In his weekly press conference this week, Detroit Lions head coach Rod Marinelli said:
I’ve repeatedly talked to them about, when we come in on Wednesday, it’s preparation. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we prepare and then the test on Sunday is easy. The test should be just fun if you’ve prepared. The worst thing is to not prepare. Then the test is not good, because you don’t know the answers. When you don’t know the answers, you don’t play well. So I keep working to try to sell them the preparation, every single day. Then we can go out and have a ball, let our talent go.
This is how I feel about Sundays, too, but my feelings relate to church, not football. When I have a good week preparing to preach, the Sunday that follows is almost always the most enjoyable day of the week. I find that delivering a sermon is the best, most enjoyable part of the process. I enjoy preparation, too, but that’s the part that feels like work. Preparation feels like work; delivery feels like fun.
When you’re preparing to preach, nobody sees it. Nobody knows how much time you spent reading your text, thinking about its meaning, asking interpretive questions of the text and researching their answers, praying for yourself and your people to receive and obey the truth, and working on how that truth applies here where we live. Nobody knows how much time you spent preparing; they only know if the sermon was “good.”
Or, not so good.
The things that make a sermon good—that it truthfully explains the message of scripture, is clear about how that scripture speaks to life as we live it, and is interesting—these are all completely decided in the study, not on the stage. When I wake up on Sunday morning and have the answers to these questions, then I can relax and enjoy Sunday because usually the sermon delivers itself.
If I don’t have the answers, then I have no right to feel good about anything. I haven’t done my job and therefore I deserve to be exposed.
Sure, sometimes you’re well prepared but things go bad—you feel ill, your voice goes hoarse, there is some technical problem, or interruption from the congregation—but those are rare. Usually the preacher’s problems in preaching are self-inflicted. At least mine are. A well-prepared preacher is the number one ingredient necessary for a good Sunday sermon.
In my first pastorate out of seminary, Sundays were hard. I did the same things to prepare that I do today, but I had not learned to trust God to use that preparation on Sunday morning. Therefore I was anxious, irritable, fearful, and uncaring. These words are not ones that describe the fruit of the Spirit, are they?
At some point, and I don’t know when this was, I learned a lesson similar to the one coach Marinelli preached to the media this week. Preparation is power. Have faith in it.
My study is the place where God speaks to me through the text of scripture. When I faithfully do the things associated with listening to his voice in the Bible, he faithfully prepares me to speak to his people. Then, unless I welcome sin into my life or God allows some test of faith to interrupt our worship, Sundays are a foregone conclusion. I expect God’s spirit to work through me, so I just try to stay out of the way.
I can honestly say now that Sundays are my favorite day of the week. I’m always tired at the end, but there is joy throughout the day. I get to spend time with my spiritual family. We put aside all our stuff and just focus on the only one that really matters—the Lord God who communicated to us in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and his word, the Bible. This makes Sunday my most fun day.
I’ll see you then.
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