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Is our preaching out of touch?

Do you think the traditional sermon is out of date, or is something else
the problem?

Responses:

name: Steven White
city: Charles City
state: Iowa
e_mail: stevenbwhite@msn.com
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I really would not say traditional preaching is out dated. Unless by traditional you mean robotic and empty of humility and interaction. I am a youth pastor in a small town of Iowa. Our Church is a Wesleyan Church (Methodist with an attitude). Everything we do as a whole is very modern. Sermons are in point format and it is very much like a classroom. Our students are so bored with it especially those who have not grown up in the Church. To these students our Sunday service is irrelevant. They do not feel as though it connects to them on a personal level. To them it is a really bad stage show.

Yet to the older adults and to many of the middle aged Church it seems to be just what they want. So I would never suggest bringing in a conversational style of preaching to the Sunday service. But when it comes to Wednesday nights it is another story all together. Just last week we brought in 25 gallons of sand as we talked about foot washing and what it means to live in a community where we are all serving each other. The teens own our preaching because it is done in a question format. When were done the teens have worked and wrestled with God’s word for themselves. They are not being preached at they are participating in the preaching.

So is this only for teens and young adults? No way! I have talked with many adults who love the way we do our gatherings on Wednesdays. But to try to conform an established Church who believes style is as much a part of the Gospel as is the community this would be suicide. My suggestion is to plant for the un-churched.

One more note. Please do not always try to explain away mystery. To many who have seen science fail to bring in a nirvana mystery is just what they need. People need to know that God is above us and though he dwells with in the community he also transcends it. Most sermons make God seem almost like a CEO of ENRON.

Preaching will change but it must be done within the context of culture. Figure out what the culture around you needs to understand God’s word and then preach, preach, preach.

name: frank cinque
city: melbourne
state: VICTORIA
e_mail: acinque1@optusnet.com.au
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one time our catholic church invited a priest from chile to take the sermon he used people interaction situations and the response was everyone the children to the adults were learning about other people and themselves. to respect and love each other is gods ultimate message.

name: Joshua Maciel
city: Bakersfield
state: CA
e_mail: Spiritjunky@hotmail.com
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Yes and no. Preaching must be talored for whom you are preaching. those who don't believe understand Christianeze as much as a dog understands commands from his owner. The dog knows sit, lay down and if his is really smart, rollover but there is no way to have real communication. In fact for that to happen we would need to learn to speak "dog."

name: Joshua Maciel
city: Bakersfield
state: CA
e_mail: Spiritjunky@hotmail.com
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Yes and no. Preaching must be talored for whom you are preaching. those who don't believe understand Christianeze as much as a dog understands commands from his owner. The dog knows sit, lay down and if he is really smart, rollover but there is no way to have real communication. In fact for that to happen we would need to learn to speak "dog."

name: michael
city: seattle
state: WA
e_mail: needyourhelp@mail.com
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I do not feel the traditional content is out of date. The truth does not change. The presentations can vary with the same information from setting to setting. My concern is not that we not try to relate to a godless, churchless people. It is rather that we overrelate resorting to measures that "get" them to come but fail to make them disciples for Jesus Christ.

name: julie wilburt
city: west rivera beach
state: fl
e_mail: doulove50@hotmail.com
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I think if the traditional sermon being the one that a person has looked upin a book and printed out then yes that is not in touch ever.The Spirit of God is given to a Christian who serves Him and even more to a God appointed preacher who can hear in his spirit the wisdom and words of God.He or she then will speak what has been put in their heart to speak and then peoples needs are meant and help received.That is a true preacher. juliew

name: Louise
city: Naxxar, Malta
state: EUR
e_mail: louise@cpcoaches
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Yes! It is out of touch. To think that one man can speak for a whole body of people is just ridiculous. I have sat for years in a tradional church listening to sermons. Every sunday I have at least three ideas or experiences that would perfectly illustrate the speakers point. But I am not allowed to speak it out. Than I begin to questions my motives, why would I want to speak out, I am nobody special? I have been beating myself up for years for this desire to speak out, like I have anything of worth to say. Who do I think I am? Well, I am a child of the King and His Holy Spirit runs through my being just as freely as it runs through the guy up front. There is nothing wrong with me it is the structure.

What is the purpose of preaching? To equip the belivers to do the work of the ministry. If this is true why do we still use a mode of teaching that is the least effective in imparting info? Passively sitting and listening to someone else will never change the world and that is what we have been called to do.

name: Jesse
city: Mayview
state: MO
e_mail: brojesse@yahoo.com
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"Explain, illustrate, and apply." Are pastors there to win big crowds or preach the gospel? Are pastors there to entertain or to declare, "Thus saith the Lord,"? When Jesus taught that no one could come to him unless the Father granted it, many of his disciples left him and "walked with Him no more." Today, many would say that Jesus' preaching was out of touch, not relevant, and that he needs to do something different to connect with the people. Pastors need to remember that Jesus came to die for the sins of the world, he preached repentance, and that those whom he calls are called to a life of discipleship, not easy-believism. If we as pastors preach anything less, we do an injustice to our listeners.

name: Nancy Stimson
city: Indianapolis
state: IN
e_mail: nstimson@comcast.net
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Someone once said that in the earliest church, the idea that one person should always be the one to speak the whole word of God, while everyone else just listened, would have been thought ridiculous. I agree! I would love to see a congregation where everybody was reading and meditating on the scripture and the sermon might be a real dialogue. At the very least, I think that there are laypeople who are gifted and committed, and should also preach.

I did disagree with Karen Ward's statement that she hasn't consulted a commentary since she was fresh out of seminary. I never outgrew my need to do that, because I felt the commentators were very useful conversation partners - and occasionally found that one of them would have an excellent insight. It is a way of being rooted in (and dialoguing with) the community of saints through and history, rather than only in my own thoughts and perceptions.

name: Hal Eaton
city: Mouth of Wilson
state: VA
e_mail: haleaton@earthlink.net
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"Is preaching out of touch?" Of course, it is. At least, to the "younger generation," raised on a bumper crop of like-minded youngsters up on the stage, in casual, if not grungy, clothing, usually beared, or at least unshaven, carrying a microphone and leading the crowd in recently composed religious music, usually "revealed by God", utilizing three chords and ten words, repeated over and over again, hands waving, feet stomping--a "beat you can daince to," in the jargon of youth.

The setting is almost exactly the same in all the backward countries of the world. Youth (usually defined as students) being mesmerized by their self-appointed leaders, who, unshaven and under-dressed, bullhorn in hand, exciting the masses with repeated slogans, catch-phrases, and sound-bites aimed at whoever is in charge, have become the darlings of the young masses and the media.

The psychology is the same, whatever the setting. The appeal in our time and locale is to be uninhibited, to throw off the conventional restraints of parents, schools, culture, religion, and government, whether the venue is a rock concert, a half-time show, or a conventional place of worship.

We have misused Paul's urging to become all things to all people, ignoring what is needed in order to gain approval by giving what is demanded.

Today's old-fashioned sermons have become performances, or stand-up comedy routines, supporting the ego of the presenter. The requirement is for applicability, not hyperbole.

name: Mark Stephenson
city: Waco
state: TX
e_mail: mstephenson711@hotmail.com
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It seems to me that preaching that "tries" to be "cool" will certainly fall short. Our generation can see through the fluff.

As in any preaching, it should be incarnational. The preacher should embody the message. Thus, the message should come through a relevant person. One shouldn't try to make the message "cool." The preacher should own the message before they preach it and then allow his/her own language and personality to come through.

This way, an ancient message finds meaning today as it comes through a modern (or postmodern as it may be) person.

name: Lara
city: Pittsburgh
state: PA
e_mail: lara@instituteofamerica.org
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Is the traditional sermon out of date? I believe that depends on what you call traditional. Just like in other parts of society, religion has it's fads too - I remember the days when we ripped apart our churches to modernize them. Now, we're spending a great deal of money to make them more traditional or even to re-modernize.

In my mind, traditional preaching is about the message. The message hasn't changed. It's how we deliver it that changes. Or more specifically, how we help others apply it. My father who refused church and God for years, now makes it a point to attend. If you ask him why he says, "I like it when they make 'it' relevant to my life today." Every hurt-Christian who finds it in him/herself to go to church says the same thing - "if I cuold just find a church that made it matter... Made 'it' fit into what I need to do today, then I'd go more often."

Christ, I think, made it matter to the people then in what he said. His message is still the same today - we just need to help others apply it to their lives in the now.

name: Sam Cupa
city: Salome
state: AZ
e_mail: slcupa@msn.com
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I do not think that the "traditional sermon" is ever out of date, IF it is based on the authority of the Word of God. However I do think that many pastor's and preachers have stopped "getting real" and are too busy "pleasing the people" instead of pleasing God. God honors HIS WORD and lifts it above the very name of His Son. The power of any sermon comes from the Word of God, not how well we can "blend" in with the congregation by what we wear or any other physical thing. Christ was never "Out of Touch" with the people, but the "religious crowd" always had a problem with the way He preached because it was like a mirror that showed them for what they were. The same is true today, "religious people" want to have their ears tickled. They want a "feel good gospel," a fantasy of their life, not the reality. The truth is, fantacy never requires anything from you, reality does!

name: Phillip Ross
city: Marietta
state: OH
e_mail: phil@pilgrim-platform.org
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The Postmoderns dislike authority, but love authenticity. The root of both words is the same. I suspect that they dislike being under anyone else's authority, but call their own authority authenticity. To reject one authority is to replace it with your own authority.

To say that Keel is unconcerned about appearance is simply not true. His uniform is different, that's all. He is as careful in his uniform as any CEO. He's just appealing to a different group.

It seemed like you were saying that the needed change is more than style, yet everything that followed was about style.

Faithful preaching is always out of touch with the values of the world, just as worldly preaching is always out of touch with the values of faithfulness.

name: rdm
city: fort myers
state: fl
e_mail: mjcdied4unme@aol.com
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i think mostly from what i've experienced in the church that we have created a big bless me club.our next goal after being born again is to let God kill our fleshly selves.david said in psalms 103:3 bless the lord o my soul and then dont forget his benefits.paul said i am crucified with christ so that he can live in me.Gods presence from being sold out to him brings his promises into our lives.we are to fully submit to him in all our ways and our life will reap all that He promised us.pastors,books,tapes or any other media will never reveal God to us.only through seeking Him with our whole heart and letting Him reveal him self will it be real.You can read a book about someone and still not know them.If you want to know what the book really meant you have to get to know that person.We have to once again start being real and stop treating God like the "heaven eleven" for one hour on sunday.

name: Ben
city: Birmingham
state: UK
e_mail: guddle@hotmail.com
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Preaching is still a means God uses to communicate His Word, His intentions and promises, His love and requirements into our lives. In churches people need to hear and the unsaved need to hear the preaching of the gospel too in order to be saved! How exactly we go about doing that can be flexible to some extent. I do not believe that preaching has had its day! The principles of good communication still apply and a preacher who is out of touch with those he or she is preaching to will not get the message heard! We need to work hard at our communication as Christians and live out the life! Both of which are a challenge requiring us to forsake ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Him who gave His life for us and for them! How can they be saved if someone does not preach to them, whether that comes from a pulpit, a crusade, or their mate down the pub!?

name: Jerry Branch
city: Dallas
state: PA
e_mail: gbranch@ptd.net
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If you're defining the 'traditional' sermon as one of 'three points, and a poem'...yes, it is out of date, and has been for decades. Is traditional expository preaching (read a verse and dissect it and lecture about the Greek or Hebrew) out of date? Yes...if that is what we're calling expository preaching.

I'm 58 years old, surrendered to an old call to preach in 1992 (God called when I was 21...I ran), and fell in love with accurate Biblical exposition of God's Word, with relevant application, lots of open ended questions (many unresolved in the message) and lo and behold, both young and old are being fed and are growing. Am I good? NO. God has just seen fit to use this 'old vessel' for only reasons He knows. So do I think preaching is 'out of date'...no. Peter didn't think so; Paul didn't think so; Jesus certainly didn't think so; and so on; therefore, for whatever reason, God is still using preaching His Word and apparently hasn't changed His 'mode' (2 Tim 4:2)...but we MUST be engaging our people rather than 'boring' them to tears.

name: Kathleen Tortora
city: Mahwah
state: NJ
e_mail: ktortora@verizon.net
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The traditional sermon is definitely not out of date. To me, the "problem" is everything else that's getting in the way of hearing the WORD.

In church, I like stories that illustrate Biblical truths. I even like fill-in-the-blank outlines in instructional sermons...and yes, I even like Power Point presentations. I also enjoy "shoot from the hip" sermons. When I go to church, I want to praise and worship my Lord and learn about the God who created me and what He thinks. He knows me intimately. I want to get to know HIM better. I say keep to the Word, and keep politics and worldly discussions out of it. If I've got problems, I can go to God in private, go to my husband, go to my friends, go to a Counselor, go to my church family, find a support group, get information on the Internet, etc., to get help. There's all sorts of resources out there, including the Bible. If I want to know about politics, I can read the newspaper, watch the news, or again, go on the internet. In church, I want to see GOD.

name: Ted Fiorito
city: Bridgeport
state: CT
e_mail: tedfio@aol.com
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If traditional sermons are altogether out of date I believe it is because we have become out of touch. We have become out of touch with our living God. More and more we need to be entertained from the pulpit. The sermon has to meet our expectations and desires, and not necessarily God's. We live in a world of high tech TV wathching short attention span human beings. I agree that at times movies and books can provide useful illustrations that help convey a biblical message. However, I'm concerned that we have become more attracted and influenced by the movies and the actors than by the Bible and Jesus.

name: Matt Stone
city: Sydney
state: NSW
e_mail: pneumanark@optusnet.com.au
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People have had it with monologues by guys answering questions they aren't asking. Pithy humour may make monologues superficially more entertaining, but does more entertainment translate into spiritual depth? Does it get preachers closer to the pulse of the people? I think not.

name: Matt Stone
city: Sydney
state: NSW
e_mail: pneumanark@optusnet.com.au
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name: Gerald Branch
city: Dallas
state: PA
e_mail: gbranch@ptd.net
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Preaching ISN'T what is out of date, it's the church that is out of step. If someone thinks that it is the 'preaching' that is out of date, perhaps it would be well to revisit Romans 10:13-17. Preaching must be more than just little 'sermonettes' with three points and a poem, started off with a lame joke. The preacher must be 'called and annointed' if the message is going to connect.

name: Jeff Gilbertson
city: Austin
state: TX
e_mail: jgilbertson@chibardun.net
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Somewhere in the 2nd century spontaneous prophecy gave way to the prepared sermon and the church of Jesus has suffered ever since. i would suggest "the greek influences on early christianity" to begin discussing the topic of preaching or traditional sermon!

bringing back the HS is, to me, the most important question.

Believe it or not, Ignatius declared that the Bishop was equal to God! “I exhort you to be careful to do all things in the unity of God, since the Bishop sits in the place of God...” (St. Ignatius’ Epistle to the Ephesians 6:1). Ignatius coined the famous expression: “Where the Bishop is, there is the Church”. He himself should know, I guess, being the Bishop of Antioch!

If we don't go back far enough to the NT blueprint we are asking the wrong questions.

jeff G

name: David Battle
city: Mishawaka
state: IN
e_mail: keyboardist1@lycos.com
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I am a musicianI. I use improvisational techniques with the hymns and spirituals. I did this just this past Saturday; the pianist and others said they were blessed by it. I do agree with Doug Pagitt's remarks about preaching being improvisational. Bible texts should form the structure but improvisation within the structure can add relevance, power, and excitement. But let us not forget, preachers and musicians alike, still need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

name: Paul Saxton
city: Sheffield
state: UK
e_mail: sacko_uk@hotmail.com
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The problem is correctly identified, that the church is yet to grip (and lets face it this is NOT a new thing) post-modernity. Preaching the traditional sermon does work for those who are used to it and can respond to it, but for those in an emerging culture, it seems that actions now speak louder than words.

The church needs to become radical disciples who are prepared to live their lives as Jesus did, people who are ready to engage and make the gospel appropriate for a new generation.

The sermon is not the problem it is how the sermon is contextualised and how it is made accessable for readers!

name: Paul Saxton
city: Sheffield
state: UK
e_mail: sacko_uk@hotmail.com
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The church needs to become radical disciples who are prepared to live their lives as Jesus did, people who are ready to engage and make the gospel appropriate for a new generation.

The sermon is not the problem it is how the sermon is contextualised and how it is made accessable for readers!

name: Carina Proano
city: Los Angeles
state: CA
e_mail: carina@apu.edu
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In a recent conversation with a good friend, we were voicing frustration on what are hearing from the pulpit at our churches. It seems that a lot of sermons are only reaffirming what people already believe. We nicknamed these "sunday school sermons". It's like the song, 'Jesus love me this I know, For the bible tells me so'. Personally, I don't think the purpose of church is to feel comfortable but to take Christians out of their comfort zone and into the real world that so desparately needs to know the Truth. I think this could be fleshed out in more a dialogue setting, working through a collaboration of ideas. I think a lot of church goers allow a sermon to be heard as gospel, forgoing a constuctive examination of what they just heard. Just a few thoughts.

name: Joshua Gill
city: Malvern
state: PA
e_mail: jgill@covenantfrazer.org
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This is a great article. I read a lot of emergent matieral. Often I feel the material is out of balance often completely dismissing the traditional point of view. The the truth is you really do need to pay attention to your cultural context and the history of your particular church or ministry. The church is like a giant ship you need to turn her slowly to avoid tipping her over. It some places that may mean you need to be traditional in others you might be able to get away with showing south park on a sunday.

name: John Newsome
city: Gladewater
state: Tx
e_mail: fumcg-rev@cox.net
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I do not think that authoritive preaching is out of touch. The problem is inauthenticity and a lack of true community. Wearing jeans and being casual will not reach young people if all you can offer them is stories and cafeteria spirituality. Jesus spoke as one with authority, not as the scribes and Pharisees. Bible churches in college towns are attractive thousands of college students and their preaching is pretty black and white. People are looking for stability in a world that is so instable. The word of God dopes not change and it gives us direction in a morally confused society.

name: David Lathrop
city: Marysvile
state: WA
e_mail: westernbishop@fcgm.org
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The traditional message or sermon is not the problem. We are to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to bring faith to people it id this initial faith that leads to salvation. However, the Gospel must be understandable so presentation matters. The most important thing to remember is that when we prepare to preach it is not our study it is not our words but our prayer that moves the hand of God to till the soil of the souls we are to reach.

often times we for get to include God in our preaching relying on our own wits and ways expecting our works to bring souls to salvation. There is not one person that comes to God that is drawn by us. people can not come to the Father unless the Spirit draws them. Prayer is the active ingredient most left out of todays Church. so I say it is not the message it is the lack of prayer. Not programs but pray.

Bishop David Lathrop

name: Barry Van Dyke
city: Surprise
state: AZ
e_mail: barryvandyke@cox.net
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In response, IT READS LIKE THE HOLY SPIRIT doesn't lead your meeting... If you read the New Testiment the Gospels.. Jesus taught his disciples and followers in much different ways. I suggest you review the way our Lord taught and them evalutate your way. My teaching are bathed in prayer, with the Holy Spirit leading my thoughts and directions in sevice preparation and delivery. Mans way is not the same way as the Lords leads and direct me.. Thank You Isaiah 26:3

name: Patrick Broussard
city: Lake Charles
state: LA
e_mail: Christman4lyfe@yahoo.com
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I don't feel the traditional sermon is out of date but it can use spice and plain directive, I notice that mostly that so many of the orators speak above their people and they receive no understanding and they don't use real life and situation to help those who really need Christ. Just saying we have to be an example to show that we serve a LIVING GOD AND THAT JESUS IS OUR LORD.

name: Janet D. King
city: Stevensville
state: MI
e_mail: Missjadeki@aol.com
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The oreaching of God's word is never out of touch. But I do believe that God gives us trailblazers that come with a "new flavor" so to speak so that he/she can relate to a different generation. There are some preachers/evangelists that have transcended across social, gender, racial as well as age lines or barriers. It is my belief that this is what God desires for us to constantly seek him for creativeness and a fresh word to deliver unto His people.

GodBlessYa,

name: Thad
city: High Point
state: NC
e_mail: tbhelderman@northstate.net
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I think so. Traditional church settings have shut out an entire generation of people because its unwillingness to adapt the Word of God to todays society. My generation of church goers were rocked by divorce and to many misinterpretations of the Word of God. We now meet in smaller settings and hunger for the truth in God's Word rather than a religious experience.

name: Al Malekovic
city: Centralia
state: IL
e_mail: alm@countrybobs.com
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I do not think the Traditional sermons are out of date. We need the gospel preached to us from the Bible so people know what God's word says. I am 73 years old, accepted Christ and was baptized when I was 29. Been following Him ever since. Have heard 1000's of sermons and what I hear today is the same thing I heard 40 years ago.Why God loves us, sent His Son to die that we might live and how we are suppose to love our neighbor. Why are some wanting a change? What is there to change? The Gospel is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. What I see has happeneing is that people are making music, what people wear, small groups and service times an issue. I always thought a sermon was a sermon, dry or exciting, short or long, as long as God's Word is preached.

name: Della
city: Birmingham
state: AL
e_mail: chesna949
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I can only speak to the sermons of the fine ministers I have had the priviledge of working under and hearing. It is not the sermons. It is the short attention span of the listeners, desire for easy answers, and the apparent disdain for anything in church that challenges you to think. People want "feel good" sermons with lots of stories. I actually had a 27 year old say he liked a certain minister because he wasn't intellectual. Perhaps it is a product of the dumbing down of our culture.

name: Nestor
city: Cebu City
state: PHIL.
e_mail: birdsnest_c45@yahoo.com.ph
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name: Coleman Fondy
city: Chicago
state: IL
e_mail: cornell755@msn.com
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a3b14799143654288479957f235746526a Good work, nice webpaqe.

name: Dennis Appleton
city: Chicago
state: IL
e_mail: josemaria761@msn.com
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a9a28e2dba39dfbc4332e72519eede91ba Good work, nice webpaqe.

name: Bonny Ward
city: wichita
state: ks
e_mail: wrdbnn@yahoo.com
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I think that some preaching is otdated. I am 45 and I lean toward the more contemporary style of preaching we see now.We must be careful of new age philosophies and look to the bible as the utltimate source for our preaching.

name: Herman Jacob
city: Chicago
state: IL
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z309798d3f61ea412c6e2db1facc5e590z Good work, nice webpaqe.

name: Charles Corbit
city: Chicago
state: IL
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zc2ccf5be026901ae8931f01c7304df62z Good work, nice webpaqe.

name: Weatherburn Koeffle
city: Chicago
state: IL
e_mail: julius664@msn.com
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z3b14799143654288479957f235746526z Good work, nice webpaqe.

name: Eugene Diehl
city: Chicago
state: IL
e_mail: dimond804@msn.com
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z9a28e2dba39dfbc4332e72519eede91bz Good work, nice webpaqe.

name: Deb Gomez
city: Chicago
state: Il
e_mail: DebGomez@comcast.net
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The preaching is not out of touch in Christian settings, if the preacher tells the truth about who the historical Jesus was. This peace message (Letter to Kevin) about the historical Jesus may have been a sermon. I don't know. It came in two weeks ago from a friend in Seattle, who forwarded it to me. It is written by Jim Boushay. Enjoy.

Deb Gomez

The Very Breath of God

A personal letter of peace and goodwill to Kevin ……and TO YOU. From Jim Boushay

Reflection on December 25 in connection with September 11 (2001) and February 15 (2003)

Peace in the here and now .....and in each now of the future

Dear Kevin,

Thank you for keeping me posted on the peace delegation’s recent visit to the offices of our U.S. senators. The information brought a wide smile to my face. Thanks for the summary: “Our delegation presented itself well and I think we got their attention. But even if we didn't, it's critical that we do this sort of thing because our elected leaders have to hear from us. We have to do our part no matter what."

We must continue to do what we can—now certainly, and also always in each now of the future. Take some reassurance that the local effort is now part of an international peace movement. You may remember that national leaders and citizens of the nations witnessed peace and peace-making in a new way on February 15, 2003.

What happened that day was no less than a modern-day miracle, an extraordinary global/local event of colossal proportions. From around the world peace demonstrators—-if you prefer, antiwar protesters—-in city after city after city, including at home and involving altogether millions and millions of citizens—stood up for peace. The event was colossal because it was unprecedented in use of the media’s peak capacity to engage blanket-coverage of an internationally historic happening.

For the first time in the history of the world that we know, the whole world knew at the same time that the whole world did not want war.

In some ways that happening may one day overshadow September 11, a day that terrorism hit the American consciousness in an unprecedented way. That is my hope, perhaps yours too. September 11 in Year 2001 happened to us, from foreign enemies. Some 17 months later, February 15 in Year 2003 happened by us, when groups of domestic and foreign friends everywhere united to demonstrate solidarity in the name of peace.

In poetical terms a touch mystical, the event gave new hope in a hopeless time, when despair had come to believe that dark cynicism and disempowerment could not be overcome with a miracle of brightest light speaking truth to power. Out of darkness came a miracle—tender at first yet eventually robust new life.

Using the more secular terms of business and industry, we have media mogul Ted Turner largely to thank for the miracle. Imagine! Reporters laughed at Turner’s genius-—dismissed him-—at the news conference 25 years ago in 1980 when he announced the beginnings of 24-hour news around the world. From him came an incredibly simple, therefore genius, idea of a shared mission through a world of shared information and purpose. It could be argued, and has been, that the status quo media authorities and others observing from skyscraper temples, couldn’t see into the significance of the vision of bringing together the people of the world in a new way.

Our observant bosses upstairs didn’t, or couldn’t, see the future possibilities of communicating a new awareness of the increased complexity and pluralism downstairs. Some dismissed Turner’s idea outright, called it muddled, outlandish, impossible. Other laughed aloud and said no way. A few offered quiet grudging respect for a truly compelling, because leading, innovation of radical inclusion. Those thought to be in the know were moved to express comments of negation—disparaging remarks—including oppressive and nuanced forms of both dismissal and denial.

A few saw the genius idea for what it was, but stayed quiet in a form of reticence and fear known as the politics of group-think resentment. Through it all Turner remained a leader, believed in his idea and kept it out in front. He continued building. Today CNN, now accessible 24-7, shows live images of citizens from all corners of the earth. That’s one form of leadership writ large—-specifically, the capacity to envision and execute a new visual sense of world solidarity through communications media.

Kevin, in almost any field of endeavor, any place, I think we pretty much know that it’s really not unusual for the status quo to oppress by speaking a seemingly automatic or knee-jerk no to the new and creative. There are plenty of stories of different psychologies deployed as mechanisms for disparagement and dismissal. Happens every day, sadly, whether you think it should or shouldn’t.

In more complicated and dramatic terms, we’ve all seen leaders—and leadership styles—whose expression is similar to someone lying down to stop a parade. We’ve witnessed examples of moral and political leadership that unfairly discriminates, separates out: “Well, let’s just put a hold on that for now.” It’ll happen that leadership will isolate something important and, then in a moment we least expect, judge or dismiss that something as no more than a trifle, an impertinence.

In the case of February 15, you and I participated in an extraordinary demonstration of citizens around the world clearly saying no to war, yes to peace. Yet the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq did occur months later but, significantly, without citizen agreement and cooperation. So the destruction that is war began at the direction of duty-bound leaders without the consent of citizens equally duty-bound to influence the thinking and actions of leadership.

In confusing and tumultuous times like these, it’s hard for leaders always to see their way clear to truth. It’s not easy in cynical times of mistrust and distrust for leaders to acknowledge their debt to the many resurgent and prophetic voices calling for change, reform, and renewal. These are times of brutally painful upheaval in the face of an uncertain economic and social future, with a destination point that is troubling at least and challenging at best.

At the same time it is only fair to reason that one regrettable circumstance of leadership is that leaders often don’t get the decisive moral and political help they, in fact, need from the citizens. For the last ten years in the U.S., the citizenry off and on has been less than forthcoming with support. The citizenry has been widely viewed as disengaged.

Civic commissions and other kinds of task forces have ascribed some of the disengagement to the prevailing cultural stresses and anxieties about what’s really going on in our circus-like, fast-moving, future-directed age of uncertainties. We’re just not sure what’s coming at us next. Worried about what might happen at work and home, cumulative anxiety leads to deficits of confidence and to fear, to a feeling of not wanting to engage, not feeling safe.

There is the sense that things are not quite right. No one nation and no one people seems to have the one proverbial answer to fix the mess, as if one such thing, going it alone, was possible in a threatening world of sustained empire rattling. No matter, part of the citizenry’s job in these messy times is to help leaders do the right thing on behalf of the common good. Citizens need to comfort the leaders, and at the same time to embolden them. We have to keep insisting and not give up.

I've always understood from the time I was eight, as well as from a lifetime of experience and reading, that Jesus of Nazareth is underrated as a peacemaker and as a leader. I am referring to the Jesus before the early stages of Christianity as a religion. Through the centuries and up to now, there have been considerable forces of influence who think of him as little more than a good teacher of religious truth.

Jesus was a man of incredible independence, authenticity unparalleled, and immense courage by dint of the risks he took. That’s one way to characterize leadership, showing what it looks like. His insight pretty much defied explanation, and that truth is still largely with us today.

His insight was that people—-meaning, individuals one by one—-are the preferred option over and over again, the alternative not only to structures of disenablement, but also to dysfunctional systems and laws that confuse. Too often, it seems frameworks of planning historically devolve soon into unresponsive bureaucracies. There are rare and creative exceptions. Jesus changed things. Based on what he did, his preference always was to get individuals to think and judge for themselves by taking ownership of their own good individual effort—to have faith in it and the outcomes.

Having faith, believing in, the power of the truly present moment is an abiding leadership lesson of the Jesus of history.

Our culture seems always focused on the future, on what will and can be, rather than what is. We need always to be alert to the human wonder of this moment in the now, alert to the God-given marvel of human ingenuity standing before us—-contradictions and all notwithstanding. Time and again we see people thinking that the meaning of their lives—-its purposes and the prevailing issues of peace and safety—-is to be found only in planning.

The thinking is that anything really important ought to be done through organizations and organizing, or to be worked out through things organizational by definition and character. In some ways, I don’t argue with that given order of reality, if it stays reasonably consistent with what it says it is.

Still, the thing to remember is that planning and organizing are important givens, yet they have meaning that is radically different from the actions of engaging persons one by one in the moment. That is the reality of working with and perhaps embracing what is standing immediately before our eyes in the human person.

The Jesus of history differed radically from everyone else in an age when group conformity, like in our own bedeviled age, was just about the only measure of truth and virtue. It's a brutal thing of social and political evil that unless you have institutional frameworks of affiliation behind what you’re doing, then you’re nothing.

To me, Jesus contravened things, turned them upside down and inside out. He gave the lie to the falsehood that is at the extreme of dutiful affiliation. He was an exception, saying and doing things profoundly new and improved. For example, the knowledge and accumulated wisdom of the experts did not scare him from saying what had to be said. He differed from them without hesitation, even disagreeing with some eminences who had earned the legitimate esteem and power derived from honors awarded from everywhere.

No tradition was too sacred. It was as though Jesus stood completely in his own bright light. He did that because his God of justice and mercy gave him that capacity to stand up for himself as a birthright, as it is ours. In a way that birthright is made up of three self-evident truths: real life, true liberty, honest pursuit of happiness.

No assumption was too fundamental to be questioned. Every idea was to be scrutinized for the ways it disempowered and negated. No matter what the authorities called or labeled that truth, or no matter how they disparaged and dismissed, Jesus was not at all afraid to contradict the authorities. He was immensely controversial, so much so that today you and I can’t seem to get a handle on his kind of controversialist behavior and views.

We live in fear of not having status, of being class-less, without prestige. Our rhetoric, reflecting our attitudes, is fraught with biased categories and with convenient and over-simplified labels. Jesus was a man of immense courage in avoiding categories of separation, and of course he was very lonely and isolated because of it.

Sometimes I just get tired when I hear that Jesus was divine. That clearly weighty subject is unimportant to me right now, right here. Should it matter to someone else, I respect that choice here, and try to do that always and everywhere else. In saying those things to you, what is important to me at this moment is that Jesus was wholly human. In his humanity he provided a living model of service and care that, still today, we cannot talk about sufficiently or model enough. In the annals of history, Jesus is hero unprecedented and true.

Jesus and his very small band of bedraggled down-and-outers were made up of assorted nothings who were disempowered: followers, partisan political agitators, the dispossessed, cheating tax collectors, lepers and the blind with HIV-like diseases of the immune and central nervous systems, those without jobs and homes, prostitutes, and criminals. They were routinely and publicly separated out, isolated from the rest.

They were the worst: the most vulnerable and most poor and, so, the most threatening. Why were “those people” reviled and scorned?

And why was it that ordinary folks like us were afraid of them, wanted nothing to do with them? One answer: Maybe because the poor literally had nothing...no possessions and no status...surviving only on the very breath that God had given them. And of course they were blamed—meaning, punished even more—for having the audacity, the gall, to be poor rubbish. Why, the nerve of them to have chosen poverty!

So the very needy and the very poor had only The Breath of God.

Kevin, think about those matters when you take time to reflect. The weak and poor, in other words, were the only ones—-in effect—-with Everything because it was God alone they had. That's it, nothing else. That awesome reality turns the wonder of truth and justice on its head.

In fact the reality contradicts truth. In the process, that contradiction of truth is gradually changed into a plenitudinous lexicon of new life and friendships. It shows out an unprecedented stock of new definitions and categories of thinking. In fact, the lexicon lays claim to, legitimates, human worthiness through human complexity.

To us ordinary folk, those kinds of baffling truths seem unreal, impossible, crazy, numinous. But wait, we say. What happened ultimately to Jesus because he turned things upside down? We know the answer: He got punished big time, dying nailed to an ignominious cross as an even more ignominious criminal. He was nothing, a bleeding piece of brutalized, scorned flesh.

And yet in a yearly reminder of painful truth contravened, on December 25 the world will note, once again, the ways of observing (or not observing) his birthday. On that day he will be the main event, in both tender and robust ways. Historically this will be so, whether you mention his birth, death, divinity, or mention his humanity, or whether any of us tell stories about him, real everyday stories about him coming back to life in order to stay with us. This was true in his time, and true in ours.

Truth gets turned around again and again when we think about his life. Jesus hardly opposed or dissented in a manner that we might call a spirit of rebellion, or lawlessness, or the anarchy of violence. He would not, in any way, abide the disorder of manipulation and violence. Lacking resentment and bitterness, he did not have a grudge against the world. He confidently ventured into nearly every kind of space and gathering, welcomed or not. The parables he spoke were primarily stories to illustrate moral principles, stories deployed to capture the attention of the privileged.

He loved the world. In the freedom of that love he spoke forthrightly. His bluntness was off-putting, scary. When somebody we know talks about having the courage of one's convictions, it's sometimes a limited kind of courage. Worse of course, it can turn into the "courage" to boldly spew dastardly harms or vicious personal attacks, both of which can bring people low—dismembering them mentally, or depressing them physically. Subtle or not, the harmful attacks dis-able, dismiss, pull the soul down, push the body away. Spiritually the attacks are world-wearying.

Jesus was not afraid of lifting someone up, of reaching out his hand to help and heal on a holy day, and any day. He seemed not afraid of causing a scandal, or losing his position in life. He wasn’t afraid that he was thought crazy. He wasn’t afraid of doing something even his friends, never mind his adversaries, would disapprove. He said things thought socially impolite and unacceptable. He had a fearless, free way of speaking openly of God.

Jesus hung around with people who, in our unthinking moments, you and I might categorize as sinners, as “less than.” In doing that we show our dependence on a disparaging label of moral and social disdain. They were living less than the accepted norms. They weren’t observing the sumptuary laws: those unspoken rules of conduct regarding the accepted protocols of good behavior. Judgmentalized as unworthy, the people were shunned and isolated. They didn’t matter to most everybody else. These were very human indignities of his day, the very ones—each one—whose unique personhood Jesus dignified.

Prestige and position and privilege were not a part of The Jesus Game. He didn't care about those things. His family thought he was nuts, and people tried to trick him into saying and doing things that he wouldn't say or do. He was thought to be a sexual reprobate, somebody who drank too much, stayed out too late from frolicking at a feast and dancing. He wasn't afraid of what people might—-and did—-say about him. And of course he said and did what he needed to say and do.

So here we have a man grossly underrated in his time and certainly in our time as a leader. He's a curiosity to some. In other quarters of benign neglect he holds a position of benign respect. He is often not really taken seriously, partly because of all the acculturated narratives—historical, religious, political—over the years. The stories, myths, slogans, the convenient labels and buzz words have stripped him of his realness, his human being-ness.

He was so real that we often are exceedingly confused about, in particular, how to square the way we live today with the way he lived yesterday. So naturally we make things up and, inevitably, we add to the acculturation process. Like humanity in general and humans in particular, Jesus was, and is, too complicated for sound bytes. The more analysis there is, the more analysis there is. We are left, then, asking a lot of questions.

Our too-easy descriptors of him and his complex realness let him off the hook about who he was and who we know he was. And by extending this idea of labeling and categorizing to all humanity, we ourselves get let off the hook too about who we are.

Each complex one of us is worthy of celebration. Our incomparable human dignity demands it. We are, hold within us, the breath of God. Now that’s just divine!

Many say our human worthiness is wholly a hallelujah gift from God Almighty—King of kings, Lord of lords, Holy of holies. Most have come to believe that sovereign God reigns forever.

The liberating Jesus of history never claimed any kind of secular title or sacred divinity in his style of social and moral leadership. When he used the phrase "the Son of Man," that was in his day the way of saying in our day "I" or "me" or "a person." For instance, the sentence "I can tell you that my friend is wonderful" would have, in Aramaic, been spoken thus: "I tell you that the Son of Man has a friend who is wonderful." Son of Man isn’t a title; it's mostly a self-referent pronoun. Jesus lived constantly in the God-given power and glory of being one’s self—his self—in the innate dignity of human being-ness.

Thus Jesus is a wondrous manifestation of we human beings in our inherent diversity and complexity, our richness…and our perplexities. That’s the glory of a style and character of leadership that affirms the rich gifts and presents we are to each other. As we each best know how, altogether we make for a better, more thoughtful world of peace on earth and goodwill toward all whom we engage.

To create and re-create that world we each have to stand up for ourselves, have faith in ourselves for who we are. Always I’ll try remembering that THAT is the gripping lesson of December 25.

What's the point here other than that Jesus is underrated? People of profound spirituality know that The Now is the only thing there is and will always be. In a certain way, that's all there is to lay claim to. Jesus claimed only the authority given to him by his birthright, and from that he did what he did and said. He didn't provide a list of sponsors and supporters to buttress his views. He stood in his own light, asking each unique person he engaged to stand in the light of the self that God created in the sovereign nature of personhood.

Time and time again Jesus indicated that the quintessential part of an individual life is to support and affirm the inherent dignity of each person—in the moment. Sometime before next week. Or not merely when we have the time. Or once a vital law or ordinance passes. Or when I get back from vacation. Or only when I get around to planning it. Or just as soon as the war is finally over. Or once everything is aligned and just right. Or when we finally have peace.

Yes in this moment, right now. Clearly that’s hard to do, given the world-wearying circumstances of obstruction. But does some joy come in the morning?

Kevin, earlier at the start of this message, you and I mentioned doing what we can to make things better. By that, I mean doing incrementally yet decisively what we each can, with each person as we each know how to do that, preferably now and not later, trying always to engage the deep realities of the present moment.

The goal here is not perfection; it is to engage by little and by little, one day at a time—in our families, at work, in community. In this season of holidays and holy days across ethnic traditions and religious observances, I wish you and your family warmth and every good.

Forty years ago last October, when I was 17 and still in high school, Pope Paul VI spoke in New York to the United Nations. In French he exhorted that body: Jamais plus la guerre! Jamais plus la guerre! His pregnant outcry was the imperative of war never again. Perhaps missed in all that was the unequivocal call for a rebirthing of peace now, in this moment. He called for the work of uniting nations and people on behalf of this very expectant moment of peace on earth and goodwill toward all. He beseeched the world to extend the moment into thousands upon thousands upon thousands of present moments now. And into each now of the future.

With the continued energy of media mogul Ted Turner and innovators like him, aided by those other very human mavens of media and communications and industry—and aided by peacemakers in city and village around the world—we may yet get peace. Profound congratulations to you for the work of leading the delegation of peacemakers on a pilgrimage for peace now.

Jim Boushay

(with help from Rickey Sain)

Plaque on the corner of Fourth and Walnut

We are all walking around shining like the sun

“In Louisville, on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I was theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. I have the immense joy of being human, a member of the race in which God himself became incarnate. The sorrows and stupidities of the human condition can no longer overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. If only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” Thomas Merton, 1958

name: shirelle roberts
city: phi;a
state: pa
e_mail: bellyroberts@hotmail.com
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Yes something else is the problem.I believe that we have gotten away from being led by the Holy Spirit who is the quickening and life giving source of our Salvation. He knows what is in the mind of every believer and non believer alike. If we follow his lead how can we ever miss it? What ever happened to they that are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God.? We can't do this thing without Him. We can follow any form and organize any message that we like but without the power of The Holy Ghost to accomplish the will of God in every person who breaves the breathe of life , all we're doing is talking alot of words with no power and promoting our own agendas and not our Lords. For He has chosen to save by the foolishness of preaching. It's not even up to us. The Lord chooses where his word will bring fruits of righteousness knowing that His Word will not come back void. IF WE LET HIM DO IT!!!!You know the question should not be is the traditional sermon out of date, but will we ever open the door while He is knocking and let him in His own church to do what he has been trying to do for centuries and that is to SAVE SAVE SAVE WHOSOEVER BELIEVES ON HIM.

name: Robert Tegenkamp
city: Pensacola
state: Florida
e_mail: dr.tegenkamp@usa.net
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The Gospel preached in jeans or in a straigh jacket will always receive the same response, some will accept and some will reject. The Gospel survived centuries of nuts and it will survive this twenty-first century.