.  No, you love preaching.  But why is this so hard?  Or what makes preaching so hard now, even though you’ve been doing it for years?

The fact is that you’re bored.  You’re bored with preaching the same text.  You’re bored with your congregation.  You’re bored with yourself, with your own words, spoken over and over again.

What I would like to do today is speak briefly about boredom in preaching, and offer some solutions for you.  This come from a fellow preacher, and like most good preaching, I am speaking to myself of this as much as I am to you.

Causes

The causes for preacher’s boredom are myriad.  I won’t even pretend to analyze or list all of them.  Some of the obvious ones, though, do bear listing and brief comment:

• Physical.  While this is perhaps obvious, simple physical stressors can affect your ability to preach.  If you aren’t getting enough sleep, if you’re eating too much or drinking too me, this will make you sluggish and unable to concentrate.  For me, caffeine came to make me so nervous and jittery that I couldn’t sit down and focus long enough to write a sermon.  All of this can lead to that elusive category we call boredom.
• B)    Mental.  While this may not apply as much to boredom, it is certainly something to be aware of in your own life.  If you are struggling beyond the normal grind of the Office, it is possible that you are suffering from clinical depression, burnout, compassion fatigue, or some other mental ailment that bears further examination.   Go to your doctor.  Talk to him or her about what is happening.  They can help.
• Environmental.   This can include everything from stress at home to extra meetings at church, freaking out about the state of the synod, or the economy, or whatever else it is that gets you going.  But these things impact your ability to preach.  Be mindful of how these things shape you.
• Spiritual.  This is the most obvious place, and is probably where we gravitate when it comes to looking for causes of boredom.  While I wouldn’t discount the first three at all, there is no question that the spiritual causes are the most dangerous.  Here are a few of them:

• Overconfidence, arrogance.  This is a particular temptation with the traditional lectionary, as we can come to believe that we have plumbed the depths of a text after preaching it ten times or more.
• Despair.  Preachers rarely see the fruits of their labors.  We are messengers, not measurers.  Because of that, despair is ever around the corner, lurking, seeking to drive the preacher to believe that no one is listening, no one cares, and that you might as well quit.  If you no longer believe that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16), then you will quickly become disinterested in preaching, because it will be empty words.

Solutions for the Bored Preacher

So what do you do when you’re bored with preaching?  Recognizing these various causes, here are a few tips from a fellow preacher that I hope will be of help to you.  I’ve grouped them into two general categories, theological and practical.

Theological solutions for the bored preacher

1.    Confess and Repent.  Since this conference is at Redeemer, I felt obligated to say that first.  But in this case, it is very true.  Repent of your boredom with God’s Word, with your lackadaisical attitude toward your congregation, and toward the great and mighty task of preaching.  Do not give the devil a foothold on your soul by clinging to these sins.  Repent and be done with them.  Go to your father confessor.  Confess your sins and be absolved.  This more than anything else will help you in your preaching.  Related to this is the practice of actually hearing confession.  I’ve found that hearing confession is the most useful “work” that I have for preaching.  It helps you to understand the actual sins of your parishioners, and how God works to forgive them.

2.    Pray for and remember your parish as you are writing.  Gustaf Wingren, in his book on preaching writes the following regarding the role of the congregation:

“Hearers do not just come on the scene in a secondary way when the sermon begins, but that group was already there from the very first moment that the thought of preaching entered the preacher’s mind.  They were present in the sermon from the beginning not because the preacher felt a missionary interest in them, or had a personal knowledge of his public, but rather because they were there in the passage itself.  The preacher, on first reading the prescribed passage, found there words, sentences, promises, admonitions belonging to God’s people, which had been the water of life to them long before he was born and which will still be the same when his day is done.  Now the word is here in order that by means of a particular sermon it may speak to this congregation which has come to listen and which thereby reveals itself as the congregation of the Word.”

Because of this, by praying for and remembering your congregation as your prepare your sermon, you are putting flesh and blood on the holy task.  Sermons are about the Word and the Hearer.  God desires more than anything else to come to His people, to forgive their sins, and to draw them into His holy embrace.  I have gone so far as to keep pictures of parishioners lying around on my desk as I am preparing my sermons.  This makes it much less of an academic exercise and much more the great spiritual task that it is.

3.    Preach to just one member of the congregation.  I don’t remember where I first ran across this suggestion, but it is a good one.  St. Paul reminds us “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” (1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV)  By preaching to one person, you make your sermons specific and timely.  But the trials that face one of your parishioners is probably not that different from what we all face.

By doing this, you are actually going to make your sermons more universal, not less.  It is when we try to stereotype or generalize that we lapse into the desire to become relevant or connected or something equally ridiculous.  C.S. Lewis was right when he observed, “All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.”

4.    Preach to yourself.  This is a common variation on the last one.  If you are not convicted of your sin then it is unlikely anyone else will be, either.  If the Gospel does not comfort you then the Gospel may not be in there in the first place.

5.    Recognize you are not alone.  Preaching is no easy task.  Luther himself often remarked that he would stay awake at nights in fear of preaching the next day.  Every preacher gets afraid, bored, stuck, and every other preacher’s ailment you can come up with.  It goes with the territory.  But you will be able to address your boredom or preacher’s block much easier if you are able to recognize that you are not alone in your task.  Talk about it with your brothers in office.

6.    Remember the purpose of preaching.  Peter Berg in his paper on the art of preaching calls preaching an assault, a mugging if you will.   This view is quite common in preacher’s circles.  From a theological point of few I suppose that is true at one level, but unhelpful at another.  The Law kills, the Gospel makes alive, etc.  From a rhetorical point of view, it is certainly not true, or at least is not a helpful way of thinking.  We confessional Lutherans can get so wrapped up in how unique we are, how special and how insightful, that we can forget that the actual purpose of preaching is to create faith by means of the Gospel.  Listen to Luther’s words on how God brings us into His embrace by the Gospel:

When God draws us, He is not like a hangman, who drags a thief up the ladder to the gallows; but He allures and coaxes us in a friendly fashion, as a kind man attracts people by his amiability and cordiality, and everyone willingly goes to him.

Now what does this mean for the preacher who is bored or unmotivated?  It means this.  We are to approach preaching first of all as critically important.  Preaching faith is life saving.  But secondly, we are to approach preaching like we were trying to save the life of a two year old who is out on the limb of a tree.  When I was two my parents tell me that I did just this.  I climbed to the top of a hundred foot evergreen.  Now how do you as a father or mother get your son down in that circumstance?  For starters, you are not going to scare them down.  All that will do is paralyze them, make them so that they can’t imagine coming down from the heights.  It will require love, coaxing, friendly conversation and gentleness.

When we preach to our congregation, we are not to do so as though we are hurting them.  We are about saving them.  Now how does this help with boredom?  Coaxing the two year old off of the limb of the tree is a lot harder than scaring the hell out of him.  By remembering the purpose of preaching, it makes the task more concrete, and that will help us to find that approach in the text itself.

7.    In order to have sometime to give, you must be receiving.  In other words, be fed.  Listen to good sermons.  In our online world you can listen to great sermons any time, and while it’s not as good as being there, it will still be of great service to you.  As a preacher, you must be able to receive the gifts of God yourself.

8.    Don’t just dust off your Greek and Hebrew, do it right.  If we believe that the Scriptures as the Word of God, and that the sermon is delivering God’s Word to God’s people, then every preacher of the Gospel ought to be working in the text itself, and not a translation.  This is hard.  I know.  I struggle with it every week.

9.    Tie in the liturgy to your preaching.  Common words make for a common understanding.  You probably do this already, but be more deliberate about it.  What elements of our common liturgical life together address death?  Fear?  Doubt? Guilt? Sickness and disease?  This doesn’t mean use some cheesy formula or automatically including the exact words of the liturgy.  Sometimes an allusion or passing reference can be enough.  One of the chief things that makes preaching different from catechesis or bible class is the context.  Preaching happens in a specific liturgical space and time.  Be mindful of how that shapes what you say and how you say it.

Practical solutions for the bored preacher

10.    Schedule your sermon writing time.  Don’t leave the time you spend preparing for Sunday morning as the leftovers.  This is the most important thing you do every week as a pastor.  Yet it is so easy in the midst of terribly busy schedules to push it aside or cram it until Friday afternoon, or Saturday afternoon, or Sunday morning.  Schedule time every day to work on your sermon.  It may only be 20 minutes, but do it.  Develop a study and writing plan that involves both general reading and specific textual studies.  Make sure that this includes time for praying the daily office, and for praying for your members.  DON’T CRAM.  While you may need to do this sometimes, if you make that the norm, you will quickly run out of gas on what to say to your flock.

11.    Work on refining your style.  One of my favorite books on style is by Ben Yagoda and is entitled, The Sound on the Page.   The basic thesis of Yagoda’s book is that Struck and White are wrong.   Style does not mean simple.  Direct yes.  Able to communicate, yes.  But that does not mean dumbing down your language.  It means using language as God intended it, as something rich and wonderful and full of surprises.  What makes great writing, and I would commend to you that what makes great preaching, is style.  I don’t mean cheap plastic style.  I mean how you put the words together, what words you use, what makes a sermon by Todd Peperkorn different than a sermon by David Petersen or whoever.  This gets back to specificity like we spoke of earlier.  Be mindful of the way you preach and why you do it.

So what can you do to refine your style?  Read.  Read, read, read, read, read.  Read fiction, non-fiction, poetry, books about preaching.  Read whatever you can get your hands on.  But not just books.  Music and art can play a significant role in shaping who you are as a preacher of the Gospel.  J.S. Bach has cantatas for every Sunday of the church year.  Bach had a great understanding of the liturgical life and of the texts of the Gospels.  Why not learn from him?  In the same way, the great artists of the world can reveal elements of human nature to you that you may not see otherwise, as well as a new insight into understanding the Gospel.

12.    Vary your reading.  If you’re like me, you have about half a dozen books that you always go to for sermon preparation.  Parsch, Gerhard, Giertz, etc.  You have your favorites.  This is good, because they work.  But it can also put you in a rut.  I would urge you to try and find at least one thing you haven’t read before each week for sermon preparation.

Conclusion

Martin Luther once wrote:

“Our Lord God wishes himself to be the preacher, for preachers often go astray in their notes so that they can’t go on with what they have begun. It has often happened to me that my best outline came undone. On the other hand, when I was least prepared my words flowed during the sermon.”

All we can do is receive what God has given us, confess, be absolved, pray and work.  It is His Word.  He will give the increase, and see to it that it accomplishes its purpose.  But take heart!  Preaching is a noble task, and our heavenly Father will see you through it to the end.  Your preaching is never in vain.

-Todd A. Peperkorn

I am often struck by the sheer ordinariness of preaching. It is very easy, I believe, to view preaching as a divine activity where the Holy Spirit is whispering into the ear of the preacher what he is to say, much like you occasionally see with icons of the Evangelists. But I’m here to tell you, it simply doesn’t work that way.

Preaching is work. Hard work. Sometimes they flow like a river; other times it is more like molasses on a cold day. The process varies widely. When preaching is “working” well for me, it is because I am generally following a strict regimen. I do exegetical work on Monday; dogmatic reading on Tuesday; other sermons on Wednesday; finally I write on Thursday. That is how it works best for me, or at least it has in the past.

Reality, however, rarely fits the ideal. I’ve been on a streak now for some weeks (months? I don’t really want to know) of not getting my sermons done until Saturday, or more often Sunday morning. What this often means is that the sermons are partially reruns from past years, or simply don’t have the forethought and care put into them which I would like. I don’t say this to whine or be self-deprecating. That’s just the way it is right now.

But whether the sermons are well prepared or not, whether they meet my (somewhat anal) structure or not, it doesn’t matter. God still makes use of them. He still does mighty things through this ordinary task of preaching the Gospel. Herman Sasse once wrote:

“The humble preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the simple Sacraments are the greatest things that can happen in the world. For in these things the hidden reign of Christ is consummated. He himself is present in these means of grace, and the bearer of the ministry of the church actually stands in the stead of Christ. That certainly puts an end to any clerical conceit. We are nothing. He is everything. And that means that the terrible sin of pessimism, which is the pastor’s greatest temptation, is finished with as well. It is nothing but doubt and unbelief, for Christ the Lord is just as present in His means of grace today as He was in the sixteenth or the first century And ‘all authority in heaven and on earth’ [Matt. 28:18] is just as much His today as it was when He first spoke that promise to the apostles. And it remains so into all eternity. Do we still believe this?” ((Hermann Sasse, “The Lutheran Doctrine of the Office of the Ministry”, in The Lonely Way: II, St. Louis: CPH, 1992, pg. 139.))

We preachers forget this all too often. This is it. God works through means, and the means He uses are these ordinary words, bread, wine and water. It’s not a formula. It’s not magic. It’s the Gospel, hidden where we least expect it. It is a miracle every time.

So tomorrow morning, o preachers, when you ascend the pulpit one more time, remember this: God is at work through you. Your preaching is not in vain. God will do what He promises with it.

-Lutheran Logomaniac