(Someone forgot to close the shade that morning)
Truth Be Told!
I always find it awkward when someone comes up to me after worship to tell me, ” Your sermon was so good.” Early in my vocation as a pastor, I experienced that profound moment when I learned that sermons don’t actually come from me. Sure, I put in the time praying, planning, and prepping, but when it comes to that event, it is in 42’s hands; I am just the delivery guy doing the job I am called to do. So I respond by pointing to the sky and saying, “thank you.”
I tried to explain what happens to me when I preach, but I didn’t have the words; that all changed a little over a week ago. During my devotional reading, I came across the following quote from Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980. Digest these words:
“The Christian preacher has a boundary set for him. When he enters the pulpit, he is not an entirely free man. There is a very real sense in which it may be said of him that the Almighty has set him in his bounds that he shall not pass. He is not at liberty to invent or choose his message. It has been committed to him, and it is for him to declare, expound, and commend it to his hearers… It is a great thing to come under the magnificent tyranny of the Gospel because the Gospel sets us our bounds, beyond which we may not go.”
https://johnstott.org/work/the-paradoxes-of-preaching/
I love the phrase from that last sentence, “the magnificent tyranny of the Gospel…” Every week, I submit to that tyranny, and it is as if I am hearing the words of that sermon for the very first time. Truth be told, it is as if the True Author has unbound me.
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