Dig

I was reading a book on sermon construction recently and this passage caught my eye. I think it adequately states what I have felt but haven't been able to put into words:

"[T]here are especial dangers in [expository] preaching. It lends itself readily to an unready man. Scamped preparation lies behind the utter boredom that expounding a passage often creates. Finding Sunday almost upon him and no solid preparation for the pulpit already made, a man may fly incontinently to this form of exposition, which becomes, in such circumstances, a weak and running commentary on all that is already obvious in the passage he selects to abuse. .... Like certain Biblical commentaries, he avoids with unfailing skill every real difficulty that turns up. He says what the Bible says all over again, seemingly unaware that he is utterly incapable of saying it better."

The writer goes on to relay a bit that he had seen performed by a comedian, mocking this kind of preaching:

"Mother Hubbard, you see, was old; there being no mention of others, we may presume she was alone; a widow - a friendless, old, solitary widow. Yet, did she despair? Did she sit down and weep, or read a novel, or wring her hands? No! She went to the cupboard. And here observe that she went to the cupboard. She did not hop, or skip, or run, or jump, or use any other peripatetic artifice; she solely and merely went to the cupboard....

"And why did she go to the cupboard? Was it to bring forth golden goblets, or glittering, precious stones, or costly apparel, or feasts, or any other attributes of wealth? It was to get her dog a bone! Not only was the widow poor, but her dog, the sole prop of her age, was poor too."

Is that what we're doing when we step up to the sacred desk? Are we performing a dramatic reading, ad libbing where we feel the urge? Or are we bringing the word of God to life, laying bare the truth that God would speak to His people through us?

Let's not be guilty of turning preaching into a performance art.