The Unspectacular Sermon

When it's something you do so much of, you notice it when it's this different.

I'm preaching on Sunday here at the Hot Springs Church.  This I am invited to do every time I come.  It's a courtesy I think. Let the guest have the pulpit.  Plus, in conversation, I've been told that there is a perception that Western Christians are just generally better educated in matters of faith, theology and Scripture.  Yes, there are good schools here to help train Christian pastors, but really nothing in comparison to the long traditions of Christian education so well established in Europe and North America.  At least that's why I've been told.

So I prepare a talk to serve these dear people.  But still.  I know it will be quite unspectacular.

At home we preachers strive to inspire and uplift, and, when necessary, correct and rebuke.  We do that in varying ways, depending on our congregation and our personalities.  Most of us though want the sermon to be great.  Not just good, and certainly not boring.  But great.  We want to teach in such a way that people will be inspired to move forward in their spiritual understanding and practice, to be encouraged to take next steps, to change old patterns for new, to experience the Divine in their everyday lives.

There's a process that leads to every sermon preached.  Reading and research and prayer that begins months before.  Word crafting and logical progression of thought that is written and refined and edited.  On rare occasion a sermon happens in a very tumbling-out-of-me kind of way.  But mostly it doesn't.  Maybe it's just me, but every sermon is hard work, that is, if I want to do it in the best way I know to honour the God I hope to point people to.

Here it's very different.  It's like everything I know about preparing a good sermon has to be dismantled, re-examined, rearranged.

First off, I am completely aware that there are people who will be listening who are far better qualified to speak to these people than I.  This is a tad unnerving.  Then, there is a language barrier that requires I use an interpreter.  And in every interpretation there is a loss.  It's just the nature of the game.  Here at Hot Springs where everything is beautifully simple, my interpreter is a very accomplished 12 year old girl named Bell, Suradet and Yupa's daughter, who attends a bilingual school.  We work together well, and she does a good job.  But the truth is she's twelve.  And some of the deeper concepts I might want to communicate are just not going to fly.  I have to choose simple words and short sentences.  Anyone listening in English would most likely be bored.  Likely so are the Thais.  No fancy word crafting here, nothing spectacular to keep your interest.  No little humorous story off to the side to keep things moving, although I might try.   Just the bare bones of the ideas I hope to convey.

Sunday's sermon is ready.  It's about pointing people to Jesus.  It's about John the Baptist's example.  Know Jesus, be humble and speak the good news.  That's it.  There's no alliteration in the title or any English based memory tools in my three points, because that wouldn't translate and I don't know Thai well enough to play with the language in that way.   It's short, because with being translated everything is twice as long.  I do have a power point because pictures don't need as much translation, although I'm still not sure that the images I chose to convey an idea quite match the understandings of my hearers.  So, the sermon is ready.  But it is what it is and no more.

So why?  When I know it's so unspectacular, why bother?

I have said before that every sermon is really just a small lunch of loaves and fishes.  We give all we've got and let Jesus feed the people with it, despite the glaring inadequacies.  I say that about my months-in-advance-prepared, word-crafted, passion-driven sermons at home.  I certainly must say it about the meager offerings I preach when I'm here.

So I guess it's an act of humble obedience.  A process of learning in a very accepting environment with the hope of serving more effectively as I go.  A reminder that I am simply a messenger, and that God's Word has a beauty and a life all on it's own.  And a way to serve in unspectacular ways that are good for my soul.

I know how to pray this in Thai, and I do it before every sermon I preach here.
Oh Father.
I do not speak Thai very well.
Would you please help me speak today.
Holy Spirit, would you be our translator.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen

I have no choice but to let God be spectacular in all the ways He loves to pursue us.  And in so doing feel His empowerment in different, but very honest ways.