Turning Off the Sermon Switch

C.H. Spurgeon, the Victorian-era “Prince of the Pulpit,” writes in his little book of advice for preachers, Lectures to My Students, of the need of being “sermon-minded.” You ought always to be on the lookout for ideas, he writes, no matter what you are doing, whether reading, conversing, working in your garden or taking a walk. Nearly everything you see and do is potential fodder for a sermon, and since you are preaching perhaps 150 times in a single year (remember that in Spurgeon’s day preachers typically had two services on Sunday and one midweek), you will need a lot of fodder.

Generally, that’s good advice, and today we would add watching television, going to movies, and surfing the internet to Spurgeon’s list of activities. Anyone who preaches on a regular basis can tell you that they get ideas for themes and illustrations from all those sources.

The only trouble is that it makes it hard to just read, just watch television, just see a movie. The things I do to take a break from work too often feed back into work. Saturday, with everything done for Sunday, I was watering the plants in front of the house when I found myself reflecting, not for the first time, on how efficiently plants channel water from the leaves to the roots. It occurred to me that that particular insight would fit into my sermon for Sunday, and I was back at work again. Having those ideas in the middle of a movie is even worse. Yes, some of those ideas are great, but what happened to recreation and relaxation? Is there any way to turn off the sermon switch?

Maybe, just as I need to discipline myself to work, so I need to discipline myself not to work, to push those really great ideas aside when I am supposed to be talking my Sabbath rest, believing that the idea will still be there on Monday morning, or when I get back from vacation.

Speaking of vacation, I will be gone next week. Please pray for me that I don’t think about work until June 14.