Rethinking the Art of the Sermon

Several years ago, I began noticing something uncomfortable about my own preaching. People would compliment a sermon after services. They would tell me how much they enjoyed it. They would thank me for my insights. Yet if I asked them a week later what the sermon had been about, many would struggle to remember.

The problem was not with the congregation. The problem was with the sermon. Like many rabbis, I had fallen into a familiar trap. I believed that a good sermon should contain multiple ideas, several textual references, historical context, contemporary applications, and enough intellectual substance to satisfy the most attentive listener. I wanted people to leave feeling that they had learned something important. In trying to give them everything, I often left them with nothing. Years in the pulpit taught me that people rarely remember sermons, and  began to realize that people rarely remember sermons. What they remember are stories, images, emotions, and a single compelling idea.

When someone arrives home from synagogue and sits down for lunch, a family member may ask, “What did the rabbi talk about today?” If the answer requires a five-minute explanation, the sermon has probably failed. If the answer can be expressed in a single memorable sentence, the sermon has a chance of living beyond the sanctuary. This realization has changed not only how I preach, but how I think about communication itself.

We........

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