“Take away the words to the song and hope will take up humming;” I’m not sure how the Rev. Paul Escamilla wrote those words on his manuscript before delivering them in a sermon some some weeks ago. There’s usually a little poetry in sermons, even if you’re not aiming for that old sermon structure of […]
Tag: Preaching
Is There Anything to Say After El Paso?
I wasn’t preaching last Sunday so I didn’t face the decision that most preachers entertained that morning: Do I say something about the violence and death? This time it had happened in El Paso and Dayton, but we have a long list of American cities and schools that now have the words “hosted a mass […]
How to Preach a Bad Sermon
Yesterday, I preached a bad sermon. I quoted and misquoted Mark Twain, King, and Ghandi without attribution. I cruelly mocked my child by telling stories of his misdeeds. I violated the privacy of a parishioner with health issues to highlight my prowess in pastoral care. And I managed to talk far more about myself than […]