Noon on Sunday

Preachers who moan and groan about not having enough time to preach during the Sunday worship service which as we all know is supposed to last no longer than a hour could always preach shorter sermons.  When I first started preaching back in the early '70s, a ten minute sermon seemed like forever to this preacher.  I was always amazed when I finished, looked at my watch, and saw that only ten minutes had passed.  Of course, I never got any complaints from the folks who were listening.  I imagine listening to a green preacher fresh out of seminary for ten minutes was more than enough punishment for any sins!  

Of course, over the years I managed to become more verbose.  And like most preachers,  I often fought to get through before people started shaking their watches when the noon hour arrived.  Finally, I simply laid all that hurrying and worrying to rest.  I came to a place of preparing a sermon and preaching it even it went beyond the time most folks thought I should be pronouncing the benediction.  I always told people not to worry about after twelve o'clock preaching because it was free.  No charge.  I am not sure it made anyone feel any better about sitting in the pew an extra ten minutes, but such was the way it worked for this preacher.  

Part of the problem with a sermon that goes past twelve noon is not that the sermon is too long, but in the fact that too much time gets spent on announcements, or the meeting and greeting part of the service.  When a preacher spends ten minutes on the announcement, getting finished before twelve is not likely to happen unless, of course, the preacher is preaching those ten minute sermons.  As the years went along, I came to a place of starting ten minutes before the appointed hour to get in all the advertising pieces so that the hour which began at eleven o'clock was only about worship which included all the preaching, and maybe more, than most folks wanted on a Sunday.