2009-06

C G N
Where does the humble sermon stand
on today’s IT and Communication
Superhighway? Thumbing a lift on the
slip-road?
St Paul says, “Faith comes through
hearing, and hearing through the word
of Christ”, and asks, “How are they to
hear without someone preaching?”
The earliest known preacher has to
be Enoch, seventh in line from Adam,
who gets a brief mention in the book of
Jude.
The most famous preacher of all has
to be Jesus: people walked miles to
hear him, stayed with him for days, and
knew they were hearing more than the
same old religious claptrap.
The Sermon on the Mount is still seen
as the pinnacle of moral teaching, and
Jesus’ sermons were accompanied by
miracles and healings as God showed
the authenticity of his message – we
could do with more of that today!
The book of Acts almost begins with
a fiery sermon from St Peter, and for the
next two millennia the sermon was the
standard form in which the church
presented the Good News of Jesus.
In modern times, the names of
Wesley, Spurgeon, Martin Lloyd-Jones
still echo today...
There’s no doubt that encountering
someone speaking passionately about
what they believe can be very powerful:
experts say only ten per cent of
communication lies in the words – voice
tone and body language convey much
more. If the preacher has listened to
God before speaking to the
congregation, and the Spirit of God is at
work in their hearts, we can hope for
inspiration as well as communication.
A good sermon (and we can all
remember some bad ones!) should do
more than convey information; it should
try to raise faith in the hearers,
encourage them to believe that God is
willing to work in their lives, helping
them to be more than they could be on
their own.
Ken Goodier
St Chads Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats
email: office@stchads.org
Church Offices: 15 Camping Lane, Sheffield S8 0GB Page 23 website: www.stchads.org
Tel: (0114) 274 5086