Citizen Columns
Question
Sermons are for sale on the Internet. Is it wrong to use them?
Answer
The Internet is just another form of publishing, and published sermons have been around for a long time. The Bible itself includes many sermons that have been used repeatedly by preachers in every generation (the "Sermon on the Mount" for example, Matt 5:1-7:27). St. John Chrysostom's resurrection sermon from around 400 AD is preached every Easter night in the Orthodox churches.
But a sermon is normally meant to bring together a biblical text with a new infusion of the Spirit tailored for these specific people, in this place, at this time. Words from the past might on occasion serve well, but not as a regular substitute for words spoken from the heart today.
So why would someone preach an Internet sermon? Is it because they are afraid to use their own words? Afraid they'll get it wrong, or that people will think they're ignorant? Fear is the great enemy here.
"You have to risk it," as I was once told by a saintly bishop. Solomon asked God to give him a "hearing heart" (1 Kings 3:9). If you listen for what stirs you, then the message will stir others as well. Having everything in order, well written out and logically persuasive may make you feel safer, but it may undermine God's freedom to act. No one understood this better than St. Paul.
"I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God" (1 Cor 2:1-5).
Father John Jillions
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