It is easy enough to grumble about what goes on at the giant church down by the interstate. It could be that there you’ll find the prosperity gospel at its most crass. Maybe the pastor has a fleet of exotic cars and one message with a thousand variations- give money to me and God will give money to you. Or, maybe it’s the more subtle version, the church of the clean, happy people. Maybe the pastor has a closet full of exotic sneakers and one message with a thousand variations- be like me and God will like you. Ear tickling prevails not only because pastors like to tickle ears but because congregants like having their ears tickled.
Escaping ear tickling, however, doesn’t equal giving a faithful sermon. Some pulpits, usually in the tiny church down by the fairgrounds, provide not ear tickling but ear burning. Maybe the pastor has a fleet of K-Mart ties and one message with a thousand variations- you all are terrible, awful people and you better change before it’s too late. The only people who like to hear that kind of preaching are those who see themselves as standing right beside the pastor delivering the same message. They feed on the thin gruel of imagining what it would be like for those other, awful people to hear this message.
For a sermon to be complete, whatever text it might be coming from, it must affirm that we, that is, humans across the globe and across time, believers, across the globe and across time, and church members, across town and across the pew, are indeed sinners. Our thinking, our feeling, or doing, all need to change. We must repent. Now this might sound something like the above. But, there are two distinctives. First, it includes us, not just them. Second, it is only one part of the complete sermon.
The second part is that, while we are called to change, we are already covered. Because of all that Jesus has done for us, suffering the wrath due us in our place, living a life of total obedience in our place, we are safe, secure, redeemed. Jesus has saved us to the uttermost. This is good news, though it is not ear tickling. He didn’t die because we’re so valuable. Rather, we are valuable because He died. He didn’t die because we’re so good. He died because we’re so evil. Every bit of joy from this truth comes from Him. All we bring to the table is the need.
The third part is the fruit of the second. Because of all that He has done, we are not only forgiven by our Father in heaven, but adopted as His children. We have His infinite, immutable love, each of us by name.
Without the first part it’s just ear tickling. Without the second part it’s just a scolding. Without the third part we don’t know what we have in Christ and walk away in our doubts. It’s as easy to see the holes in the other guy’s sermons as it is to see the speck in his eye. May the Lord give us eyes to see our own holes, and voices to faithfully preach not just holy sermons, but hole-less sermons.