Monday - what makes for a good sermon?

Prayer:  Keep watch dear Lord on us today as we live and move and work and pray.  Be with those who work serving You.  Provide them, and us,  with renewed enthusiasm to do the work You would have us do.  Amen.

 

Read St. Luke 21: 37 – 38

 

Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill.  And all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.

 

Jesus spent each night on the hill in meditation and prayer.  Teaching (and preaching) is not something to be thought out at the last minute.    Preaching takes a lot of meditation upon the scripture and a lot of prayer for understanding and inspiration.  

 

But what makes a good sermon?     Years ago,  a good sermon had to have three points that were reflections upon the Good News or one of the Scriptures of the day.    The three points were not just random three points but structured.  The first point told us about the background of the Scripture.   To know the history of the Scripture is important.  We are only able to know where we are going if we know where we’ve been from.     The second point of the sermon was an explanation of what was happening right then and there.    This portion of the sermon told us who was doing what when where and why.   The third portion of the sermon took the learning from the Scriptures and brought it into our life today.  The Good News of Christ is dead if we do not hear how the Scriptures will come alive in our life today.   The Good News of Christ needs to brought from “then, there then”  to “us here now”.   But the third portion of the sermon didn’t just bring the Good News to us here now but also gave us instructions to take this Good News out into the world…. into our lives that week and gave us something to meditate on for the whole week.   

 

Reflect for a moment on some of the sermons you have heard over your life time.  What made these sermons special or memorable?      

 

Today keep in your prayers all ministers and lay people who preach the Good News of Jesus Christ that they meditate and reflect upon God’s Holy Word.

 

Prayer:  Stir us up,  we ask O Lord, that we may be Your faithful people serving You all the days of our lives.  May we bring forth the fruit of good works so that we live out our days seeking  the needs of others.   Amen.