bad sermons ...

 This is a repost from a blog: http://letitstet.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/bad-sermons/

It is written by a lay person who is fed up with preachers trying to be something other than the Lord called them to be in the hopes that they'll get done what they Lord called them to do.  Enjoy!

There have been a lot of bad sermons in the world.
Sermons about the Packers’ score, unicorns, global warming, lands of make-believe, funny stories that really aren’t funny at all, and a lot of other topics that leave parishioners willing Jesus to come back before the sermon is over just to make the insanity stop.I’m not a pastor. I don’t know how hard it is to write ten minutes of theological genius each Sunday. I don’t know the sheep in the pew and what they need to hear.
But here is what I do know: pastors have, at best, one hour for church and ten minutes to pack all the Gospely goodness they can into a sermon.
They have ten minutes to cut those of us listening down with Law, apply the sweet salve of the Gospel, and to give us Jesus . . . again and again and again.
This other stuff is all superfluous. It’s filler. It’s what one of my favorite professors said:
This fill-in-the-blank bit is the in thing. (1) It is too late. We all know about it already. (2) It is a Gospel substitute. (3) The world is perishing.
And as if that isn’t reason enough, and although I may not be a pastor, I do know that taking up five minutes of those precious ten describing the latest YouTube video (which I already saw, thanks), recounting the newest movie (which I wouldn’t be caught dead seeing), telling us your kids’ soccer score (which I don’t care about), or attempting to create a bad analogy (which falls apart horribly moments later) is unnecessary and unhelpful.
And let’s be honest: it’s also a waste of time. If I want to watch YouTube videos, I’ll stay home in my office. If I want to see a movie, I’ll go to the theater. If I want to watch a soccer game, I’ll go to one. If I want to hear bad analogies, I’ll argue with someone.
But if it’s Jesus I need, and it is, I’ll go to church. And I’m counting on the pastor there to deliver the goods, the goods that the Internet, the theater, sports, and the world can’t.
I’m not a pastor. I don’t know anything about sermons.
But I am a Lutheran, and I do know this: It ain’t rocket science, and it’s not an atomic secret.
So spare me the Packers’ score, unicorns, global warming, lands of make-believe, and funny stories that really aren’t funny at all, and give me the one thing needful: Just give me Jesus.