The Sunday Morning Sermon

What moved you about the sermon?

Was it the content or the consent?

Did you feel comfortable and consoled?

Or did you hear stuff that you resent?

Was it loud, long and light?

Or was it riveted in the word and true?

What was it about the Sunday morning sermon

That really reached out to you?

Christendom’s populace seems bent

On a diet of ongoing entertainment,

Particularly among the young

But also those of the older segment.

Take for example today’s trend

Regarding the concerts, the music, the artists

No doubt very much out of place

Would be a message from John the Baptist.

Christian education is suffering

It’s under siege by Christian entertainment

And its promoters give much time and resources

To ensure to the youth it is relevant.

For there’s competition in the market square

Vying for the attention of the youth

And what we see in the secular

Is also among the Christians: that’s the truth.

There is fast becoming no distinction

Between these appealing facets

And now the rivalry is set and raging

As though to determine who is the best at it.

The concert halls are packed at weekends

And at that place when it is up on the hill,

I am not so sure about the message

But certainly the fans are there for the thrill.

The Gospel artistes will turn on the charm

And the audience will definitely respond

And depending on the artiste’s popularity

The applause could go on and on and on.

  

This is intermingled with praises

I am not always sure to whom they are inclined,

Whether it’s God above who is to be honoured

Or these are the praises to men assigned.

For the way some artistes are regarded

Would make you shudder more than a bit,

Some terms like anointed and awesome

Have become the regular audit.

And preachers are not to be left out

For they too are getting in on the act,

Much of their Sunday morning sermons

Have built in an entertainment pack.

Replete with antics and clichés

Designed to evoke hallelujah and amen

But regarding content and the word

Not much of that is coming from them.

Often they will open with a scripture

And right after they will close the word

And then proceed with the act

I am sure you have both seen and heard.

This is the morning after the night before

And the hallowed halls are not nearly as packed

As the concert halls after last evening,

I am not joking for you know that this is a fact.

For many have slept in late Sunday morning

And the few that have ventured out

Must be stirred up by the preached word

As the preacher pontificates and shouts.

His performance must be on the level

As the performance they witnessed last night

And so he will take his time to present

A sermon that is loud and long and light.

Loud because he must keep them awake,

Long because it must appear he has much content,

Light because there is little truth to the above

For not much word is presented is my lament.

And so we have the competition

Between Christian education and entertainment

Entertainment is the winner by a distance

And it’s education that they resent.

The result is a paucity of knowledge

As it particularly pertains to the word

And a tempered, watered down education

Since people must be otherwise stirred.

“What’s emotional is what’s important (1)

And how I feel rather than my spiritual state (2)

For sermons which are dead and staid (3)

Are the sermons that I deplore and hate.” (4)

Lines one and two are nonsense

However with lines three and four I concur,

Any preacher who preaches a dead sermon

Probably did not to God’s word refer.

For the word of God is quick and powerful

And sharper than any two edged sword,

While the preaching might be dead and staid

There is nothing dead about the word.

It’s time that we review our posture

Both as Christians here and abroad,

For untoward times are upon us

And we are spoken of as frauds.

For our stance speaks to double standards

And such is no stance at all,

Rather it’s the proverbial sitting on the fence

And it’s time to reexamine our call.

It’s a call to be pure and to be righteous,

It’s a call to holiness and to truth,

It’s a call to the few that are chosen

To take up God’s charge and show full proof.

There is a message somewhere in this poem

I do not mean to be critical or snide

But for me I will think on that message

And adapt where to me it can be applied.

I pray that God will bless and honour your ministry

In whichever part of the vineyard you are

But I also pray about the Sunday morning sermon

That with God’s word it will be on par.

Stewart Russell © June, 2017