At this editing I have been 30 years in semi-retirement. On averages, ministers and professors have long lives – similar to each other in earthly context. I have served both fields holding them in tandem – mutually helpful. In the event that one might take some satisfaction in long life, I am reminded that the averages for these professions are nearly matched by comedians. I hope the serious humorist is near the top of that group. Like the humorist, I want to present life as true, pleasant even in conflict, often incomprehensible without God. Without humor a person is in real trouble in conjuring life balances. But I digress.
Each day for me begins with the usual habits or preparations for the day, with prayer and making repairs for physical appearance, doing some modest exercises, and fixing the morning latte, which is consumed as I check e-mails, balances in my checking account, and the headlines of the morning. Then I go to my objective to make sure I do at least a Page – as this one. Everything else has to wait, or I fuss at myself for the rest of the day, until the Page is finished and fixed among its paper friends somewhere in the collection of five years of days. (Today, 07/17/2013, I am editing on 10/27/17). I am writing for a theme in October because I have been taken by recent experiences I did not anticipate in my younger professional years. My major goal is to reach those who are in formation of their lives, and to reflect real life with its varieties of helps and hindrances to living the Christian experience effectively, for self and society.
I was asked to speak in a conference I had never engaged before. The chairman said it was because of a sermon he heard from a service where I spoke more than ten years earlier. I received a call from a man and his wife I have not seen for decades remarking on their appreciation of the ministry they had received. A few weeks ago a friend in town asked for a sermon he heard in 1978, 38 years ago, and remembered for his purpose, but needed detail and documentation for a special event coming up in 2013. Last evening I received a phone call from a California church office asking for a sermon preached there nearly fifteen years ago, and remembered by a person who needed it to meet personal stress. I followed up last evening by checking my records to see if I could find it, and will send it to the church to be given to the member making request. I am unsure which of the nearly fifty major services addressed she is referring to, but I am determined to assist. It means living again the purpose of biblical ministers and their calling to honor the meaning of the word of the Lord as it may be expounded from Scripture and life. If this last is true there is something lasting available to the ministry of the good news (gospel) for benefit, in any period of time.
History has been changed by sermons. Jonathan Edwards is believed to be the most influential colonial thinker in the colonies in his century (18th). His sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, is commonly discussed in secular and church history. The sermons of the Revolution and the Civil War were highly influential in the beliefs and actions of America. The sermons of Finney affected the changes in the social life of the growing American democracy. The sermons of Beecher, Moody, Spurgeon, and many others, including the sermon-like speeches of Russell Conwell, and others motivated by a theistic rhetoric, and a textual context affected millions of persons for redemption purpose, and/or social reform. Nearly every city in the 20th century had one or more ministers whose sermons made a difference to the general population, and that for purpose presumed to be from God. The best sermons related to the improvement of the individual and the sanctity of the family, with the society to be formed to advance that purpose.
Sermons continue to be a force for millions of church members, but appear to have declined in social meaning/context. This has much to do with the secularization of society, and the interpretations of freedom and separations of functions. It is also caused by the decline of the sermon as a general message of God to society. The homily has entered, with its limitations in time and substance, in its rhetoric and style, in its rather pedestrian treatment of Scripture and life. A nation needs great preaching so to focus not only on the redemptive message for individuals but to keep values for society. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020