So What?!

There are times when my words feel impotent.  As a pastor/preacher I seek the welfare of the people I love and serve.  I want to inspire the best in all of us.  In the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, I hope to offer “comfort to the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable”.  But it doesn't always work out that way.

One day I whined to my colleague:

"So what if my words are articulate and reasonable?!  So what if they are based on tradition and spiritual truth?!  It doesn't make the suffering they go through any easier.  Do my words really make any difference?  Are people even paying attention anymore? So what?!"

She was gracious and patient with my self-indulgence and simply answered, "The 'so what' doesn't belong to you, Pastor.  The 'so what' belongs between them and God."

Once again in my relationship with this wise pastor she stopped me cold.

I was taught long ago by one of the most outstanding preachers of the twentieth century to begin the work of each sermon by writing at the top of my page “So what?”   Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock argued that it wasn’t enough to dazzle people with your eloquence.  Neither was a sermon the opportunity to teach the “unlearned” of one’s vast biblical and theological wisdom; which for me would take about five minutes!

To respect the intelligence of the people with whom we are privileged to share our thoughts and faith, the exercise of a sermon has got to matter.  It has got to address a real hurt or hope in our lives and the world.  Worshippers need to leave the service with a thought, assurance or dream that has made a difference for their hour or so in the sanctuary.  A sermon points to a "so what".  It has to matter.

Now 36 years into this preaching business there are moments when I really wonder if, for all my craft, any of it really matters.  Such doubts are few and far between....thanks be to God.... but they are there.  Which is why, in part, my colleague's response was so profound.

We call the Bible the "inspired Word of God", which it is.  But that inspiration, that spirit available, isn't locked into the ink on the page or papyrus.  Rather it exists in the relationship between the reader/listener and God.

We love to hurl Bible verses at each other as if gauntlets in our debates but in that vast source of literature just about any notion, however misconstrued, can be referenced to a Bible verse.  Even the Devil can quote the Bible (Luke 4:10-11).

Members of White Supremacist groups or the Ku Klux Klan can read the words of scripture to justify their hate.  Well-meaning people can read the same verses and come to the opposite conclusions as to their application; note the church's history with slavery, women's rights or sexual orientation.

The "so what" of the Bible isn't a static fixture of the printed words.  Rather those words lead into a dynamic relationship to which the reader/listener brings all sorts of input and expectations that frames one's experience of those words.  Grace and love can be found there.  And if one is looking for violence and bigotry they can find it there too.  The "so what" doesn't belong to the words alone, nor the history and traditions out of which they have been passed down.  The "so what" of scripture belongs to the relationship between us and God in the here and now.  A wise lay man once reminded me that's why we call it "the living Word of God."

My colleague was suggesting that the same is true of a sermon.  With the best of intentions, preparations and skill, a preacher offers his or her best attempt to plant a seed of illumination and inspiration.  This calling is a privilege indeed and an enormous responsibility.  Yet where the seed may fall, how it will grow and whether it will bear fruit is not up to the preacher.  Rather the "so what" depends on who receives it and how it is received, interacting with the reality of the Spirit to which the sermon points.  Jesus knew that to be true as well (Matthew 13:1-23).

My colleague was reminding me of Who was actually at work in my modest efforts to preach.  And the reminder was a "so what" I needed to hear.  Indeed!