A Troubling and Insightful Article

The Liturgical Sermon in TLC, February 5 edition is a very sad, yet revealing article about the state of preaching the Episcopal Church today.

He asserts that the sermon 'fulfills an essential function as a bridge uniting other elements in the liturgy." Sermons, he suggests, play an important (damning by feint praise) but subordinate role to the Eucharist by connecting the liturgy of the word with the Eucharist itself.

He even says, "nothing prevents the preacher from doing exegetical justice to scripture..." Can you imagine?

I have heard and believe that the greatest enemy of biblical preaching is plausible preaching - the kind suggested by Mr. Hoffacker.

Is there no wonder there is a famine of hearing the word of the gospel, despite the spate of readings in our church.

Some Christians in the Cambridge Christian Union, fearful that one of their preachers would try to over intellectualize the sermon to curry favor with the Cambridge dons, wrote a note to their preacher which said, "Ram the red hot gospel down their throats." But, of course, that might not tie the liturgy together.