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The sermon runs long, people are looking at their watches, the parking lot attendents are nervous about getting people in and out, and the temptation is to end the service with a quick benediction. Lancelot Andrewes says that to fail to pray is to fail.
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The 1600's were blessed by the preaching of Lancelot Andrewes. Called "the star of preachers" in his day, he served as chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, and conducted himself with great ability and integrity.
A brilliant mind, it was said at his funeral that he was conversant in 15 languages! But the book he left behind on prayer shows the true power of the man - he spent time on his knees, and was methodical in his intercession with our prayer-hearing God. It is not surprising then, that he tried to correct what he saw as an overemphasis on preaching in his day, at the expense of prayer.
For all his success in the pulpit, Andrewes believed the sermon to be only a part of the duty and service of Christian worship. Andrewes preached to present the essentional truths of the Christian religion, grappling with the mysteries of the Incarnation and resurrection, expecting his listeners to respond in faith and repentance.
But the sermon could not pray nor could it offer the sacrifices of the faithful. These were the function of the liturgy, especially as it is found in the English Book of Common Prayer, and the duties of the people. Andrewes criticized the Puritan model, which revolved around the extemporaneous and extensive sermon, as self-serving, placing too much emphasis upon the individual sermon and not enough upon corporate prayer.
"Is the pouring of the Spirit to end in preaching? and preaching to end in itself, as it doth with us? a circle of preaching, and in effect nothing else, but pour in prophesying enough, and then all is safe?", asks Andrewes. The sermon couldn't be an end to itself. Instead, the preacher's solemn duty was to enjoin the congregation to prayer and to communion with Almighty God. "It is the oratory of prayer poured out of our hearts shall save us," he once exclaimed, "no less than the oratory of preaching poured in at our ears."
Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle, says that the time of prayer and waiting on God at the end of the service is the most important segment of their worship service. It is difficult to carve out time at the end for reflection and prayer, and not to "eat into it" with other valuable aspects such as singing and the preaching of the word which preceed it.
But preaching by itself does not guarantee anything. You've heard the saying "in one ear and out the other." We would do well to listen to Andrewes, doing what it takes to allow time for prayer to follow the sermon. the oratory of preaching gets poured in at our ears, and then the oratory of prayer is poured out of our hearts, with the expectation that the full work of the Spirit will then take place. May God help us.
A brilliant mind, it was said at his funeral that he was conversant in 15 languages! But the book he left behind on prayer shows the true power of the man - he spent time on his knees, and was methodical in his intercession with our prayer-hearing God. It is not surprising then, that he tried to correct what he saw as an overemphasis on preaching in his day, at the expense of prayer.
For all his success in the pulpit, Andrewes believed the sermon to be only a part of the duty and service of Christian worship. Andrewes preached to present the essentional truths of the Christian religion, grappling with the mysteries of the Incarnation and resurrection, expecting his listeners to respond in faith and repentance.
But the sermon could not pray nor could it offer the sacrifices of the faithful. These were the function of the liturgy, especially as it is found in the English Book of Common Prayer, and the duties of the people. Andrewes criticized the Puritan model, which revolved around the extemporaneous and extensive sermon, as self-serving, placing too much emphasis upon the individual sermon and not enough upon corporate prayer.
"Is the pouring of the Spirit to end in preaching? and preaching to end in itself, as it doth with us? a circle of preaching, and in effect nothing else, but pour in prophesying enough, and then all is safe?", asks Andrewes. The sermon couldn't be an end to itself. Instead, the preacher's solemn duty was to enjoin the congregation to prayer and to communion with Almighty God. "It is the oratory of prayer poured out of our hearts shall save us," he once exclaimed, "no less than the oratory of preaching poured in at our ears."
Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle, says that the time of prayer and waiting on God at the end of the service is the most important segment of their worship service. It is difficult to carve out time at the end for reflection and prayer, and not to "eat into it" with other valuable aspects such as singing and the preaching of the word which preceed it.
But preaching by itself does not guarantee anything. You've heard the saying "in one ear and out the other." We would do well to listen to Andrewes, doing what it takes to allow time for prayer to follow the sermon. the oratory of preaching gets poured in at our ears, and then the oratory of prayer is poured out of our hearts, with the expectation that the full work of the Spirit will then take place. May God help us.
