Platitudes, preaching, and panic

Preaching is a frightening task. On the one hand, God warns you that you will be responsible for what you teach and preach, to the point that in one of the Gospels he comments that it would be better to tie a millstone around your neck and drown yourself rather than to cause one of his little children to stumble. On the other hand, from a purely human viewpoint, you are in front of everyone every week. And, being humans, this means that we are subject to all the fears and worries about how your sermon will be received. The pastor who claims that he does not worry about the reception of his sermon is probably not being fully honest with himself. Most preachers question themselves and wonder whether their sermons communicated what they wished to communicate.

But, the worst challenge to a priest/pastor/preacher is the challenge of beginning to use platitudes. What is a platitude? A platitude is, “a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.” Did you catch that? It is a statement that has been used, “… too often to be interesting or thoughtful.” What type of statements fit into this category? Well, following are a couple of secular examples of platitudes.

• Everything happens for a reason (including suffering and early death?)
• People are our most important asset
• It is what it is
• What the mind can conceive, it can achieve
• Winners never quit
• What doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger
• I don’t want a team of champions, I want a champion team. (Note that there is an I in “champion team”)
• Teamwork to make the Dream work
• “C’est la vie”
• Hard work always pays off
• God has a plan for you
• Great minds think alike
• Money can’t buy happiness
• Live each moment like it’s your last (not very pleasant)

Notice that a couple of them are religious platitudes. If you want even more,  you can look them up using Google, but they exist, such as:

• God never gives us more than we can handle.
• Love the sinner, hate the sin.
• There are no atheists in a foxhole.

The problem with platitudes is that quite often they are half-truths. Sometimes, they are even fully false. But, they have the sound of a wise saying when they are actually misleading, but correct-sounding, clichés. For instance, it is true that, “people are our most important asset.” But, every employee knows that the phrase is meaningless. In almost all companies in the USA, the making of money takes precedence over making the employee so important that you are willing to make a little less profit in order to take care of your employee. The current drive to raise the minimum wage is a perfect example of the difference between the cliché, and the reality that an employer will pay an employee as little as they can get away with.

“Money can’t buy happiness.” That is true in a general sense, but it is also incredibly true that having more money that the minimum you need to live on can also relax you and allow you to be happy. Frankly, money cannot buy happiness sounds more like what could be interpreted as sour grapes. The idea was well expressed in the movie, “Fiddler on the Roof,” when Tevye sings his famous, “If I were a rich man … .” At one point, he finally says to God:

“Dear God, you made many, many poor people.
I realize, of course, that it’s no shame to be poor.
But it’s no great honor either!
So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?” …

“Lord who made the lion and the lamb,
You decreed I should be what I am.
Would it spoil some vast eternal plan?
If I were a wealthy man”

It is easy for a preacher to fall into platitudes. It makes sermon preparation easier because a platitude is generally well-accepted by most in the culture. Only those for whom the platitude grates against their personal experience will notice that what the priest is saying is not fully true. Meanwhile, the preacher does not have to struggle with the Holy Scriptures and with Holy Tradition. The priest who uses platitudes is not opening himself to the work of study and the work of the Holy Spirit. Both works are necessary in order to deliver a homily that is not simply a mess of platitudes or a mishmash of bad theology. Also important is the prayer support of the congregation and the positive feedback that encourages the priest to keep on preaching homilies that show both the work that he has put into the homily and yet the underlying support of the Holy Spirit that undergirds and permeates the homily.

And, so, I pray that I may not fall into platitudes. I pray that I may avoid the temptation to preach the easy homily. I pray that what I do I will continue to do unto the glory of God.