Sermon

SERMONS IN CHRISTIANITY

The sermon has been an important part of Christian services since early Christianity and the Bible contains many of these early addresses. These include: Jesus' sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7, Peter after Pentecost in Acts 2:14-40, Stephen in a long speech to the Sanhedrin , which presents his view of the history of Israel in Acts 7:1b–53.

The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Heinrich Bloch

Despite knowing little of Christian doctrine himself, Constantine The Great was very fond of conversing with bishops about religion and in his later years he personally preached sermons, presenting them in his imperial palace before his court and invited guests.

One priest in a medieval French village church used a certain visual aid for his sermons. It was a wooden crucifix containing a spring connected by an iron rod to a pedal at the base, which the preacher operated with his foot making Christ's head, eyes and tongue move.

Some medieval western European congregations used a sand-clock to time their parson's sermon. They placed an hourglass conspicuously on the pulpit to ensure his sermon didn't go beyond an acceptable time.

On February 24, 1209, Francis of Assisi heard a sermon based on Matthew 10:9 that changed his life forever. The gospel passage recounted Christ telling his followers they should go forth and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven was upon them, that they should take no money with them, nor even a walking stick or shoes for the road. Francis was inspired to devote himself to a life of poverty

On December 20, 1576 Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, sent a letter to Queen Elizabeth I of England protesting her order that he tell preachers throughout England to stop speaking so often. She felt three or four sermons per year were sufficient. Grindal's refusal to enforce her wishes earned him house arrest.

Edmund Grindal 

On December 9, 1621, deacon Robert Cushman gave a sermon to settle jealousies and animosities among settlers of the Plymouth Colony. He had come to help straighten out affairs, and he preached out of Corinthians, encouraging true friendship and love among the settlers. It was the first recorded sermon on American soil and the first to be printed there.

The poet and Church of England cleric John Donne (1572- 1631) was recognized as the most brilliant and eloquent preacher around in his day. Listening to a spellbinding preacher was one of the most popular entertainments available to the common people at the time and many flocked to listen to famous preachers such as Donne. Crowds including the King himself came to hear sermons, which often last several hours.

Two months before his death Donne preached his legendary "Death's Duell," his so-called funeral sermon."We celebrate our own funeral with cries, even at our birth," preached the poet, who was seemingly obsessed with the subject for his entire life.

Henry Smith (ca. 1560 – 1591?) was an English clergyman, whose sermons at St. Clement Danes in London drew enormous crowds, and earned him a reputation as "Silver Tongued" Smith. Such was the current popularity of preaching as entertainment in England that at least 128 editions of the sermons of the popular Elizabethan puritan preacher Henry William "Silver Tongued" Smith were published between 1587 and 1637 compared with 90 editions of the works of Shakespeare.

Henry Smith

John Calvin felt the most important part of the church service was the sermon when the congregation would be made to think very seriously about their faith. "I am given to understand that your very full sermons are giving some ground for complaint," he once wrote to his friend William Farel. "I beg you earnestly to restrict yourself, enforcing, if necessary, rather than offer Satan any handle which he will be able to seize."

One of the king's chaplains, Dr Robert South, was in the middle of preaching before King Charles II when he looked up from his notes to find to his mortification that the monarch and his attendants had fallen asleep. Some of the attendants were snoring so South interrupted his sermon and called to one of the attendants, "Lord Lauderdale, rouse yourself. You snore so loudly that you will wake up the king."

On one occasion, Dean Jonathan Swift was admonished for preaching a charity sermon of such an excessive length that by its conclusion the congregation felt totally uninclined to contribute to the cause concerned. The next time the Dean determined to keep it brief and he proceeded to announce his text from Proverbs 19 v 17. "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward him for what he has done." He repeated this twice more then continued, "You, have heard the terms of the loan. If you like the security, put down your money." Then he sat down and watched the congregation donate in a much more generous manner.

In the 18th and 19th centuries during the Great Awakening on the United States, major evangelistic sermons were preached at revival meetings. These sermons were noted for their "fire-and-brimstone" message, in which preachers preached to their congregations hell fire and damnation without repentance during mass "call and response" services.

These "fire-and-brimstone" messages were typified by Jonathan Edwards' famous 1741 "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" speech. When Jonathan Edwards preached, he would read his sermons word-for-word in a monotonous tone, rarely lifting his head to look at the listeners. Yet still the power of God moved in people's hearts through the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

For over 50 years John Wesley preached 15 times a week on average a total of close to 40,000 sermons, sometimes to crowds of over 20,000 people. The English evangelist popularized the phrase "cleanliness is next to Godliness in his sermon, On Dress. The term originated in the writings of the ancient rabbi Phinehas Ben Yair.

In 1833 John Keble (1792-1866), a parson's son, and professor of poetry at Oxford preached a sermon on "Natural Apostasy" which sparked off the "Oxford Movement", a revival of Catholic spirituality in the Church of England.

David Livingstone was a poor speaker. During his first sermon for the London Missionary Society, he stood in the pulpit for five minutes in silence. The tongue tied fledgling preacher then admitted he had forgotten all he had to say.

Before becoming a full-time artist, Vincent Van Gogh wished to go into the ministry. When he preached his first sermon at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Kew, London he began with the words: "I am a stranger on this Earth. Hide not thy commandments from me. It is an odd belief and a good belief that our life is a pilgrim's progress."

Van Gogh worked for a time as co-worker at Turnham Green Congregational church in London, but the young Dutchman  preached long, ambiguous sermons that he read badly.

In 1903, The Reverend Milton Wright, an Evangelical United Brethren Bishop preached a sermon saying, "If God wanted to fly he would have given us wings". Three months after preaching his sermon, his sons, Orville and Wilbur Wright had built and flown the first self propelled airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Billy Graham got his first opportunity to preach in 1937 when his teacher John Minder unexpectedly assigned him the Easter evening sermon. Graham tried to get out of it, saying he was unprepared, but Minder persisted. Desperately nervous, Graham raced through four memorized sermons, originally 45 minutes each, in eight minutes.

Florida Pastor Zach Zehnder preached the longest sermon in recorded history in 2014 with a speech that lasted 53 hours and 18 minutes. The pastor of the Cross Mount Dora church in Florida set out to break the previous record of 48 hours and 31 minutes in an effort to raise money for a nonprofit that offers free alcohol and drug-addiction treatment services. Zehnder combined around 45 sermons and preached them sequentially which allowed him to surpass the record.

SERMONS IN OTHER RELIGIONS

Prince Gautama Siddhartha (563BC- 483BC) preached a famous sermon at Benares to five fellow ascetics in a park. His sermon "Turning of the Wheel of the Law" gave birth to Buddhism. This sermon is held in similar reverence by Buddhists as the Sermon on the Mount is by Christians.

Turning the Wheel of the Dharma | by Akuppa

In February 632 the prophet Muhammad left Medina, accompanied by all his wives on a farewell pilgrimage to Mecca, After completing the pilgrimage, Muhammad delivered a famous speech, known as the Farewell Sermon, at Mount Arafat east of Mecca.

Here is a list of songs inspired by sermons.

Sources Christianity Today, Christian Post