I love words. Every once in a while I come across one that I cannot help but be excited about using. So “Thank you” in advance for your tolerance and patience as I roll out the first ever “wordsmithin’” segment on O|F|A|D (for the cool kids playin’ at home).
I don’t remember the first time I heard this word, but I remember it was in reference to Paris Hilton.
Here’s a passage that could rightly said to be capturing the concept behind vapidity.
Hebrews 5:11
11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
The writer of Hebrews wants to talk to us about true doctrine and guard us against heresy, but we have grown tired of the Pastor (who is over his allotted time…. AGAIN!). We find the dogma to be vapid. No more about belief. Tell me what to do. That gets me excited. No more of what you call meat. Give me something sweet to eat.
Dorothy Sayers argued, “the dogma is the drama.”
Do you find doctrine to be vapid or vibrant?
I'm getting better about finding doctrine to be vibrant, but it always helps me focus when a pastor uses real-life illustrations and personal anecdotes throughout a sermon; I'm better able to focus and figure out how to apply that doctrine.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. The Word is active and living and when wielded by a man well-versed in the verses, it cuts to the quick and brings us again and again to repentance, faith and hope in Christ alone. It is not that sermons need to be more like lectures, it is that the Gospel of God is the Good News. The danger to which Sayers, I believe, is pointing is the temptation to find our focus on things other than what the focus of Scripture points - Jesus.
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