Sermons

“Those who pray as though all depends on God still bear the burden of working as though all depends on themselves.”–Fred Craddock

This reminded me of something Brent Walters, a professor in my undergrad program, said, which was something along the lines of “God’s not going to teach you history or Greek.”  While listening to the Spirit is important and we can expect it to play a role in our sermon writing and delivery as well as in the reception of those sermons, we also need to understand the limits of inspiration.  The work sits on our desk, not God’s.  It’s also important for me to remember that not everything can or needs to be said about a particular passage (“On any given Sunday, many wonderful Christian things will not be said”).  Often in speaking about a particular passage or Gospel, I seek to explain everything as completely as I can, when the reality is that there is such a thing as “too much.”  Sometimes facts can get in the way of a message and sometimes there may be a multiplicity of sermons sitting in a passage, but that doesn’t mean I should try to deliver them all simultaneously.  There will always be another Sunday to talk about the passage again in a different light.