A reader on preaching: making connections

Every Sunday all over the world people rise up and claim to speak in the name of God.

It is an astonishing thing to do and an astonishing claim to make.

It is small wonder that the sermon has been the focus of debate, discussion and investigation.

It has been dismissed as irrelevant in today's culture and has become the butt of numerous jokes and caricatures.

Yet the claim persists that these human words in some way can become God's message to these hearers.