Homiletical Fast Food

I know that I've already blogged twice about sermonic plagiarism, but evermore interesting thought concerning the issue continues to arises. Trust me, I'm not on a hunt to root out some plagiarizer, rather people keep giving me head's up when they come across something on the subject.

This week our Administrative Minister handed me an article Dr. Thomas G. Long contributed to this month's The Christian Century. Here are some of the more choice quotes from that piece:

"...preachers who stand up on Sunday morning with a sermon ripped off the Internet and preach the words as if they were their own almost certainly violate the implied agreement with the congregation.

"A good test of this point is to ask, What would happen if the preacher told the truth? "Hey, folks, it's been a busy week and I didn't have time to work on a sermon, and honestly, I'm not all that creative anyway. So this is a little something I found on the 'net" (and I would interject a "book" read). The fact that the air would immediately go out of the room is a reliable indicator that the tacit agreement of the sermon event has been violated. This is why plagiarists, for all their blather about God's words being free to all, never confess their true sources and always imply that these words are coming straight from the heart."
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"Only preachers who deliver their own sermons stand with one foot in the life of the people and one foot in the biblical text."
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"All preacher borrow from others, and should. There is a difference between being a debtor and being a thief. All preachers stand on the shoulders of biblical scholars, theologians and faithful witnesses from across the generations. We do not owe our congregation an original essay: we owe them a fresh act of interpretation."
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"Pulpit plagiarists...in the name of expediency, will grab what they wish wherever they can find it and claim it as their own. Their stolen sermons may occasionally sparkle, but in the end they will have spread the banquet table of God with the empty calories of homiletical fast food."

Food for thought, I think.

The Blogosphere

Lat week we hosted and led two memorial services for dearly loved members of our community. One was 93 and the other 74. In the midst of all this, one of our elders' wives was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which they thought was malignant at fist glance. To say the least, it was a hectic, emotional week.

That explains my absence from my keyboard recently. My apologies for those of you who frequently check on the blog.

While I haven't been writing a lot, some of my friends have posted very thoughtful pieces on theirs. I'm always mixed when I read friends' blogs. I'm glad that they are finding their voice and engaging the world, but then I get a knot in my stomach because I think to myself, "Shoot, I wanted to write that." Then, I feel guilty over my jealousy.

Anyway, here are some things you might want to check out.

1. One of my "old kids," Jessica Reese (I've known her since she was 15, now her oldest daughter is older than my youngest), who is - or will soon be - an emerging writer, has some good thoughts on Christian art at her site.

2. My friend, and recently returned missionary now working with Compassion, Russ Debenport, has some great music and thoughts about CCM at his blog.

3. Though Easter has passed, William Willimon has a great piece on the last to believe in Easter on on his blog, "A Peculiar Prophet."

4. Bill Kinnon, who I don't know, has some interesting thoughts entitled, "The People Formerly Known as The Congregation," at his site.

Happy Reading