The Ones Not Remembered

I grew up in the church.  Attending church was never an option.  It was simply what we did every Sunday.  Much to my dismay as a teenager, not even a vacation provided an exemption from attending worship in some church we saw along the road at 11:00 am on Sunday morning.  Shortly after I got out from under the thumb of my parents, I signed up to attend worship every Sunday for the rest of my life.  I do not know how many sermons I have either heard, or preached, but I am sure it would total up to be more than just a few.   

Despite the huge number of sermons I have either heard or preached, I remember only a few.  If the ones I heard and remembered were printed in a book, it would be a thin book and if I did the same with the sermons I remember preaching, there would not be enough for even a thin book.  Yet, what I know is that I am a product of all those sermons, hours of worship, Sunday School lessons, and youth moments.  I can remember some moments when the light bulb seem to come on showing me the way forward, but I think most of what influenced me came through a process of spiritual osmosis.  In other words, some of what I was trying not to hear soaked in anyway and worked to lead me toward Jesus and the road of discipleship.  

Perhaps, that is all we preachers can hope will happen with our many sermons.  While there are always a few exceptional sermons that are keepers, so many of what we preach are more of the soaker variety.  A Biblical way of speaking about it would cause us to raise the image of someone sowing seed.  Preachers sow seed and most of the time never see what happens with the seed that is planted.  Occasionally, we are present for the moment when someone sees the light of God's love and responds to it, but even then it is likely to be the result of a seed planted by some preacher who labored faithfully long years ago.  The good thing to think about as a retired preacher is that some of those sermons which are forgotten and remembered by no one still may be producing some fruit in a seeking heart.