Susan Cartmell: A Lot Rides on the Sermon -- A Case for UnCommon Preaching
Widespread use of the lectionary among Mainline Protestants grew out of the ecumenical movement in the mid-twentieth century, largely I would argue, as a response to two world wars. Establishing connections between Christians, the lectionary invited people from various theological backgrounds and geographic locations to take this pilgrimage of faith together by offering a common method to study and contemplate scripture every week.
I was ordained in the 1980's at a time when everyone was trained to use the New Revised Common Lectionary. For almost two decades I used the lectionary exclusively. It offered structure and a sense of momentum as I made my way through the liturgical seasons. The lectionary readings also gave meaning and purpose to the Christian calendar as it invited me to lead my parishioners to take a journey of faith. Not only did the lectionary connect us to the story of Jesus's life and faith, it also served to connect us to other believers.
But I also noticed something else about the lectionary. Over the years I realized that in spite of my efforts to explain the scripture lessons, many of my listeners remained largely Biblically illiterate. There was something about the way that the lectionary presented the stories that added a layer of confusion. Even on my good days, I found it daunting to explain the logic behind the lectionary.
When I did take the time to try to explain the liturgical seasons and the reasons for choosing the weekly readings all but a pious few glazed over or squinted at me, their faces more eloquent than their words could ever have been. One way or another, they told me that they could not follow. It became clear to me that few of my people had time or the interest to invest in learning about the lectionary's mindset or mastering its logic. Over time I began to question whether there was another way to preach.
I also recognized that people wanted to know about faith. My congregation was full of busy people, many of whom travelled regularly. But they also put a priority on worship, and dedicated an hour of increasingly precious time to worship. Their commitment to their own spiritual growth made the stakes even higher for me. It convinced me that my sermon had the potential to be an important way to offer instruction, inspiration, and faith's perspective on life.
Then I took a trip to Mars Hill, a mega-church founded by Rob Bell, and nothing was quite the same after that. Mars Hill occupied an abandoned shopping mall in the suburbs of Grand Rapids Michigan. In those days the church was not particularly well-marked but it seemed to attract people by groundswell because all the cars around us were heading to the same place that Sunday morning in June 2009, and there were plenty of them.
When we entered the building we soon discovered that the road signs were the only thing left to chance in the whole operation. We met warm greeters, passed state-of-the-art information tables and found seats in a sanctuary which was spacious and cozy at once. As I introduced myself to the family to my left they told me they had been coming steadily for seven years. So I asked them what they liked about it. The father replied, "In the beginning we came for our children and we were pleasantly surprised to see how much our teenagers liked it. But now, I come for myself. I never felt like I understood the Bible at other churches. When I listen to Rob Bell's sermons the Bible finally makes sense."
On the strength of that recommendation I settled back to listen to the preacher. His sermon was the centerfold of the service and that week Bell preached the last in a series on the theme of forgiveness. I was immediately impressed by the way he approached this important topic. In my own experience, my sermons on forgiveness were so popular that I had decided long ago to address this topic, as often as I could, at least once or twice a year.
But here at Mars Hill I discovered that Rob Bell had been preaching a whole series on the subject, and examined the various aspects of forgiveness for four Sundays in a row. As I listened to him preach I was struck by the similarities in his sermon and my annual messages on the topic of forgiveness. But I also realized that by preaching a series of connected sermon so n this familiar topic Bell was able to go into much greater depth. You can only go so deep with one sermon. For example, I noticed that Rob Bell ended his sermon with a story about the Amish community that forgave a schoolhouse shooter. It is a remarkable modern day example of stunning forgiveness after a brutal massacre in an elementary school. As Bell spoke I watched him hold 3000 listeners breathless. I had used the same illustration several months before but I was a little disappointed in the response in my church, and now I understood why people had trouble listening that day. The story was so dramatic, that it seemed almost heavy-handed in my sanctuary. Bell's listeners had time to let the lessons of forgiveness simmer on the back burners of their minds before they could appreciate such a dramatic example of contemporary grace. His series was so much more effective because he introduced the topic, developed it slowly, explored its lessons and gave his audience time to process their own personal experiences and reactions.
On the way home I reconsidered pretty much everything I thought I knew about preaching. I recalled that Rick Warren used topical sermon series effectively. I remembered some Unitarian Universalists who advocated themed preaching in an effort to teach new worshippers about UU principles. At both ends of the theological spectrum churches were experimenting with other ways to preach.
That fall I launched an experiment in theme preaching. It changed everything about how I led worship. Over the next six years I studied theme preaching, experimented with various topics, solicited suggestions for themes from the congregation, and designed polls to get sermon feedback. In the process I designed an alternative system of preaching, with a three-year cycle of themes and sets of Bible passages to accompany each topic. Like all experiments, some sermon themes worked better than others. The proof that this was worth pursuing came from the people in the pews. One deacon admitted, "You know I don't think I really understood the Bible stories until we started theme preaching. This helps a lot". Another person said, "Every month I look forward to the new theme, and when we arrive at the end of the month I wish the topic would continue. Until now, it never occurred to me to want February to be longer."
Lectionary preaching assumes that parishioners worship weekly, which is less and less the norm in mainline Protestant churches today. Designed in the 1960's and 1970's, an era of strong denominational allegiance, the Common Lectionary offered a way to connect Christians across denominations through common scripture readings and a collective approach to the Christian calendar.
Today I would argue, ecumenism is no longer our challenge. Our challenge is reaching people and teaching them about the faith. But it is also striving to create church patterns and processes which are easily understood by all of our people - those accustomed to worship as well as those new to faith. More and more people expect their appliances and computers to be intuitive. They also expect all aspects of life, including worship, to be intuitive too.
As we strive to make worship relevant and inviting to a wide contemporary audience the question is whether the lectionary is a helpful way to use scripture to teach the stories of our faith. The more I have thought about it the more I have come to realize that an awful lot rides on the sermon each week, and the lectionary is not serving me as well as I once thought it was.
Susan Cartmell's new book Un Common Preaching: An Alternative to the Lectionary was published by Wipf and Stock in July 2015.
If you want to learn more about how to order the book check out the website UnCommonPreacher.com