Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash
Preachers find themselves in a conundrum: some listeners, expressive in their opinions, perceive sermon messages that address the ills of our current culture—like racism, climate change, or wearing masks—as subjects unbecoming to the pulpit.
Thus preachers face a choice: avoid preaching God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, particularly as it relates to our present struggles, or learn how to preach into our current context in a way that honors God, preacher, and listener.
I want to offer an example of a recent sermon that effectively navigates this challenge, preached by the Most Reverend Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, to the Episcopal House of Bishops on September 21st, 2020.
Even though this sermon was crafted for his fellow bishops, his audience is probably as diverse in their worldview as your congregation is in theirs. Still, Bishop Curry takes on the difficult topic of preaching sermons that point to our divisions, the election, and racism.
I raise this sermon as an example because it demonstrates a genuine respect for the listeners (and in this case, the members they serve), recognizing their diversity of opinion.
The sermon never presumes to tell the listeners what they should do.
Rather, this sermon focuses on Jesus in Scripture and the context of Jesus’s day and ours.
Here are some things Bishop Curry does within his sermon:
He presents Scripture and relates it to historical and current context.
He emphasizes that preaching partisan neutrality that is not the same as preaching moral neutrality.
He is unequivocal in his convictions and how he got there.
He puts the sermon within the wider context of his denomination to underscore he is not standing apart from the wisdom of his community.
He risks the possibility that some members of the Episcopal Church would disagree with his interpretation and leave the church in protest, while emphasizing all are welcome at the table.
Using Backstory Preaching’s definition of an effective sermon—“a clear message of Good News, authentic to the preacher, relevant to the listener, holding attention, and inviting transformation”—I want to share how Curry’s sermon effectively offers a challenging message in a way that can be heard.
Clear Message of Good News
Curry’s message is singular and clear: the divisions we face are dangerous but can be overcome when we sit together at Jesus’s welcoming table.
Authentic to the Preacher
Even though this sermon was preached from a home office, the preacher’s strong tone of voice and facial expressions reach through the screen to express:
he has deep concerns for our nation
he loves and respects all as children of God
he believes people can and must exercise their conscience
his belief that the vote is one of our most fundamental expressions of human dignity
his conviction that Jesus Christ is the way through our current discord.
He expresses his passion and conviction without browbeating.
Relevant to the Listener
In the first sentences, Curry names our common concerns within the context in which we vote this November, asking the salient questions: “What is the role of the church in the context of an election being held in a time such as this? What is our role as individual followers of Jesus Christ committed to his way of love in such a time as this?” (00:42)
He identifies the stakes, asking whether the Church is going to be an institution “that exists for its own sake” or one that follows Jesus “for the sake of the world” (3:08).
And he argues that the violence that affects us all is not the way forward, citing the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the ambush of the two deputy sheriffs in Compton, California (16:25).
Holding the Listeners’ Attention
One technique he uses to hold attention is presenting a familiar idea in a new way. Quoting another preacher, he shakes up a cliché with a new twist, renewing our attention to its original meaning so that, ideally, this sermon comes to mind whenever the phrase is heard in the future.
Curry quotes Bishop Scott Hyashi, who suggested “WWJD: What Would Jesus Do” is helpful, but rather than speculate, we can look to Scripture to learn what Jesus did do. (1:55)
In addition, this sermon holds the listeners’ attention by naming the tensions inherent to our divisions, connecting the sometimes abstract Scriptural admonitions to our current context. For example:
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who despitefully use you, my sisters, my brothers, my siblings. That is the precedent for what it means to follow in the way of Jesus in the first century or the 21st century” (8:32).
An election is “a discernment of moral values and their relationship to public policy. Voting is an act of moral agency. It is an act of moral discernment and decision. It is how a community or a nation decides how the moral values that it holds and shares shape public policy and the lives of people the children of God. It is salutary to remember that partisan neutrality does not mean moral neutrality” (10:46).
Citing St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, the sermon identifies how we are to live as citizens of two lands, one civil and the other religious: “‘You have to pay taxes to whom taxes to do and honor to whom honor is due,’” and then he says, “‘but owe no one anything except to love one another for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.’”
Furthermore, the preacher repeats the phrase “partisan neutrality is not moral neutrality” as a thread throughout the sermon, emphasizing a major point.
Inviting Transformation
Effective sermons show us what’s possible when we live the way of Christ. They paint a picture of “the Promised Land” when we accept the invitation of the sermon.
Curry shows us that reconciliation is actually possible, right now, with the story of John McGraw. McGraw physically assaulted Rakeem Jones at a political rally, faced assault charges and pled no contest. Curry shares: “Afterward the two men actually faced each other and shook hands. Mcgraw said, and I quote, ‘If I met you in the street and the same thing occurred I would have said go home, one of us will get hurt…But we are caught up in a political mess today you and me and we've got to heal our country.’” (22:23)
He then transitions to reciting the lyrics of the old spiritual sung by slaves in antebellum times: “I’m gonna come to the welcoming table.” This conclusion shows us how we can live Jesus’s way of unselfish, sacrificial love by agreeing to make room for all, friends and enemies alike, at the welcoming table.
Final Thoughts
It isn’t easy to preach overtly about the political climate we’re in. But we can do so effectively when we follow the example of other preachers, like Rev’d Curry.
From him, we learn:
to name the context and conflict in which we’re living
to rely on Scripture and connect Scripture’s context to our own
to clarify the stakes of the message
to paint a vision of what’s possible in Christ
to let the listener discern what expression of that vision the Spirit is calling them to