Ep. 26 - The Ethics of Listening to a Sermon
Episode Transcript
Ep. 26 - The Ethics of Listening to a Sermon
[00:00:00] JC Schroeder: Hello friends. A couple of episodes ago, in episode 23, I talked about The Ethics of Preaching or the responsibilities that preachers have as they speak the Word of God. But what about the rest of us? Are we just off the hook and all the responsibility is on them on, on the preacher. So in this episode, I want to turn the attention from the pulpit to the pew. So I'm going to talk about the ethics of listening to a sermon. So let's dive into it. I'm JC Schroeder, and this is Bite Size Seminary.
[00:00:37]
[00:00:37] Germ of the Idea and The Role of the Listener
[00:00:37] JC Schroeder: Now I have to confess that the germ of the idea for this episode really comes from two places. The first one, as I mentioned in the intro is that previous episode dealing with the ethics [00:01:00] of preaching and then the second influence, if you will, for this idea is, uh, one of my dad's old sermons that I remember him giving a, when I was a kid where he talked about how to listen to a sermon. But I don't think I'm totally ripping off his message. And I think we have our own different takes on a similar, similar thing. But I think his message is pretty unique and it's not something that we really talk about in the church on the practicality of how do we listen to a sermon, as well as the ethics of how to listen to a sermon.
[00:01:34] If you think about it, when a person goes to college or even as they are a student in high school, or maybe even middle school, I guess. We try to emphasize different strategies and how to learn best for them and for the type of class that they are taking. But when it comes to the church, I think sometimes we just kind of assume that everyone's going to get it. And that we, as the [00:02:00] listeners don't need some instruction of some do's and don'ts some pitfalls to, uh, to avoid and the sort of responsibilities that we have as the audience, as the hearers of this message should have to that message. So that's what I kind of want to get at today in this episode.
[00:02:21] Now, the way I've kind of structured this is kind of three areas, the first one are some general attitudes to cultivate. Then I want to talk about some thoughts I have on listening to a good sermon. And some different thoughts I have on listening to a "bad" sermon. Now, one caveat that I have to put here is that these thoughts are not exhaustive. There are other things that we could probably talk about that would be important to include in here, but these are just the ones that I was thinking of. And I'm not thinking of specific people, especially like, when we're talking about like listening to a bad sermon, I'm not thinking of a specific person or people or whatever, in [00:03:00] particular, something like that. Really, what I want to do is just kind of like justify and cultivate sympathy for myself when, when I speak. So that's. I'm just thinking more generally here.
[00:03:10] Attitudes to Cultivate
[00:03:10] JC Schroeder: So let's start with some attitudes that we should cultivate as people who listen to the Word of God being preached. And these attitudes I think can equally apply to both good sermons and "bad" sermons. And they'll probably come up as we talk about the good and the bad sermons, but I thought they worked here as kind of a general approach, general attitudes for us to have.
[00:03:35] The first attitude that we should cultivate is one of obedience. I think sometimes when we come to a sermon, we think of the type of information that is going to be passed down to us from the preacher. And we think of the act of listening to a sermon almost as the same as listening to a lecture. And there are obviously a lot of similarities between a sermon [00:04:00] and a lecture, but a sermon really has got to go somewhere. It's got to do something. And the point of it is not to just give information, but is to instill a certain sort of belief or a certain set of actions or attitudes in the individual's life. So as we are listening to a sermon, we want to be thinking about how does, what this message says, what the Word of God says the preacher is speaking about, how do I incorporate this into my own life?
[00:04:36] Now, the second attitude to cultivate is an important followup to that first one, because what I'm not saying is that just obey whatever the preacher says. Because maybe the preacher has misunderstood that passage. Maybe the preacher is importing their own sort of perspective something that is foreign to the word of God. So we have to be discerning that's the second attitude to [00:05:00] cultivate is to be discerning what the individual is saying to us. Is this actually the Word of God? Is this something that is rightly divided? So we want to have that discerning heart, not a critical spirit of filtering every single thing, every jot and tittle of like, oh, you said that wrong. Or, ah, that's a, that's a dumb thing to say, or I just totally disagree with that. Like, we'll talk about that, I guess, but just having that open ear to not just gulping down everything that is being given to you. But having your mind open and thinking carefully about what is being said. But still having that heart open to hear the Word of God and to obey it. So I think those two go in tandem with one another of having an obedient attitude and to having a discerning attitude.
[00:05:55] And then a third attitude to cultivate is one of concern or [00:06:00] compassion. And I think that concern or compassion can go towards the preacher, whoever is speaking on that Sunday or that time, you want to be concerned for them and have compassion on them. Be in prayer for them before they go up before the Sunday comes. You know, preparing for a message, it can be spiritual warfare. There can be all sorts of things that are going on in their lives. So you want to be concerned about them and minister to them with prayer and in the criticisms or the, the, the discernment that we have of being compassionate to, all right, maybe that person, didn't say it, quite the way that they wanted to say it. It can be very, very hard, to preach, to get up in front of a small group of people, a large group of people, and to talk for a while about a very ancient text. That's a really hard thing to do. And I think sometimes we hold people to [00:07:00] a preaching standard that is just not fair to the individual. So we want to have concern and compassion for the preacher.
[00:07:08] We also want to have concern and compassion for others in the congregation that may be listening to that message. Maybe you aren't getting anything out of this message. Maybe this is information that you already know, but maybe this is something that someone else needs to hear and is greatly beneficial to them. And then also having concern or compassion for yourself. You know, sometimes we can have the perspective of like, oh, I wish this person was here to hear that message because they really needed to hear that. And, you know, there might be some validity to that. But, our focus should not be on what did they hear so that they can obey. But what did we hear so that we can obey? We want to have concern for others, but we don't want to be so wrapped up in other people's business that we lose sight of God's [00:08:00] Word speaking to us, and how it ministers and how it calls on us to obey him.
[00:08:07] Listening to a "Good" Sermon
[00:08:07] JC Schroeder: So those are some general attitudes to cultivate in our hearts, as we listen to a sermon. But what about when we encounter a really good sermon? How do we listen to that and listen to that well?
[00:08:20] Well, I think maybe they, this is just, JC's kind of dumb way of thinking about it, but I think it is beneficial for us to ask the question of why did we think that was a good sermon? Do we think that was a good sermon because it had these great rhetorical flourishes? Was it great because it unpacked a very difficult text for us? Or it's spoke to the feelings that we had or was it just a good story and presentation? So I think being discerning about why we think that was a good message can help unpack what in our mind is a good message. And does that like correlate to what the Lord [00:09:00] might think is a good message. Like you see this, even in the New Testament, when Paul is writing the Corinthians, the Corinthians were so concerned with how stuff sounded and the rhetoric, and they're like, oh that was just such a great message. And we really liked his speaking. But Paul, ah, he's lame. And can you imagine saying that the apostle Paul was a lame preacher? And Paul talks about like, Hey, you are prioritizing the wrong things in your evaluation of preaching. So I think when we hear a good sermon thinking about why that is a good sermon, and the flip side, like when we hear a "bad" sermon, why do we think it's bad? That's a great diagnostic question of, do we have the right priorities and the right evaluative measures for looking at this sermon.
[00:09:48] So if we hear a good sermon and it does have great rhetoric and it's just pieced together every bit and piece of the sermon works together and it just functions. [00:10:00] That is fantastic. And that's great. Like, when I preach. I want to do a good job. I'm not trying to do a bad job. Um, but it's not necessarily about how all the different components of a message come together. But is the explanation of the Word of God and opening that up. So that should be our priority when we hear a sermon. And then when we are listening, to a good sermon, we're still being discerning. We're thinking, is this a valid interpretation or maybe like, all right, I really enjoy this, but why am I enjoying this? Is this emotionally driven for me? Or by the, just the stories that that individual is telling me is, is there actual meat to this message? I think when we're thinking of what makes a good sermon is it should lead us to live more faithfully before the Lord. So we want to think of how did that sermon lead me to live more faithfully before the Lord.
[00:10:57] Now when we hear a good sermon, I think this is [00:11:00] a caution that we really need to be, be careful of, is where we place our affection and our attachment. We can hear that all this is such a great sermon and we can become so attached to the preacher, and appreciate the sermon, but it leads us to like, appreciate the individual, which is good. But it leads us to an unhealthy attachment. They are the person that gives us the Word of God. And it can almost create like an unhealthy dependence on the preacher, that I can't understand these things. I can't understand the Word of God. So I'm just going to let them do all the work and explain it to me. And of course like the Lord has gifted individuals within the church with diversity of gifts and some to, to preach and to teach. And that's, what, where the Lord has called them to do. But he has called all of us to hear his Word and to be obedient to his Word and not to become divisive or dependent and [00:12:00] attached to specific individuals.
[00:12:01] And I think we can become so impressed with people based on their preaching. Oh I was just so powerful. But really, I think what should impress us is the faithfulness to the Lord. Are they living this text out? Are we impressed by their rhetoric, by their preaching? Or are we impressed by their orthodoxy and by their practice?
[00:12:30] So we can be greatly blessed when we hear a good sermon, but there are some cautions that we want to be careful of in not being dependent and not substituting that word of the preacher for the Word of God.
[00:12:47] Listening to a "Bad" Sermon
[00:12:47] JC Schroeder: Now what about a "bad" sermon? I'm a little hesitant to just say flat out bad sermon. So I feel like I have to preface it with "bad" sermon. Again, we can ask that question, [00:13:00] why do we think this is a bad sermon? Was it boring? Did the speaker speak in a monotone type of voice? Or is there something in the message that we disagreed with? So I think again, like we're thinking of how is the message presented? Is there some aspect of like the rhetoric or the presentation that rubbed us the wrong way, or we did not find compelling? And I think what's helpful when we hear a sermon that we think is of lesser quality, can we get past that poor performance, if you will. You know, maybe that maybe the preacher was tired. Maybe they were up late that night trying to prepare, or one of their kids were sick or something like that. We need to have compassion on some poor performances.
[00:13:51] But also in wanting to hear the Word of God and being obedient to the word of God, can we get past the "poor [00:14:00] performance"? Even though we may find it boring, can we hear okay I get what you're saying. It ain't entertaining, but I'm hearing what you're saying about this passage and I want to be obedient to this passage.
[00:14:12] Now, the flip side is less on a poor performance, but maybe they have the right message, but the way that they are saying that message, lacks Christian virtue and Christian charity. And I think that's a helpful way because I can go, yes, I totally agree with what you're saying. But the way that you're saying it, I think is problematic. You sound angry. You sound judgemental. We don't want that. We want to push past that. We can say, okay. Yes. What you're saying is right. But the reason why I'm not appreciating the sermon as so much is your approach to the topic or to this message. That again goes back to that discerning sort of attitude. We don't want to be led astray in hearing that, okay, they agree with me in my perspectives. And they're [00:15:00] all excited about this topic. So I'm going to get excited to like, whoa, slow down. Maybe this is not a virtuous, mode of speech in the way that we discuss this topic.
[00:15:11] And then thinking about the actual message if you disagree or you feel bothered by the message, why are you disagreeing with it? What elements in the interpretation of that passage or the discussion of that topic, do you find difficult or you disagree with? Is the part that you disagree with central to the preacher's thesis? Or can you just say this is a secondary or tertiary sort of issue? I don't agree with this, but I see where you're coming from, and I'm going to show you some grace that I just, I understand what you're saying, and I can learn from your perspective, but I disagree.
[00:15:51] Maybe another way to think about this, in regards to the message, is if I find myself disagreeing, maybe I need to pay closer attention [00:16:00] because maybe there's something I'm missing in my own understanding of this passage or topic or in their presentation. And so at the very least I can see how are they approaching it and in what ways I disagree and that can create better dialogue because I'm better understanding their interpretation versus my own interpretation. Or it can even show like, Ooh, I have been viewing that incorrectly before. That is compelling. I don't fully buy what they're saying, but perhaps the way I have understood this passage or topic does need some reconfigurement. That's much better than just going, ah, I don't like this, this guy. I totally disagree with. Buzz off I'm done with this. Which is how we feel sometimes if we're being honest, when we hear something that we don't like.
[00:16:50] That again goes back to the discerning attitude and as well as the compassionate attitude. We're compassionate that they are thinking about this topic. Maybe we've thought about it [00:17:00] more. Maybe we know more, but maybe they have an aspect of it that's like, oh, that's interesting. I need to think about that more myself. And maybe it just comes to the point, like, yeah, I just totally disagree with that perspective. But it creates a better environment and a better way to hear what the message is saying.
[00:17:19] And if all else fails, it's just a poor performance. It's got bad rhetoric, bad production, bad interpretation, all around. At the very least you can learn about what not to do. I read that somewhere in a book about teaching a long time ago, that when you have a bad teacher, if there's like absolutely zero that you can learn from them going through those other steps that we just talked about, but if there's absolutely zero that you can learn, at the very least you learn what not to do. And I have had really great teachers. I don't think I've had a bad, bad teacher at all in my academic career. [00:18:00] But I, and I've had some teachers that I think had some flaws in their teaching methods or in their attitudes in how they treated students. And that has been so beneficial to me as a teacher. All right, that's not how I want to treat a student. That's not how I want to approach a topic. And that has gone a long way in shaping me as a teacher, let alone a preacher. So at the very least, you can learn what not to do.
[00:18:32] Conclusion
[00:18:32] JC Schroeder: So these are just some of my maybe odd thoughts about how to listen to a sermon, of what sort of responsibilities, ethics do we have as the congregation, as people who are hearing the word of God presented to us every Sunday or some other time that the church comes together. How do we respond? Because there is responsibility on our part. [00:19:00] There's responsibility on the preacher's part on the teacher's part. But then there's responsibility on our part as well. And I think when both of us, both the preacher and the listener are thinking carefully, and thinking ethically that can go a long way to bringing our hearts closer to the Lord. And leading us to greater flourishing as a church.
[00:19:27] That's all I have for today. I hope that made sense. I hope that helps a little bit. And thank you so much for listening. Don't forget, you can sign up to receive episodes emailed directly to you at bitesizeseminary.com. You can also connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.
[00:19:45] And thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time.