Preparing a Sermon is like deep sea diving. You have all of your gear prepared, checked, and put on by your professors and mentors. You take the plunge into the deepest, most interesting texts that you believe carry the most meaning relevant to the people you are preparing to speak to. You dive into word studies, original languages, dictionaries and commentaries. You turn over every rock, even spaces between the rocks, examining and studying to discover every coral of meaning. Then, as you begin to come back up, your writing and editing, your practice and recording to make sure you get every word, every pause just right, you begin to feel more confident that this is the Word of the Lord and people are going to be impacted in an insightful and meaningful way. People will be moved beyond words and march up the aisle, begging to know more about the Good News. Just ahead of you, you see the sunlight gleaming off the the surface and you know this message will rock the house.
Only to have some person in the back shake your hand on their way out and say, “Better luck next week preacher!”
Meritt Musings 