I’m a preacher … lately retired, and now back again as an interim.
So, why not listen to some sermon podcasts?
I did … a “progressive” podcast, so to speak … good speakers in historic Protestant Churches … la la la.
I listened with hope - maybe I could land a few good ideas, some punchy phrases … insights with some creative way of saying it … who knows what? I listened in good faith.
What I heard was tap dancing - clickety clack, clickety clack, furious and fancy footwork … all around, toward, and post-haste away, from anything that would merit the term “sermon” in days such as ours.
What I heard were preachers scared to death - scared to face the reality of the day, scared to preach Jesus … preaching the Bible rather than preaching Biblically … offering nostrums and platitudes, sweet throwaway phrases devoid of meaning, seasoned a bit with the appearance of exegesis and maybe a fine quote or two.
Another image came to mind - that of prize fighting, when a boxer, for whatever reason, pulls her punch … holds back, looks good, flails around, with sweat and spit, yet fails to deliver the punch.
The world is teeter-tottering from one disaster to another … for me, good preaching considers the hopes and fears of all the years present in the congregation.
Folks know, full-well, what’s going on, if not in detail, then at least in their bones. They’re rattled and bewildered, even if they’re full-tilt running away from it all.
I was disappointed.
I turned, instead, to a political podcast created by some fine historians.
Historians who tell the truth, run to the smoke, and not away … who are rattled and bewildered, as we all are, but find solace in the truth - the truth that offers hope, the truth that includes the darkest of potential outcomes - danger, defeat, and destruction.
The prophets offered both hope and the warning … Jesus called the people to faithfulness, with the reminder that the present course could well lead to disaster. History is loaded with hope, and with a crushing reality - that sometimes the worst will happen.
Guernica is bombed. Ukraine is being demolished. The Supreme Court is in the hands of the Federalist Society.
Truth has a hard edge … the enemies of truth are legion, and those who abide in the truth know the cross.
This is not surprising, is it?
Give me truth-tellers … not tap dancers.
Truth-tellers who deliver the punch.
