Now that I've had the afternoon to stop and think how I might answer that question, I've come up with a few ideas:
- Exegetical insight -- the "I didn't know I didn't know that" moment
- Theological depth -- people want to talk about God, not what the preacher did last week
- Liturgical awareness -- always keeping in view the place of the sermon in the life of the Church
- Connection -- relevance and resonance
- Passion and persuasion -- help me feel the joy of the Gospel
I read two texts this morning. On most other Sundays, we read three texts and respond with a psalm. Congregations assume we do that for a reason. The preacher's first task, I think, is to make that reason clear. That's not done by recapitulating what they just heard ("In today's reading Jesus is ...") unless there's a really good reason to do that and there's an added value to the service as a whole. Time's a-wasting, and we preachers are really good at wasting that time when we do this kind of thing.
What good preaching demands is an "a-ha" moment, some insight and understanding.
To get there takes prayer and study.
But not to get there will keep the sermon banal and trite.
What it means "to get there" is to read and study wide and deep. Think commentaries, but also think other books and articles. Everything we do in study is contributing to this insight, or we're being unfaithful with our study time.
Theological depth
Make no doubt about it, one of the reasons people are leaving the church (and our young folks especially) is a lack of theological depth.
Some years ago, I asked a church I was serving at the time, "What kind of adult education class do you need?" They responded, "Bible study". So I planned one. Nobody came. Because it turned out they really wanted a space to talk about God -- Scripture, yes, but a way of reading Scripture that allowed them to narrate God's view of their lives.
To put it plainly, our sermons often miss the mark because they are insubstantial, even superficial, dancing at the textual margin rather than plunging into the depth of the mystery of the love of God.
Liturgical awareness
Sermons are but a part of the Church's worship. We also read Scripture, pray, sing, confess, celebrate the gifts of Baptism and Communion. In other words, preaching never happens in a vacuum. It's a part of the rest of what the Church does.
So the question that preachers should hold in front of themselves is this: "What does the Spirit of God want the people of God to hear on this occasion?" And that occasion is, whether preachers want to admit it or not, connected to what the Church does in the service of the service of worship -- and in its service to the world.
Good preaching stays connected to the life of the Church, and the life of the Church stays connected to the sermon -- its prayers, hymns, responses, blessings and work.
Connection
The connection of preaching to the life of the Church is part of this. It's one connection. But it's hardly the only connection. Over 35 years ago Frederick Buechner famously said in his Beecher Lectures, Telling the Truth, that the preacher had three minutes before the listeners decided whether or not she or he was going to talk about anything important to them. We only have half that time now.
The connection that the congregation seeks has to do with focus -- the "so what?" of the sermon. But this is hardly just "topical". The sermon also has to be resonant -- what difference does the Word of God make in our lives? Such connections come largely from the quality of the sermon's illustrative material, the stories, analogies, examples and metaphors the preacher fashions and fabricates to bring theological claims alive and make exegetical insights personal.
Passion and persuasion
One of the most dispiriting thing I've noticed when I teach preaching is that lots of preachers lack spirit. Not the Holy Spirit -- let's not go there -- but the same passion and enthusiasm that one expects from someone proclaiming the Word of God for the people of God. A good sermon is never dispassionate; even when the passion is conveyed in a quiet way you feel a good preacher's passion. And a good sermon is, from start to finish, persuasive. Aristotle defined rhetoric as "the discovery of the available means of persuasion in every situation". Augustine refined this to "profit with delight". Good preaching provides all three -- persuasion, profit, and delight. It begins with a clear answer to the homiletical question -- what does the Holy Spirit want the people of God to hear from these texts on this occasion? -- and crafts a sermon that not only convinces the listeners of the truth of the preacher's answer to the homiletical question, but does so in a way that moves and delights the hearts and minds of the listeners. A good sermon helps the listeners feel the joy of the Gospel.
Pope Francis has the best advice for preachers that I've recently read:
The homily is the touchstone for judging a pastor's closeness and ability to communicate to his people. We know that the faithful attach great importance to it, and that both they and their ordained ministers suffer because of homilies: the laity from having to listen to them and the clergy from having to preach them! It is sad that this is the case. The homily can actually be an intense and happy experience of the Spirit, a consoling encounter with God’s word, a constant source of renewal and growth.Think about it. How cool is that?!? "It is sad that this is the case. The homily can actually be an intense and happy experience of the Spirit." Amen.