Divine Entertainment

Its funny to me how the trend in the last decade or so has been toward preaching delivered through entertainment. Speakers have moved their style far, far away away from the old image of the "fire and brimstone" preacher, severe in look and delivery. There was nothing funny about that era at all. In contrast, today's sermons are overwhelmingly entertaining, designed to relate to the lives of the listeners, and adapting humour as a means of holding the attention of the audience.

The trouble with it, of course, is if it is all (or even mostly) about the humour and pleasing delivery then it is worthless for growth in God. I am not against entertaining speakers if it can be tempered and used to hit the mark and thrust us forward in God. I am pretty sure God is ok with humour...He created us to enjoy it. Now if the preacher is using humour because he thinks he is funny and enjoys the laughs it brings, then I would suggest that he is sharing the spotlight with the King of Heaven at that point. That sounds like a bad idea to me.

Sermons that entertain also run the risk of being satisfying in and of themselves. There is a feeling of comfort that I have experienced at times, having sat through a fun and humour-filled message about...something...I can't quite recall the specific point I was going to take from it, though. There is a danger in all of these kinds of things that causes us to settle for less than we are called to in our journey with God.

Having said that, I believe that the ultimate entertainment to be experienced is actually found in God Himself and growing in the knowledge of who He is and what He is like. Consider Revelation 4, the Throne Room. The four living creatures encircled He who sat on the Throne and found themselves saying day and night "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come". It would be silly to think for even a second that they were required to do this as some sort of service to their master and were risking punishment if they failed to carry out their duty. These creatures were allowed to be this near to the creator and sustainer of all of creation. As they themselves declared, He is holy!

Some misunderstand the fullness of the term "holy", limiting it to mean "pure and sinless". That is entirely accurate, but only part of the meaning. To understand God is to understand that "holy" really means "set apart from". Well, set apart from what, you ask? From everything! He is beyond us. He is beyond understanding. He is beyond our grasp...unless He chooses not to be (and thankfully He does choose to be found by us!). He is transcendent.

Back to the living creatures, then. They encircled the One on the throne at close range. They survived being this close to the One who is perfect and just. They are not insignificant beings. And yet, they were free to experience this nearness. What is obvious in light of this is that their response must be pure. They are not grumbling under their breath about being forced to say this same phrase over and over in frustration. It is spontaneous and filled with honesty. They are seeing and they are proclaiming. He is Holy! There is no one like Him. It must be said over and over. How can we not declare it?!?!

Now that is divine entertainment. Who can watch TV after that?

The call to the pulpit in this age is to proclaim Him as He is. None of us do it very well because none of us can see very clearly. But, there is more...so much more. We pray Ephesians 1:17 almost every intercession meeting as it is the best biblical prayer I can find to answer the longing to see and know more. May He show us, all of us, more of Himself and may we be changed in heart and mind and behaviour because of it.

Brian Creary
Ministry Director