I’ve noticed in recent years an interesting and subtle change in the way many preachers talk about their sermons. Traditionally, we preachers would talk about “delivering a sermon,” which led in turn to a whole area of focus for preachers on “sermon delivery.” More recently, I hear preachers talking about “sharing” their sermons or, just as frequently and another recent change, sharing their “messages.” I think there are several possible reasons for this shift. One may be the cultural influence of evangelical and emergent preachers where “message” has often been preferred to “sermon” from the desire to find...

This past weekend, I listened to an interview of Ian Knauer, author of The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food. Knauer got his start in the “food business” by testing recipes for Gourmet Magazine. What was interesting was that Gourmet hired him not for what he knew about cooking, but what he didn’t know. As Knauer explains: I had not been to culinary school, which is the reason I got the job. I was an avid home cook — I loved to cook from magazines and cookbooks — but I wasn’t trained. That was important to them because they wanted someone who would cook like a home cook.   The reason that I was...

John 3:1-17 Dear Partner in Preaching, I find it slightly ironic that this Sunday focuses on, in my humble opinion :), one the worst possible theme for a sermon – the Trinity – and yet features some of the more interesting stories from the New Testament. As for the theme, Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday oriented to church doctrine, and I’ve always found the prospect of offering a sermon on the Trinity not just daunting but downright dicey. Which surprises me a bit, because I’m a huge proponent of using our sermons to teach our folks about our shared faith. But the Trinity? Goodness, who really understands it? And how does a...

John 15:1-8 Dear Partner in Preaching, I will confess right up front that I find preaching from the Farewell Discourses (John 14-16) seriously challenging. The combination of significant metaphor; a palpable sense of, but nevertheless elusive, original context; and strange mixture of promise, exhortation, and warning have always prompted me to walk – and preach – gingerly when tarrying in this particular portion of John’s Gospel. It feels like the Fourth Evangelist was writing to a community in pain, struggling with their identity in relation to former friends and synagogue members and a host of losses and fears that are...

Mark 1:1-8 Dear Partner in Preaching, I don’t know if it’s COVID-fatigue or something else, but I seem to have even less patience with the RCL-assigned readings for Advent than usual. A week of eschatological warning, two weeks of the adult John the Baptist, and then – finally on week four! – a reading that actually pertains to the Christmas story. I know, I know, week 1 is intended both to anticipate Jesus’ second Advent at the end of time as well as accent Advent’s theme of watchful anticipation and preparation and weeks 2 & 3 to emphasize the Gospels own casting of John as the Elijah-figure prophesized to come ahead...