A Pop Sermon

Last night, in my Women and the Preaching Life class, we had a "pop sermon"--like a pop quiz, but not a quiz.  I would much rather have a pop sermon.  We had 5 minutes to choose a Bible passage, decide on a message, and prepare a one minute sermon.  And then we stood up and gave those sermons.  We had to turn off our phones, close our laptops, and give full attention to those who were giving the sermon.

At first I thought I would write about the Psalm that tells us that weeping may spend the night but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30: 5).  But I decided that I didn't really have much to say beyond the basic meaning:  we can cry all night, but eventually joy comes again.

I thought about the verse about God's hands stretching across the sky, and when I Googled it, I got Isaiah 49:16:  "See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."  I thought about the time I went to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and he talked about this verse and about what it means that God has our names inscribed on God's hands.  And voila, I had my sermon.

I read the verse and talked about how I read the verse, and at first I don't think of my hands, but instead of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's hands reaching out as he read this verse to us.  I think of my own hands.  Until recently, I would have written notes of what I needed to remember to do on my hands--and these days, I'd have notes extending up my arms, since we're in that busy time of the term (several of my classmates alluded to our heavy to-do lists).  Why didn't I make notes on paper?  Because my hands traveled with me all the time; paper can be lost.  And then I finished with a few sentences with my arms outstretched, asking the listeners to take heart that God has not forgotten us; on the contrary, we are written on God's hands, we are on God's list of what needs attention.

I felt like it was a powerful 1 minute sermon, and one of my classmates told me that she found it enormously moving.  But I found many of the sermons moving, and every single one of them had something profound to say.  It continues to amaze me of how much content one can pack into a very short delivery time:  5-7 minute sermons in Foundations of Preaching (with weeks of prep time) and last night, a 1 minute sermon with very little prep time.

It also seems like an idea that could be used in a variety of settings:  finding a central idea in a text and presenting it, writing an introductory paragraph/thesis/conclusion/main point and presenting it, writing a line of a poem or a line of dialogue in response to a prompt--on and on I could go.

It seemed less punishing than a pop quiz, and for me, I felt more engaged than I would with a pop quiz.  It also showed us a different approach to developing a sermon, which is one of the main purposes of a class in the Preaching discipline (which last night's class was).  

We did it at the beginning of class, which for me was a great way to start.  I could see it working well at any point of the class.  When I've taught in person, I've always looked for ways to shake things up a bit, whether it's showing some video or doing some reading (individually or out loud).  And while it did take us over an hour, between prepping, delivering, and analyzing the process, it wouldn't have to take that long.

It was worth every minute.