Seinfeld & Sermon Prep
Sermon prep is difficult work. It’s long, arduous, and tedious. Because of the difficulty inherent to prepping a gospel-centered, culturally-intelligible, Biblically-saturated sermon, many opt for other types of “sermons.” Some preach creativity.
Some preach comedy.
Some preach social observations.
Some preach practical pep-talks.
It’s simply easier to “preach” these other things than it is to open God’s Word each week, find a fresh sermon for God’s people, and put spiritual food on the table.
Furthermore, you may be faithful to preach a passage each week, but if you’re like me, fatigue tempts you to “phone it in” from time to time. Maybe you don’t study as diligently as you could. Maybe you don’t explain the text as thoroughly as you should. Maybe you don’t work to illustrate the text creatively. Maybe you don’t provide your people with handles to help them apply the text.
I’ve done it and so have you. We can all work harder in our heralding of God’s Word.
I recently experienced a fresh dose of this conviction from an unlikely source: Jerry Seinfeld. I came across this video of Seinfeld describing the difficult work of writing jokes about nothing. I found it interesting, instructive, and convicting. I walked away asking the following question:
“If Seinfeld works this hard to writes jokes about nothing, shouldn’t I work harder to write sermons about the most important thing?”
This week I’m asking God for the grace to pray, study, meditate, write, and preach a sermon more worthy of the One I preach.
