Warmed Over Grits

A late afternoon phone call gave me an invitation to preach tomorrow at a nearby church.  I did what most preachers do at such moments.  I went to what we call the barrel for an old sermon.  But, old sermons are simply old sermons.  No matter how excited I tried to get over one and then another, it still felt like warmed over grits.  If it seemed that way to me, there is no telling what the people in the pew would be saying as they left tomorrow.  

So, the only option was to sit down at the desk, take a few minutes to ask for the Lord to guide my thoughts, and jump into a discipline which shows evidence of a lot of rust.  One thing any preacher needs to feel whenever it is time for preaching is some nervous excitement.  Old sermons can be handy to have laying around, but they are not usually something which stirs the preacher or the congregation.  I must confess to not spending as much time on the sermon for tomorrow as my preaching professor in seminary said was necessary, but it is fresh.  It is new.  It is something for which I have prayed.  And, when 11 AM comes in the morning, I will do my best to get it preached.  Preaching is an important part of the worship service.  

There are places I have been in these retirement years which make me think that some preachers of today see it as more of an appendage to worship than one of the principal parts of it.  Maybe I have valued it too much over the years as I preached from the perspective that preaching is proclaiming the Word of the Lord for the people who are gathered.  I never regarded it as a time  for personal opinions, but a time for saying, "Thus saith the Lord."  Preaching never seemed to be a time for being "Wishy washy," but a time for speaking the Word of God with authoritiy.  I pray the moment of preaching tomorrow still meets that personal criteria.