This foot bridge takes you over the stream that feeds the lake from whence Burrell Lake Park gets its name. geotagged

For tonight’s post, I’ll pick at random an e-mail from my bag of fictitious correspondence:

Dear Knilram,

Could you please share with us an example of a bad sermon? Preferably from the mid 1700′s and including an illustration glorifying a highway robber. If you’re can’t quite match that, you can use the television preacher of your choice instead.

Best regards,
A Fictitious Questioner

Well, AFQ, fortunately, I recently read an excerpt from a street sermon in 1754 that perfectly matches your request. Here’s an example of a bad sermon, from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. (Jack Sheppard, the hero of this sermon illustration, was a notorious robber who was generally admired for breaking out of prison several times before he was eventually executed at the age of 23.)

The Rev. Mr. Villette, the editor of the “Annals of Newgate,” published in 1754, relates a curious sermon which, he says, a friend of his heard delivered by a street-preacher about the time of Jack’s execution. The orator, after animadverting on the great care men took of their bodies, and the little care they bestowed upon their souls, continued as follows, by way of exemplifying the position:– “We have a remarkable instance of this in a notorious malefactor, well known by the name of Jack Sheppard. What amazing difficulties has he overcome! what astonishing things has he performed! and all for the sake of a stinking, miserable carcass; hardly worth the hanging! How dexterously did he pick the chain of his padlock with a crooked nail! how manfully he burst his fetters asunder! — climb up the chimney! — wrench out an iron bar! — break his way through a stone wall! — make the strong door of a dark entry fly before him, till he got upon the leads of the prison! then, fixing a blanket to the wall with a spike, he stole out of the chapel. How intrepidly did he descend to the top of the turner’s house! — how cautiously pass down the stair, and make his escape to the street door!

“Oh! that ye were all like Jack Sheppard! Mistake me not, my brethren; I don’t mean in a carnal, but in a spiritual sense, for I propose to spiritualise these things. What a shame it would be if we should not think it worth our while to take as much pains, and employ as many deep thoughts, to save our souls as he has done to preserve his body!

“Let me exhort ye, then, to open the locks of your hearts with the nail of repentance! Burst asunder the fetters of your beloved lusts! — mount the chimney of hope! — take from thence the bar of good resolution! — break through the stone wall of despair, and all the strongholds in the dark entry of the valley of the shadow of death! Raise yourselves to the leads of divine meditation! — fix the blanket of faith with the spike of the church! let yourselves down to the turner’s house of re signation, and descend the stairs of humility! So shall you come to the door of deliverance from the prison of iniquity, and escape the clutches of that old executioner the Devil!”

Why, you ask, is this a bad sermon? Well, I’m glad you asked.

1. Lack of Scripture

   In the sermon, the street preacher used the popular event of the day for his text rather than the scriptures. He has them consider Jack Sheppard rather than Scripture. Perhaps he used scripture in other parts of the sermon, but this excerpt is completely devoid of scripture.

   It is quite a common thing for the pastor to use current events to get the attention of the congregation by talking about the things that excite them. There is a time and a place for such examples. But the bulk of the sermon must not be based on the popular event of the day, or on the latest book the pastor has read, or the pastor’s pet social issue du jour. The sermon must be based on scripture, and any extra-biblical illustrations must only serve to explain the scriptural text and not supplant it.

2. Eisogesis

   Another flaw of this sermon is that the points of the sermon were read into the illustration rather than being drawn from the illustration. He allegorized the prison break of Jack Sheppard to make spiritual points that were no part whatsoever of the actual illustration. What does the chimney have to do with hope? Nothing at all. It is just the preacher making it up and forcing it back into the illustration. The street preacher came to the illustration with his points and then forced them into the illustration rather than drawing them out of the illustration.

   This is classic eisogesis: reading into the text. A good sermon will draw out the points that actually are in the text itself. We call this exegesis when we draw out the true meaning of the text, and exegesis is the goal of any good preacher. The sermon should come from the faithful exposition of the meaning of the text, and the text should not be a leaping off point for the pastor’s flights of imaginative fancy.

3. Moralizing

   The third flaw of our example sermon is that it points to what we should do rather than pointing us to what God has done. There is no Christ in this illustration. There are only exhortations for the hearer to do more. There is no Gospel (good news) in the illustration. There is only law (more commands of what you must do). There is no comfort for the weary. There is only a yoke to further enslave.

   A good sermon will have commands in it, and will explain how we have failed to keep these commands. It will also tell how we are guilty for this failure, and are subject to punishment. But then it will show how Jesus Christ did keep the commandment and how He died to pay the punishment for our failure. The pastor will then offer Christ as the Savour of all who come to Him in faith. All of this that makes up a good sermon is far removed from the moralizing we have in this example from our friend the street preacher.

So, thanks for the question, AFQ. I hope you enjoyed our mid 18th century bad sermon including the glorification of a highway robber.

This fungus on a fallen tree was an amazingly bright red color.

I took our youngest kids trick-or-treating last night. At one house, a little girl, probably about five years old, was walking back from visiting a house. He mother was waiting for her on the curb, and she was about halfway done the sidewalk when the girl called loudly to her mother, “Mommy! She wasn’t mean at all!”

Her mother laughed and called back, “Hush! I didn’t say she was mean. I only told you to not walk on the grass!”