13 Homilies Your Community Needs to Hear - Part I

Recently, Father Michael did a homily that struck me. As I was listening, I thought it was a message that people really need to hear at least once a year... maybe even a few times a year. This got me thinking, what are the homilies or core messages that need to be delivered over and over again? By this I don’t mean a rinse and repeat message. You can’t just re-give the same homily or teaching. This will just bore people and sound redundant.

A message often needs to be delivered seven times before it is really heard the first time. The presentation should look and feel different, but at it’s core, it is the same message. Also, as has been said, we don’t so much need to be told the truth but reminded of it.

These are thirteen reminders your community needs on a regular basis. I’ll share them over the course of four blogs:

One: God loves you. In Christ, you are the beloved.

This message runs the risk of sounding trite and overused. For some preachers, it is their only message and can water down this incredible truth: the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth doesn’t just tolerate us, he loves us. God so loves each of us so much that he sent his Son to die for us. Staggering!

When this message is communicated, it needs to be done creatively and/or with incredible passion. The truth needs to sneak up on them and hit them emotionally. If people have been in church for any length of time, they heard it before. The risk is that people will yawn and say, “Heard it. What else you got?” Most people have heard it but so few people have had this incredible truth pierce their heart. And even those of us who have heard it, need a fresh appreciation of God ‘s love. For those who have never heard this message, they desperately need to hear about it in a compelling way.

Opportunities abound to preach this message to our communities. Many Scripture passages describe and remind us of God’s love. The one most obvious is John 3:16. “For God so loved the world he gave his only beloved Son.” The baptism of the Lord every year is a great opportunity as well to remind our people that in Christ, we are beloved sons and daughters, that our heavenly Father delights in us.

Two: Everyone we meet matters to God.

Jesus didn’t just die for me; he died for every person I encounter. People matter to God and so they should matter to me. There are two messages on this topic that I still remember years after hearing them. Andy Stanley preached on this topic making the point that everyone you meet matters to God and is someone for whom Jesus died. Then he asked the pointed question, “How do you treat someone like that?”

The other message was from John Maxwell. At a Global Leadership Summit, he talked about the importance of valuing people every day. He offered five points for valuing people. I don’t remember all the points but I do remember him saying that in his prayer time each morning he ask God how he could add value to the people he was going to meet each day. I’m not as consistent with this as John Maxwell, but it is a prayer I do pray from time to time.

A great opportunity to preach this message is when the passage on the Great Commandment comes up in the liturgical readings.

Three: Church’s vision.

From time to time, people in your congregation need to hear that your parish has a plan for them to grow in faith and as followers of Jesus Christ. They also need to hear your parish’s vision for reaching the lost and impacting the world beyond the four walls of the Church. This matters for a few reasons.

Vision leaks and if we don’t remind parishioners that the Church exists not for the Church but for the world, it will slowly become a clubhouse for the convinced or a holy huddle.

Sharing the larger vision for the Church also prevents your parish from just going through the motions. Sunday is always coming and Mass last week looks like Mass this week. Speaking to the parish’s vision reminds the community that we aren’t “playing Church.” The exercise of gathering in worship is vital to honor God and then to go out and positively impact the world. Reminding people of your parish’s vision helps them connect the dots between Sunday and the rest of their week.

In reflecting on Nativity, this is a message we might are due to give again. We did a whole series on it a while back and you can find it in our content library. The series was called “Why we’re weird.” We shared and re-cast our vision in a fun and creative way. This series is one of many in our content library at www.rebuiltparish.com/content

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with the list so far? Take some time to write down your own list and if you like send it to me at tom@rebuiltparish.com.

Rooting for you,
Tom