It's funny. I know less about preaching today than I knew ten years ago. A few years ago I could tell you what constituted a good sermon, what was needed to do it right. Today, I'm not sure. Why does a sermon work that has no reason for working? Why does a sermon not work when it's got everything going for it? I don't know.

I’m in the middle of a sermon. It's a good sermon, one on which I've worked hard. There I am, preaching, preaching, I look out toward the congregation. Nothing. Dead.

Why did I want to preach this sermon? What did I have in mind? Sometimes sermons backfire, roll over and play dead, limp off into obscurity, miss their mark. And maybe worse, sometimes they work and I don't know why.

I had a busy week. Monday through Saturday, with the youth at Disney World. Saturday night do…