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A guest preacher at our church last Sunday delivered a sermon on Psalm 91 titled "Homeland Security." The sermon offered a well-needed perspective on the Virginia Tech massacre which happened the previous Monday. What's interesting is that the guest preacher and I settled on the sermon's text and title about a month prior to the tragedy on the campus of VT! That was definitely God's Spirit at work.

Sometimes, I'm amazed at how a preaching text selected weeks or months in advance fits the need of the moment ? including the aftermath of a national, local, or family tragedy. Sometimes, though, I've sensed the Spirit's leading to preach a different sermon that the one I've scheduled and prepared. Here are a few suggestions for preaching in the wake of tragedy.

Last week, my friend, Dave Goetz, and I spent four vacation days fly-fishing the Madison River near Bozeman, Montana. After two days of warm temperatures and sunny skies, a weather system brought rain and snow. Oddly enough, the worst weather for fly-fishers creates the best conditions for fly-fishing! Clouds and moisture trigger the hatch of Mayflies on Montana rivers. So the most productive fly-fishing of the entire trip came during an hour-long snowstorm! Hundreds of Mayflies littered the surface of the river, and dozens of rainbow trout gulped these flies off the surface. I caught one trout after another on a tiny fly (the size of a small ant!) during the mini-blizzard.

Alex Rodriguez, third baseman for the Yankees, may be off to "the hottest start in baseball history," according to one New York Times article. As of April 22, Rodriguez has hit 12 home runs this season (more than the totals of eight teams), and he is two shy of breaking Albert Pujols's April record.

The secret to A-Rod's rediscovered success--for those familiar with his bootless postseason, which had him eighth on the batting list and booed on a regular basis--is Kevin Long. Long, who previously played and coached minor league baseball, replaced former MVP Don Mattingly as the the Yankee's hitting coach. Though his credentials are humble, Long is quickly proving that the right coach is sometimes all you need to get on the right track.

This might work as an illustration on Christ's guidance, or even the power of mentoring or discipleship.

How many weeks, months, or years should you devote to preaching through Hebrews? What about John's gospel? How long should you take to preach through Isaiah? According to some preachers, the longer the better. If you need five years to preach through Romans, take it! If expounding 1 Corinthians requires three years, then so be it! However, I would argue that whatever gains we make by spending so much time in one book may be offset by some big losses.

"What do you want to do when you grow up?" my father asked me over dinner.

"I want to go door-to-door and sell apples," I answered (with as much machismo as a five-year-old can muster).

When you're a kid, answers to such questions are usually pipe dreams - girls want to be ballerinas, and boys want to be astronauts (or Johnny Appleseed). Though some buck the trend and dance their way through Carnegie Hall or fly upward toward the moon, most of us have to learn to aim our lives in other directions. So I'm incredibly thankful that God literally answered my vocational questions in a piece of mail I received during my sophomore year in high school.

As a gunman stormed Norris Hall at Virginia Tech University and began killing fellow students, the students in professor Liviu Librescu's classroom could heard the shouts and gunfire coming closer to their room. Realizing what was happening, Professor Librescu--a 76-year-old Holocaust survivor--urged the students out the window as he braced himself against the door.

Two days ago I wrapped up a series on the Gospel of John. What a rich experience! John’s gospel is simple, yet profound. Young or inexperienced Bible readers can track its story line, and it’s a fairly easy read in the Greek text for pastors whose Greek is not on life-support. Yet the theology of John’s Gospel is profound, and the text is a literary masterpiece full of irony and symbolism (for example, the light/darkness motif threaded throughout the book). Every story and block of teaching drives home the point that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that those who believe experience real life (see John 10:10, 20:31).

Free downloads from BuildingChurchLeaders.com and ChristianBibleStudies.com:
Answering Tough Questions
God's Purposes in Our Suffering

Articles from CT Library:
When the News Intrudes
Ministry at the Makeshift Memorial

A sermon from John Piper:
The Supremacy of Christ in an Age of Terror

An article from sister site FaithVisuals.com:
Using Media When Dealing with Tragedy

On Sunday evening, when I walked out to my car and pressed the button on my fob to unlock the door, nothing happened. I tried again and again. Still nothing. On Monday morning, the mechanic said he would call me with an estimate. He did, and it was painful.

In the wake of the tragic slayings at Virginia Tech, you may be called on to interpret the meaning of such events. Below are four sermons from Preaching Today Audio that may help your thinking. The last two sermons are by pastors from Littleton, Colorado, who spoke in their churches following the Columbine High School shootings.

God's Noninterventions
By George Wood

Jesus Wept
By Bryan Chapell

Tragedy and the Providence of God
By Jerry Nelson

Two Sets of Plans
By Bill Oudemolen

In addition, here are some videos from sister site FaithVisuals.com on three keywords:

Pain, Suffering & Death

A recent New York Times article reports on multiple studies tracking the increasing secularization of Hispanic immigrants to America. Decades of research shows that more and more Hispanics are abandoning faith--and two-thirds of those who claim to have "no religion" profess to being former churchgoers.

One interviewee suggests American culture makes forgetting about God too easy: "We pray to God when we feel the need to, but when we come here to America we don't feel the need."

Is there a magic number for the length of a sermon? At what point are we catering to cultural sensibilities that are averse to truth-discovery and serious spiritual formation? These are a couple of questions raised in response to my last post. Sermon length is such a critical topic that I want to return to it again. Thanks to Mark, Bob, and Robert for their thoughtful insights.

In my opinion, the magic number for sermon length is . . .

I'm obsessed with giving God my very best. This means I'm constantly making adjustments to my preaching. God has entrusted me with the proclamation of His life-transforming gospel, so how can I do less than pursue improvement in this task!

One of the adjustments I'm trying to make is to limit my sermons to 30 minutes. Most weeks, I'm at about 35 minutes. But recently, the length has been creeping towards 40 minutes. As I evaluate my sermons, I have to conclude that ?less is more.' Most, if not all, of my 40-minute sermons would be more effective at thirty minutes. As preachers, we have to wrestle with what is "too short" and "too long" for an effective sermon.

It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming! Resurrection Sunday! Here is my prayer for all of us who have the awesome privilege and responsibility of proclaiming God’s Word on Easter Sunday.

Almighty Father, we praise You for the gospel in which we stand – the death of Jesus for our sins and his resurrection which enables us to walk in newness of life. For the sake of your glory, empower us through your Spirit to proclaim the resurrection story this Sunday with passion, accuracy, clarity, imagination, economy, and boldness.

In an article that will appear on PreachingToday.com, Ligon Duncan, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi, speaks to the issue of sermonic bells and whistles. He writes:

The truth of the Bible is the most exciting truth in all the world, and so, while our job is not to make it exciting, our presentation of it ought not to diminish the excitement, practicality, and power of the truth of God's Word. We always ought to aim to do justice to the power and practicality of whatever passage we're preaching.

I’m in Idaho today speaking at a pastor’s conference on the topic of my book, The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative (Baker, 2002). Since I’m thinking about this topic, let me share three common pitfalls to avoid when preaching the stories of Scripture. This reminder is timely since many of us will be preaching the resurrection narratives in the gospels this weekend. I’m planning to preach on John 20. Here are the three pitfalls I’ve observed in reading, listening to, and preparing sermons.

At the 2007 National Pastors Convention in San Diego, editorial advisor John Ortberg gave a list of what he regards as the Ten Deadly Sins of the Preacher. Here they are:

A heartbreaking New York Times article tells of the mission of Colonel David Sutherland, commander of the American combat brigade in Diyala Province, Iraq. Sutherland and his brigade chaplain, Major Charlie Fenton, personally lay hands on and pray over the body of every dead or severely wounded soldier in their 5,000-strong unit.

While he will continue this ministry to the fallen, Sutherland had to realize his primary responsibility is to the men who remain on the front lines: "I needed this brigade to go on, and these soldiers needed to go on, for the living. Our reactions need to be for the people here, who need me and my soldiers to make the right decisions."