I am writing this on the day after the FIFA World Cup Final. It was a rather dull event, especially after the thrilling ten goal third place match on Saturday between France and England.
Before that game all the talk in England had been about the choices made by the England manager Thomas Tuchel in the semi-final against Argentina. Pundits complained that the choice to make overwhelmingly defensive selections in substitutions against Argentina cost England the match.
“Tough choices” are also something that politicians speak about when they are about to announce complicated policy decisions.
This morning one of those monumental choices was the formal resignation of Sir Keir Starmer as the UK’s Prime Minister. Later today Andy Burnham will be become our new Prime Minister. The reasoning behind this move is the claim that Burnham will make better choices in government and present a more popular face to the British public.
We cannot be sure that England would have defeated Argentina with different tactical choices and it remains to be seen if Andy Burnham will fare any better than Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.
I have been thinking about the choices that preachers must make week by week in their sermons.
1. There are the major choices about what to preach. At certain points in the year choices need to be made about biblical books, passages or themes that will form the subject matter of the preaching for the next season. For a few years I followed the pattern adopted by Tim Keller of thinking of my preaching in three terms:
Summer to Christmas: I would concentrate on God the Father, preaching the character of God from biblical books like, Genesis, Job, Psalms, and Isaiah. Sometimes the emphasis on the Bible being all about Jesus can make us forget that God is a Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Christmas to Easter: I would concentrate on Jesus, preaching on sections of the Gospels. I love these four portraits of Jesus that help us to see this amazing life, death and resurrection from multiple angles. People are different and the different Gospels speaks to various people in subtly different ways.
Easter to the Summer: I would concentrate on the Holy Spirit, preaching on Acts or the New Testament letters. This gives an opportunity to address issues like the role of the Holy Spirit in creation, conversion, spiritual formation and discipleship, and the maturing of the church.
2. There are medium term choices. It is important to divide up biblical passages so that they do not become too unwieldy for one sermon. Overly long biblical passages can mean that preachers concentrate on coverage rather than depth.
3. There are micro choices. In each sermon there is the need to decide what to focus on and what to pass over. Preachers cannot say everything about everything every time they preach. One question I often ask when preaching is ‘How does this congregation need to hear this passage today?’ Preaching is not merely imparting information it is connecting people to the God who speaks, stoops and saves in a way that brings transformation.
England fans have been talking about football coming home! Well, that did not happen, but preachers can bring home the message to their hearers by wise choices in their preaching.
Photo by Chaos Soccer Gear on Unsplash