I’ve unloaded some lousy sermons in 53 years of preaching, and this morning I’m thinking of sermons where I hammered the Law at the people. “You’re sinners,” on and on. “You’re the ones who put Jesus on the cross,” on and on. After those 2x4 sermons, some people would greet me on their way out of church and say, “Thank you. We need more Law.” Yes, we are sinners and yes, Jesus died because of my sins, but I never noticed that unloading all the bullets of the Law changed anything.
Yesterday was a downer for students in my Seminary class. I handed back their sermon manuscripts with my notes, lots and lots of notes. For about ten minutes I let them read my critique, their heads were down, no one was smiling. Back in group discussion, I told them I kept waking up the night before trying to figure out what it was about the sermons that bothered me. In the middle of the night, it came to me… Or maybe God gave it to me. I do believe the Spirit enlightens us in the darkness of night. Their sermons were too removed from the real struggles we believers have.
We who regularly go to church know that we are sinners, and that God gave His Son to pay the price for our sins. Therefore, we are forgiven. As eternally saving as that is, it doesn’t do much to help me understand my struggles on this side of heaven. Life can beat us up, which is the Law at work. When the preacher brings the Law down to help us understand spiritually our daily struggles, our feelings of anger, grief, disappointment, love, money, ego, and the like, then Law is making the goodness of God in the Gospel wonderfully welcome, relevant here-and-now as well as eternally. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).
When I hear how the church is in decline, I keep thinking we just might be on the cusp of a great revival. If we are, one of the keys will be us preachers using the Law to help you faithful, heaven bound parishioners understand life as it is now on this side of bliss. Only the Gospel changes us. The Law teaches us every day how much we need Jesus.
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