This is related to the first argument. But while the first one attacks the idea that we should have any formal or informal training in preaching, this one attacks the very idea of sermon preparation itself. It assumes that the sermon is something that God gives to us irrespective of our effort or person.
This idea doesn’t take into account that God has called YOU to preach. God didn’t call a robot without any history or emotions. What that means is that there is something about our background, who we are, the questions we bring, the issues we have dealt with, that God will use in the construction of sermons.
Sermons are not something that any of us could have delivered. Who we are affects how we construct and present sermons. This is one reason why stealing sermons is so detrimental. It teaches us to not use our background.
No, sermons are not delievered irrespective of the preacher … No, they are something that are delivered THROUGH us. So when Joe just lost his mother and goes to the text, he sees something that is needed just now for himself and for someone else who is going through loss. I’m not talking about reading into the text, I am talking about aspects of the text that you would not have seen were it not for the questions that you bring to the text.
It is sometimes said that preaching is “truth through personality.” God has called you, and thus we labor. We labor to become more effective preachers of the truth. We labor to be faithful presenters of the gospel. We labor. And then when we fail, we hold on to that promise that God gave that the word itself, when it goes forth, will not come back void (Isaiah 55:11).
