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PREACHING SKILLSSoul Deep (pt. 2)O for the sermons that change lives.Gordon MacDonald
This is part two of a two-part series. In part one, Gordon began to explore what a soul-deep sermon is and the part the preacher plays in producing it. Click to read part one.
The Word made fresh
A soul-deep sermon has to do with one's insistence on taking scriptural truth and casting it in a 21st century frame. A challenging but not impossible task. Scholarship and imagination work together here to cultivate the curiosity of the congregation so that they are willing to crawl into the text with the preacher and appreciate why and how it was written and what the author was trying to say as he responded to the impulse of the Holy Spirit.
Soul-deep sermons take the powerful gospel and place it in the context of the streets of this world where life is tough and people need courage and wisdom.
Having done that, it's to work with the assumption that ancient truth is trans-cultural: it speaks to the present time. And what does it say? How will that truth translate into life on Tuesday or Thursday in the marketplace, in the home, at school? What difference will it make? What does life for the biblical person look like?
I have loved telling the story of a ferret named Bandit that our college-aged son brought home years ago. After some months we had to ask Bandit to leave (behavioral problems), but no one could tell us how to appropriately evict him. When I suggested to the pet store people that we simply let Bandit go in the New Hampshire forest, they were horrified.
"He can't defend himself or survive," they said. "He's trained to live in a cage."
We must beware of sermons that teach people to survive only in the protected cage of the church and among Christianized people. Soul-deep sermons take the powerful gospel and place it in the context of the streets of this world where life is tough and people need courage and wisdom.
Urgency (I think we prefer the word passion today) is an interesting word when it comes to the consideration of soul-deep preaching. It is used to describe a preacher who really believes that the eternal destiny of human beings is caught up in the issues a sermon might address. This is a scary thought. Truth be told? I don't get the feeling that most preachers really believe that eternal issues are in the balance when they preach.
Readying the crowd
You get the possibility of soul-deep sermons when congregations are prepared to listen at soul-depth. An Augustine, a Luther, a Calvin, a Wesley, a Spurgeon, and a Graham were effective when their audience was strangely ready. But here's an opposite case in point: "(Jesus) could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith." So Mark writes of a preaching day in the life of Jesus that could be labeled (forgive me, Lord) a strike-out.
A strange readiness, I say. Because there are times when God—for reasons we cannot understand—cracks through the hardness of souls and sends a sermon deep within. People repent; people change; people become, well … wonderful people. What readies a congregation? These moments are most often prefaced by large amounts of prayer.
A worshiper in a Welsh church (1859) writes of such a strange moment when people would have been satisfied with a routine meeting. The pastor, having read some Scripture, made "a few passing remarks thereon, (and) an influence was felt by all present, which we had never experienced in the like manner before. There was a beauty, a loveliness about the Holy Word which we had never hitherto perceived. New light seemed to be thrown upon it. It electrified us, and caused us to weep for joy. The feeling became general. All present were under its influence. The hardest hearts were forced to succumb … and then we sang, aye, sang with the Spirit, and repeated the hymn again and again—we could not leave off. Every heart seemed inspired to continue, and the last two lines were sung for full a quarter of an hour." Poof! The second Welsh revival was under way.
Results of soul-deep preaching
We must not load on to the idea too much, but certainly some of the following attributes must be among its distinctive marks. A sense of the holiness and majesty of God might be one mark. This is a God with whom we must not trifle. He is to be respected and heard.
Then we might look for a sense of the deep, deep love of Jesus—a love that is virtually irresistible and which overcomes every barrier of the hardened soul. Jesus must be preached so that one cannot imagine living without a relationship with him.
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