You can know that people are going through the notions of a religious form when they listen to a sermon but do not expect the sermon to challenge them to any action; when all they expect is a sermon that is informative - and if entertaining, it’s a bonus - but does not propel one to re-examine his worldview and underlying motives for certain behaviour patterns he exhibits; when all people want is a sermon to bring them just a little bit farther in their journey but not require a reconfiguration of their lives.

Perhaps the thought of having to reconfigure our lives and being told that we’ve not really been living the Christian life as it was meant to be are rather repulsive messages to receive. Even if we know this to be true, it still upsets us when the implications of such sermons are driven home.

Of course, it’s true that some preachers are, by way of their personalities, plainly brash and naturally harsh even when the occasion doesn’t call for it. Such preachers need to be told that the point of the issue has been taken well, but that the medium was inappropriately matched with the message. If people are “offended” by a sermon, it has to be the essence of the message itself which has caused the offence, not the personality of the preacher.

It really does take guts for a preacher to verbally identify the things in life that are but shouldn’t be, and the things in life that aren’t but should be. And half the time, as he speaks these messages, the messages judge him too. I remember a wise guide once telling me and my bunch of friends (all newly trained homileticians) some years ago, “I find that if you try to practise what you preach, you’ll be in trouble, because you’re bound to fail. I make it a point to preach what I’m already practising.” In other words, don’t compel people to do things you’re not yourself willing to do, and don’t obligate people to live the way you’re not already living. These are some guidelines a young preacher would do well to observe.

But never lose sight of the purpose of a sermon. I was told by my seminary lecturer from the first day of my studies in the seminary: “The purpose of your sermon must be to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed. Your sermon must obligate people to respond or react, to either love or hate what they hear, and to respond in accordance with that which they love or hate.” And the lecturer went on to say, “Otherwise, don’t bother to preach.”