Preaching and Preachers

The Preparation of the SermonSpirit', and try to keep yourself open and sensitive to His every movement.So, to me, a printed programme would have been ridiculousbecause of the constant possibility of interruptions and variations, andthe development of certain themes in an entirely unforeseen mannereither during preparation or actually while preaching. Whatever yourdecision with regard to this matter, keep yourself free.Or let me put it like this. I would lay it down as a rule that there arespecial occasions which should always be observed. At this point Ihave the temerity to express a criticism of the Puritans. I believe inpreaching special sermons on Christmas Day and during the Adventseason; I also believe in preaching special sermons on Good Friday,Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday.How do I justify this? Well, why did the Puritans object to it? Theanswer is, of course, that they objected to these special occasions becauseof their violent reaction to Roman Catholicism. The RomanCatholics had turned the celebration of the birth of our Lord into aMass; and so the Puritans, being creatures of reactions, as we all are,tended to react too violently, with the result that their desire to get ridof everything savouring in any way of the Mass, and everything elseassociated with Roman Catholic thinking, went to the other extremeand opposed any observance of these days.While I fully understand their attitude and entirely sympathisewith it in general, I nevertheless think they were mistaken. I say thatbecause I believe that the danger confronting most of us is to becomeso interested in the implications and the outworking of the Christianfaith that we tend to forget the essence and the very foundations of thefaith. We assume them but perhaps never preach them. And ifthat istrue of the preaching, the same will obviously be true of the peoplewho listen to us. But when we turn to the New Testament Epistles wefind that the Apostles cannot deal with any subject without constantlyreferring back to these basic facts of the Christian faith. In any casethere are the four Gospels reminding us of the facts and the historicity.Surely the great danger today, and especially in certain circles, is191