Mark Twain was no Billy Sunday-like evangelist, but he got it right about sermons. The famous author and the fire-breathing preacher believed that very few souls are saved after 20 minutes.
I once heard Dr. Douglas Jackson of Gardi Baptist Church put it another way. He said, “The five “Bs” of a good sermon are “Be brief, brother, be brief.” As one who has polished hundreds of hard pews with my skinny behind, I say, “Amen.”
Some of the most succinct sermons aren’t heard. They are seen on country-church marquees. With a quick glance, the point of the “sermon” packs the punch of a lightning bolt. Enough said, except for an altar call and the benediction.
Perhaps my favorite message was posted on New Springfield Baptist Church’s marquee in Siloam, south of Greensboro.
Siloam is a speck of a community on Highway 15, but it has its own ZIP code. I don’t know where in the Bible to reference what I saw, but the phrase sounds biblical. Similar to something you’d read in the Old Testament’s book of Proverbs.
But actually, English theologian Benjamin Whichcote (1609-1683) said something very similar.
Here's Pastor Roi Johnson’s 13-word sermon: “A person is never so empty as when he is full of himself!”
That’s a humbling thought.
I am sure there have been times when I was guilty of that.
How about you?
America, take a look around.
There’s no better place to focus on that marquee sermon than the I-am-right-and-you-are-wrong political turmoil that threatens to crumble the foundation of our 249-year-old nation.
When terrorists struck on 9/11, Kate Smith’s “God Bless America” was dusted off and sung from coast to coast. It took a crisis to pause the polarized bickering. Arm-in-arm, “We the people” rallied to recover. And now, almost a quarter century later, perhaps we should rewrite that classic tune to ask, “God help America.”
As sure as the sun rises and sets, there are hate-filled terrorists plotting to do harm to our beloved homeland. They’ve done it once, and they can do it again. That’s frightening.
But what’s even more alarming is that these evil ones are savoring what seems to be America’s flirting with a path of self-destruction by incessant poking of sharp sticks in each other’s eyes.
I don’t care what political-party affiliation you profess. The ultra extremes of all the parties don’t do anything to pull us together. Just the opposite. Rather than the United States of America, we are evolving into the Squabbling States of America.
America, we need to look in the mirror and ask, “Really, is this what we want?”
For me, the question goes deeper, much deeper.
Is that what we want for our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren and their children’s children?
I pray not.
And I pray the Siloam marquee sermon — a person is never so empty as when he is full of himself — would resonate across America.
Author Mark Twain, evangelist Billy Sunday and the eloquent Gardi minister are gone.
But Dr. Jackson, I do hope that I have abided in your Five Bs.
