How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
The Lord’s Supper As a Revolutionary Act
1. A revolutionary act is unexpected—a surprise. It is the radical surprise. The unexpected revelation of the obvious. Something so ordinary, so taken for granted that when acted upon seems radical.
The sacrifice of Christ is such an act. This sacrifice, celebrated in the Lord’s Supper is at the same time so unbelievable and so expected. God gives God’s own life for creation, for the ones God loves. What parent would not do this? It is the expected response, but to see it done, actually done, and on such a scale, in such a definitive way is revolutionary.
2. A revolutionary act includes people, does not excludes them. The act of communion is often not communion at all but exclusion. The banquet table in the Kingdom of God is open to all. It is peopled with those we don’t know, understand or like. Christ sacrificed once and for all, and when we remember that definitive act of love through the ritual of the Lord’s Supper there can be no qualifications in our invitation to the table. We should seek instead to find new words, new languages—A thousand new ways of inviting people to the table so that a thousand new people will feel welcome.
3. A revolutionary act trusts God to reveal God’s self and trusts individuals to reveal themselves to God. The Lord’s supper generally takes place in the context of the community, in the community worship service. While this context is purposeful and meaningful, it is still an individual act. It is the individual’s response to God. Participation should never be seen as a sign of who is in and who is not. The Words and prayers before the ritual must never seek to convince or persuade the hearers to participate or not. The church is called to proclaim the good news. The church is not responsible to clarify, guarantee or double check on the Holy Spirit’s revelation to individuals. Nor is it the church’s right to demand some demonstration that the individual has received the Good News.
4. A revolutionary act is an invitation not a threat. The revolution of mercy coerces no one, believing the Good News is just that. Before the communion ritual there can be no threats about the proper attitude of the heart or the sincerity of one’s convictions. It is hard to always gauge the sincerity of ones own convictions to say nothing of another’s. Christ says, “This is the blood of the new covenant I make with all of you.” The heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about widening the circle, expanding the definition of chosen, removing the barriers between them and us.
5. A revolutionary act is, finally that, an act. An action. Not an idea, philosophy, notion or intention—but an action. Ideas only change the world when acted upon. We are physical beings in a material world, acting something out makes it real. When we are asked to “do this in remembers of me”, we are ask to do something. The remembering does not take place simply in our minds.
Preaching with these things in mind, reflecting these things in the sermon leads to revolutionary preaching.
This is a different kind of revolution. It is a quiet revolution.
It is a good thing to change the world.
How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
A Preacher Should Preach
Why are preachers so convinced that it would benefit anyone one for them to share how they feel? What do I care how you feel. If we are talking and we are friends or know each other or find ourselves in any sort of a situation where it comes up or is appropriate, please, then share your feelings. I might share mine with you as well. But in a sermon?
In a sermon a preacher should preach. Is that a crazy idea?
A sermon is a very particular form of communications. It is one part of a service of worship. It is an interaction with Holy Scripture.
It is not sharing, it is not teaching—teaching! Teaching sermons are the worst sort of non-sermons there are. What will you teach me? The Truth? God’s Truth for my life? I would rather have you share you feelings.
A sermon is not a motivational speech. It is not a life application message. Don’t tell me how to get along with my coworkers or bring passion back into my marriage. Preach a damn sermon. Tell me what the text says and then let me see how you wrestle the Good News out of it.
That can be only concern for a preacher when looking at a text. What is the Good News here? It is often easier to find a way to have it remind you of a life lesson that came out of a conversation with your young son, or to see how it could help you eliminate stress if you only prayed more or remembered to be thankful. Finding the Good News in a nineteen hundred-year-old book written in another language and cultural context is hard.
How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
The Evangelical Fallacy
These guiding principles of the Evangelical Hermeneutic stem from the original misspelled DNA of the cancer—the Evangelical Fallacy. The Evangelical Fallacy is the bastardization of a logical equation which is never allowed to be resolved—its resolution would overcome the contemporary Christian and reveal their god to be the monster he is and confirm their own long suspected, but unconsciously hidden conviction that they are doomed. That they will not die but live everlasting torture assigned by the gleeful dripping jaws of a sadistic god, who snarls endlessly, “I told you so. I warned you.”
The logical equation that is written in the DNA of the Contemporary Christian is simple:
A then B therefore C
But in practice it is always and must always be:
A then B therefore…
The equation is never, and must never be, resolved.
A. God will love you and save you if you are good.
Midrash on the Juanitos is the new book by Russell Rathbun, coming August 2008 from Cathedral Hill Press. This new work finds the Rev. Lamblove some six months after the the close of Post-Rapture Radio.
How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
Chapter 7 The Evangelical Hermeneutic
The Evangelical Hermeneutic is what keeps the Contemporary Christian Culture Cancer growing. As insidious as an undiagnosed Leukemia, the Contemporary Christian unwittingly brings this disease to the text.
It is, for one deep inside the conspiracy, impossible to see a passage any other way. The cancer can not be removed—the patient must be—and that only by death.
When approaching a text such a one unconsciously applies the following principles to elicit its meaning.
1. It is about me. Whatever the book, be it Pentateuch, prophets, psalms, gospel or epistle—it is talking about me.
2. It tells me what to do or what not to do. An action is required on my part. My ability to do or not to do what the bible tells me is equal to my goodness or wickedness.
3. It condemns those that are different from me. People who are non-Christian (those who freely admit their lack of faith or worse profess a false faith) or unchristian (people who say they are Christian but demonstrate their lack of salvation by their actions, whether it be thinking premarital sex is not bad or going to an Episcopal church).
4. It implies the opposite. Every pronouncement of grace points to my own condemnation if I fail. Every promise is a threat. Everything that God does, reveals what I must do.
The Reverend Richard Lamblove is the sometimes semi-fictional persona of the Reverend Russell Rathbun, the author of Post-Rapture Radio: Lost Writings from a Failed Revolution and the up coming Midrash on the Juanitos, whose main character is also Rev. Lamblove. This blog serves to provide a further place for the Reverend[s] to write about the Bible, culture, preaching and perception theory.
