“Some people will listen but not understand; look but not
really see." ~ Matthew 13:14
Time flowed like molasses at the
North Pole. Adam snuck a casual peak at
his cell for the umpteenth time. A minute had
passed since he last checked an hour ago, or so it seemed. He was witnessing
an excrutiatingly slow death in the pulpit.
After a lively worship
service, the preacher read Isaiah 6:1-8.
He spent about five minutes setting the scene and explaining background
about King Uzziah. Then he made three
points.
First, Isaiah saw God in the
temple. Second, Isaiah heard God in the
temple. And third, (can you guess it?)
Isaiah obeyed God in the temple.
Judging by the restlessness and yawns all around him, Adam
was not alone in being able to predict each step before the preacher got to it.
They reached the end long before the
preacher did.
The problem wasn’t that the Minister had been short on
preparation, or that he was insincere. It
was that he was utterly, bone-crushingly predictable.
Adam entered Fellowship Hall literally ‘thanking God’ that
this agonizingly, painful ordeal finally ended.
He found his usual group of friends and sat down for the usual post
worship service jibber-jabber. He wasted
little time voicing his annoyance.
“I’ve come here for nearly a dozen years,” he began. “And in that time I’ve heard something like 600
sermons, but for the life of me, I can’t remember a more boring one. I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors
are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.”
Adam was on a roll; he wasn’t about to stop until others
were complaining right along with him. Charlie,
a kindly older gentleman, spoke first.
“I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000
meals. There were some I didn’t really
like. But I know this … they all
nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If she hadn’t fed me those meals, I’d be dead
today.”
“Likewise,” the wise elder continued. “If I’d not come to church for nourishment,
I’d be spiritually dead today!’
We live in a culture that finds everything boring
eventually. Attention spans are shorter.
We skim, multi-task, and click. We like,
we snap, we tweet, and move on to something else.
But the Gospel is timeless, not entertaining. It is true, not trendy. It has depth, not just overnight ratings. It is God’s word to all of us, told in the
story of Jesus.
While sermons will always be boring to someone, Jesus warns
us to be careful how we listen. Perhaps
part of the problem is our readiness to hear the Word, and forgetting that it
proclaims a divine message.
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer, may the words from
Your mouth and the meditations of Your hear, touch my heart and inspire my
spirit. Through faith, help me see the
invisible, hear the inaudible. And believe the incredible! Amen
