I’ll never forget my very last seminary class on Preaching. That final class was supposed to be a relaxed and relaxing, collegial, festive time to review and celebrate with our Preaching professor all we had learned that final semester.
We were not anxious at all — we had even left our Bibles at home. Imagine then our surprise when our professor announced that there would be a final exam, right there, right away!
“How can we have a final exam in preaching, let alone one that was not planned and announced? This is unfair!” we told ourselves.
Throughout that final semester there had been many lectures on sermon preparation and style, but mostly it had been a course of practice and critique. But our professor, who was himself a splendid and engaging preacher, meant business.
So, he pointed to a corner shelf with a good number of “emergency” Bibles and said – “Please help yourself.” He went on, “You have three hours. There is just one question, and it has three parts. Here it is: You have one last sermon to preach in your ministry. It’s your last best shot. Choose your text and theme, explain why you have chosen them, and give a full, detailed outline for the development of that sermon.”
That morning and that question have left lasting marks upon my life and my ministry even though I can’t recall much of such a traumatic incident.
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Friends, on this last Sunday of the year – also the very first Sunday after Christmas — let us pretend that we are about to graduate from seminary and from preaching. If there were one last sermon to preach, one last time to tell the story, what would you choose? How would you preach it?
I’ll tell you what I would do after 40-plus years in ministry.
I would just ignore that awesome professor! Why should I write the story if I can sing it? And sing it so well, as I sing it with my own brothers and sisters here!
With so much thanksgiving in our hearts for yet another blessed year of mission, ministry, fellowship, and witnessing in Christ, let us now join Mary, and the angels, and the shepherds as we sing from the heart, and together, the story of Jesus and his love.