“Words are cheap.”At least that is what we keep hearing. It is certainly what contemporary society has taught people to think. So what is the value of a sermon?
Is it just more words?
Preachers spend hours and hours carefully constructing their sermons in the belief that words are not cheap, but are costly, powerful, and even dangerous.
Just two words, “I do,” have the ability to create a marital covenant that will last a lifetime. And just a couple words of anger can do a world of hurt. In his book Modern Times, Paul Johnson has demonstrated that the killing fields of Cambodia began with just words being tossed around in a Parisian coffee shop.
Words are like TNT. Combining them in careless ways can have devastating effects; putting words together carefully can rearrange a life.
Few now believe this. Before worshipers make it into a sanctuary, they have been bombarded with words all week by a society that no longer values them. Marketers have domesticated words into jingles, like circus elephants pulled out of the wild to balance balls on their heads. Words pouring out of car radios are only background noise. In the course of a day, we pass hundreds of advertisements peddling things we don’t need. On the Internet unwanted words pop up and must be “closed.”
The boss uses words to motivate, if not manipulate. The guy in traffic uses words to curse. And in every congregation there are some who heard tender words like “I love you,” only to discover it was, well, just words.
Then on Sunday morning the preacher says, “Hear the Word of the Lord.” And every word-weary person there hopes somehow these words will be different.
How do we in the pulpits reassure the congregation that God really knows how to use a word, that these are sacred words, and they have the power to change a life? Clearly, it begins with the preacher being convinced.
The first recorded use of words was at the creation of the world. “And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” That sets a high standard for how words are to be handled. With a few carefully chosen words, creativity and redemption can begin to shove aside the darkness and chaos of life.
This doesn’t mean the preacher has to make the earth move on Sunday mornings. Our calling is not to do God’s work for him, only to speak his sacred words. We do that neither by dazzling the congregation with eloquence, nor by reducing the sermon to an exegetical lecture. We just speak the holy words of Scripture.
This is what distinguishes preaching from teaching. Biblical teaching has the responsibility of talking about the Word of God. Preaching proclaims the Word.
Teaching is done with lots of textual analysis, word studies, theology, and hopefully some good discussion with the students. By contrast the preacher has little time, or calling, to do more than speak the holy words.
This doesn’t mean that preachers cannot use illustrative material in the sermon, and it certainly doesn’t mean that we don’t need to do all of the careful biblical study. But it does mean that none of the preacher’s own words can get in the way of the kerygmatic, life-changing power of the Word of God.
The best way preachers demonstrate this power of sacred words is to insure every sermon brings the congregation into an encounter with Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Only then are we convincing in our claim that words are not cheap. It cost the Savior his life to make clear that God’s words can be trusted, that he was dying to love us.
His words have the power to bring home those who have lost their way because they trusted the wrong words.
It doesn’t take many words to communicate this life-changing message. Just say something that boils down to “In Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.”
Craig Barnes is Leadership editor-at-large and professor of pastoral ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
