Cheerful or Painful Sermon?

Last Sunday after the sermon, a member of our church made a remark about my preaching that is still stuck to my mind; I wish to forget it but it does not go.  It has made me to be more fearful in how I preach.  Don't get me wrong, I am a human being and I like to hear something good rather than bad.  But at times an honest response is better than a good and pleasing one; the remark that is stuck to my mind was an honest one.

Being in the pastoral ministry from the teenage years, with a few improvements in some areas, preaching a sermon on every Sunday is still a fearful challenge.  This fearful challenge arises from the twofold realization of having the word from the Lord and then faithfully delivering it to his people; a timely word of the Lord to the hungry people of God, with all its ramifications and relevance, is a delicious delicacy in any given age and culture.  How I wish that the Lord would speak through me to each and every member who sits under my voice; he/she would return from that place edified, revived and filled with strength to live in this fallen world with faith and courage!  Such desire as a preacher always weighs heavily upon me, at times to a breaking point.  Even as I climb the steps towards the Pulpit, I keep breathing a silent prayer even though, for reasons unknown to me as of yet, I feel not so comfortable to pray publicly before I begin my sermon.    

But there is one thing I have overcome as a preacher; a visit to restroom before climbing up to the Pulpit.  For about until five years into the full time preaching ministry, the fear of public speaking would grip me so tight that I wished to be raptured just before the presider would call me to the Pulpit.  Since the wish to be raptured never came true, my stomach would give up!  The situation would be more compounded when invited to speak in a new place.  In such a scenario, my first priority used to be to locate the restroom and then calculate the timing for me to take the Pulpit.  Considering the living conditions in rural Nepal and India, finding a restroom in close proximity of the church itself used to be a lifesaver!  Once the location of the restroom is secured and you are seated inside the worship hall, the struggle proceeded to the next level.  Worship services in these places don't have the printed bulletins and the program sheets with the calculated precision of the allocated time; if they had, it would have given my stomach the luxury of telling me when to plan my trip to the restroom.  But you could never tell as how many songs, hymns and testimonies would be incorporated in the worship before your name is called.  The worship leader would have full freedom to do or say anything or even preach a whole sermon based upon the hymns just sung or about to be sung; all depended on how he/she felt led by the Holy Spirit.  And you add to that the supernatural manifestations; someone would either be filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in tongues and prophesy or be filled with demonic spirits and roll on the floor, scream and cry.  In either case, the service would go one until the calm is restored or the demonic spirits have been exorcised.   The day I would not have to preach, I would be perfectly at home in a service like that; in fact, I would add to what seems to be a chaotic style of worship to a naturalist.  But the day I am supposed to preach, everything would change for me; I would be focusing on the worship leader and interpreting his/her moves and planning my trip to the restroom before my name is called.  Failing to visit the restroom would ruin the first 5 to 10 minutes of my sermon and I would make a fool of myself.

But it has now been over 15 years without the regular panic attacks of the fear of public speaking (there are occasions it returns).  The Lord has been gracious to take away that fear from me, but the fear that I have now is even greater than that.  It is the fear of failing to minister each and everyone who comes to the church seeking the word of the Lord.  I have heard/read great preachers say "you do your best and leave the rest to God".  It is a comforting thought.  But as a minister who is called upon to speak God's word to God's people, I wish that every single individual who comes to Church would return home knowing that one has heard God speak to.

Having such a prayer in my heart, the remark on Sunday compelled me to hear God before I speak and speak before people without fear.  The zest of the remark went like this "I used to attend an X church but the reason I came to this church is because the pastor in X church always preaches 'Cheerful' sermons but you preach 'Painful' sermons.  Even though I like cheerful sermons and your sermons hurt me, but life in this world is painful and your sermons provide me the inspiration to face the painful world with faith and courage".  The idea that sermons can be painful and yet provide the needed inspiration to face the painful world; I take it to be a great compliment for me!

 

The world is indeed painful.  There is evil in every side; suffering and life have become twin pillars of our existence in this fallen world.  That is why Jesus said, "In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world".  Life giving message to a hurting world needs to be communicated through the channels that have the experience of what it is to suffer and overcome the suffering in this world.  It is possible that the "cheerful" sermons are born out of the comfortable life-style of the preachers; lack of experience of suffering in life makes us either a merry-go-round preachers or stiff-naked legalist devoid of love; attributing the lack of suffering in life as a reward for their religiosity; "if everyone would do what we did, there will be no suffering in life".  But the person who has travelled the road of suffering and experienced the shepherding hand of God through the valley of shadow of death will know the both spectrums of life; there is trouble in the world but the one who shepherds us has overcome this world and therefore we can overcome with him.  On the other hand, unless the preacher experienced the victorious hand of God in the suffering, there is also the danger of remaining in the painful state of mind and think that this world is not a place to hope for anything good.  Indeed, the good shepherd wants us to have life abundance in this world, and with Paul we ought to be able to say "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"!

So, I prefer a 'painful' sermon that gives me the inspiration to overcome the painful world than hear a "cheerful" sermon that sets me up for disappointments and discouragements in the real world. 

This world is so broken that self-help and 'cheerful' sermons can only take us to some extent, but to make life worth living in this world, we will need the power of God revealed in the gospel.  "The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe"!  Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life".  If I have Christ, I have the power of resurrection and life even in this painful world and because he lives, I shall also live and live victoriously!   Therefore, whether the sermon is cheerful or painful, the most important thing is to have Christ in it!