Christocentric. At the Seminary, that is how we say sermons should be written, Christ-centered, but now that I’m in the reflective mode of retirement, I’m not sure that is how we preachers in fact preach, and I definitely include myself. It seems to me… I intentionally wrote that because I don’t have a statistical study on sermons… It seems to me that what we think are Christocentric sermons are actually sermons on Christian living.
Many years ago, I attended the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville. It was at the Gaylord Hotel, a massive, I should have put that in capitals, hotel complex. That year the NRB was going to honor Dr. Oswald Hoffmann, the beloved Speaker of The Lutheran Hour. Because the Gaylord is a sprawling facility, I was asked to guide Dr. and Mrs. Hoffmann to the banquet hall. Making the long walk, he asked me how it was going. “Sir, I’ve noticed that they talk a lot about the Lord’s work, but I don’t hear them talking about the Lord.” “Oh, is that so,” and he said nothing more. I assumed he was thinking, “dumb, Dale.” Nope. After Dr. Hoffmann received his honor, he spoke, and for 10 minutes or so, he talked about Jesus Christ, Jesus’ person and what Jesus did and does. His speaking about Jesus had the audience in the palm of his hand. That last sentence is a rhetorical analysis, but pastorally it is better to say he took us off ourselves and showed us Jesus.
Yesterday I preached in Lansing, Michigan, but I struggled preparing the sermon. The text was Luke 5:1-11, where Jesus tells Peter, “From now on you will be catching men.” That’s the ESV. The Contemporary English Version is more gender sensitive, and still a proper translation of the Greek, “From now on you will bring in people instead of fish.” The expected presentation of the text is to speak about evangelism, which is preaching about one aspect of Christian living in the life of the church. To put that off center and speak about Jesus, what He did in that historical incident and what He, not me, not you, not your evangelism program, not the church… what Jesus is doing today is far more challenging. For now, I’ll leave it at that. We Lutherans may not be as Christ-centered as we imagine.
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