I preached my first sermon on Palm Sunday, 40 years ago. I’ll never forget that sunny day in First Presbyterian Church, Stellarton, N.S. How could I forget that sermon? Like most first-time preachers I believed I had to say everything I thought could be said about the topic. I preached the whole gospel. I berated the congregation for not being Christian enough. Adolescent rages and religion don’t mix well. Especially in the pulpit.
I’ve been preaching for 40 years, counting the last 15 when I’ve been teaching preaching. For six years I’ve been teaching full time and preaching occasionally. I’ve fought the occasional preacher’s need to try to say everything there is to say about a text, to preach the whole gospel at once. I tell students they don’t have to find the last word, just the best word they can come up with for a place and a time. They should remember they’re not the first, nor will they be the last preacher to take a crack at a text or a topic. And in their preaching lives they’ll have many opportunities to do the best they can. Teachers don’t always take their own advice.
During the spring of this year I preached eight weeks in a row. I highly recommend a stretch like that for everyone who teaches in a school for ministry. I preached in Presbyterian churches and on campus. Mostly I preached to Baptists. All receptive, eager people who leaned into the Word with me. Especially those Baptists! I recovered my first love for the gospel. My love of words and the Word. I had almost forgotten the incredible privilege of standing in front of a congregation of any size and speaking to, for, and with them.
Moving from pulpit to pulpit made me bold, too. So, I thought, why not take a chance? On one of those Sundays I preached for a call! The experience was electric. Spirit-charged. Later this fall I’ll leave the best job I’ve had so far in my preaching-teaching life and take on a new challenge with Glenview Presbyterian Church in Toronto. I’ll get to practice and preach what I teach.
It will be tough to leave my Nova Scotia home and my second home at Atlantic School of Theology. I’ll miss the churches where I’ve been welcomed to preach occasionally and have heard such great preaching, especially First Baptist and St. John’s United. I’ve learned a lot from the people who have preached and been pastors to me in Halifax. I’ll have new opportunities to put what they’ve taught me to work in Toronto.
I know a lot of lay preachers read this column. A few ordained do, too. Not all Presbyterians. I’m sorry I don’t have anything about a lectionary text for you this month. I promise to get back to business in October. This month I want to ask you something. Do you realize how lucky, how blessed you are? For a Sunday at a time, or months and months of Sundays, congregations of God’s people trust that you will have a word for them. They wait for you to speak words that will break God’s Word open. Accept and treasure the gift.
In just one year my preaching life has taken me to a conference in India, a United Church presbytery in Yellowknife, and an historic Methodist pulpit in Bermuda. I’ve been in pulpits across Canada, but always as a guest. I look forward to preaching every Sunday with some apprehension. But, good sermon or bad, I’ll be home.
This preaching life you and I are called to isn’t easy, but it’s the best life we can live. I hope you know that.
I hope you’re at home in the pulpit.
