That Was A Really Good Sermon! Was It Really?

Over the last several weeks I’ve been going through a somewhat reflective period where I’ve been wondering and questioning the way we do things. Specifically I’ve been considering the ways we do church and my public role in that. It began about a month ago when I listened as a preacher described the events following a sermon he had preached. There was an individual that came to him just praising his sermon as one of the best they had ever heard. This preacher admitted a sense of mixed feelings. On the one hand he felt esteemed by all the flattering words but on the other hand there was something that nagged at him. And so he asked the one giving all the praise to share with him one life impacting thing from his lesson that they were going to take and use in their daily journey. He said the silence was deafening. This person had nothing to share specifically but fumbled around until blurting out that there were lots of things as they walked away.

After hearing that true account I have to admit that I’ve chuckled to myself a few times about the thought of doing the same thing. I wonder what would happen if I started asking people who give a compliment about a lesson to share something that was going to be life altering for them from what I said. Would the question be met with silence, stammering or a genuine answer that shared something of significance?

All of this has made me wonder about what happens to all the sermons, all the lessons, all the classes and all the written words. Now as I wonder these things I know that it could be perceived that I’m just fishing for some compliment or pat on the back. Please be assured that this is not even on my radar screen as possible. Rather I really have wondered what happens to all the teaching. How much, if any gets absorbed or applied? And the truthful answer is likely not much since most of us are what I would call tidbit learners. We take a bit here, a bit there as we journey through life and as we do it begins to formulate into beliefs, philosophies and principles that we live by. And in that we learn a bit at a time.

Now with that in mind this week I’ve taken it to another level that adds another dimension to the discussion. This week I’ve been wondering what makes a good lesson. Often there are those that will say that a lesson was good. What do they mean by that? I’ve discovered that often what they clearly mean is that they totally and completely agreed with what was said. However on the other hand by some feedback that I at times get it’s evident that there are some other people that think that a certain lesson was among the most terrible they ever heard because they disagreed with what was said. What really amuses me is that it’s not unusual to experience both sentiments about the same lesson.

However the question is what constitutes a good or bad lesson? Here’s what I’ve come up with. I’m wondering whether a lot of the time the lessons that are identified as good lessons are really the bad ones and the ones identified as bad are really the best ones. It seems to me that the worst lessons are those where the listener rubber stamps in agreement everything that is said and they walk away unchallenged. But then on the other hand those lessons that are the best lessons are those where the listener is caused to think… often re-think and re-evaluate what they have always thought. And often what that means is that initially there will be disagreement because something is being shared in a different way and not understood.

If that is indeed the case then I really think that’s okay for all of us because as that occurs we have the opportunity to live out in mutual respect for one another what the wise man in Proverbs said: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17)