Mind the gap

I am trying very hard to put my finger on this. You will see my vexation recycled in many an essay until I figure this out. There is something lacking in the preaching. I don't mean the preaching in churches that have gone from liberal to off-the-deep-end heretical. I mean the ones we call good, solidly doctrinal churches.

I look around the sanctuary and see it in people's eyes and body language: The words from the pulpit are missing their mark. And yet there is nothing wrong with the words. The preacher is correctly expositing the Bible passage: "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ," he tells us, "so why would you need anything but Christ!" His voice is forceful, even dramatic.

"The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in your heart," he says. And we have all heard it many times. We are all slightly ashamed not to be straightening our lives up according to these truths. Others of us are saying "Amen," but there is something unconvincing about it.

Somehow, rather than being helped by the sermons we are sinking further into melancholia, into unreality. There is a gap between the words and our lives that is not being acknowledged or addressed. Will somebody please address the gap? Will some preacher stand up and say, "Brothers and sisters, I am well aware that some of you are not living as if all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. I know and sympathize with you, dear brothers and sisters, because I can see that it means very little to you when I say that the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in your heart.

"But I am delighted to share with you what the Lord Jesus has been doing in my heart, to show me the joyful realities of these things of which we have long preached insensibly!" And then we would stop shifting, and we would drink deeply and be rescued.

If only every sermon were a testimony, I think we wouldn't exit the church every Sunday talking about the Phillies.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.