Almost every week the main thing I have to do is sit down and write a 3-4000 word sermon on a particular topic or passage from the Bible.
A sermon is a weird genre of writing, because at some point that writing will be presented orally in an auditorium, rather than read in a book behind a desk or in an armchair or on a phone, like most writing.
And when the time comes for that sermon to be presented in that auditorium, I have a fair idea of who will be there and who will hear it, but I never know exactly. It’s a public event, so anyone can walk in and listen. Christians will definitely be there, but that’s such a broad category these days that I can’t even assume that all Christians are on the same page about most things. Roman Catholics could be there, or people with Roman Catholic background. People of other religions could be there, though that’s unlikely in my local context.
But someone that I always expect will be there, whether they are on the day or not, is an atheist. A Christopher Hitchens fanboy or fangirl. Someone who has read Dawkins and Hawkins, who watches Neil deGrasse Tyson and Brian Cox videos on YouTube, whose opinion can be regularly found in the comments section of social media news outlets saying something about religion going back to the dark ages…
And that atheist will not sit and quietly consider the truths of Scripture as I teach them, but heckles, from the back row!
The atheist heckler keeps me on my toes, and any time I start to use too much inclusive language and just talk to Christians they yell out “BORRRRING!!!!”
And when I assume that everyone is on the same page and say something like “… and that’s why there’s only two genders…” they can be heard, quite rudely, proclaiming, “BUUULLLLLLLLLLSHI…” at which point an old lady next to them elbows them in the ribs.
Now, the atheist heckler in question has never actually physically taken up a seat in one of my sermons and said or done those things, and yet they kinda have…
The atheist heckler isn’t a person, but is a way of thinking.
The natural pessimism of our culture towards Christianity, the Bible, and truth, even scientific truth, sits in the minds of almost everyone in my church.
They work with atheist hecklers, they teach them, they care for them, it’s their client, it’s their boss. The atheist heckler is their spouse, their boyfriend or girlfriend, their sister or brother, their parent, or their child.
The atheist heckler is their high school friend who berates them on social media any time they share something even vaguely spiritual…
So when I write a sermon addressing the hypothetical atheist heckler, I’m actually teaching Christians how to address their own, non-hypothetical, atheist hecklers.
However, that view assumes a false dichotomy, that there a faithful Christians in church and staunch atheists ‘out there’. But my experience in my own head, and from pastoring people who have been bravely vulnerable enough to share, is that sometimes the heckles from the staunch atheist don’t just hit our apologetics shields and bounce off, but sneak through and hit flesh. And their jabs and jibes and heckles get lodged under our armour and take root and cause doubt to form in the mind of Christians. And if we only teach our people how to address atheist hecklers ‘out there’, we unintentionally reinforce the false dichotomy, and we force the spiritually grey to choose between black and white.
If I, as a pastor, don’t assume that some Christians have said “Hmmm good point…” to the heckles of the atheist, then they will become increasingly dissatisfied with the defenses I equip them with, increasingly ostracised from the ‘us and them’-ness of the dialogue, because what they need is a safe space where they can have the regenerative, relevant, beautiful truths of Scripture applied to their own wounds of doubt, not a continued line drawn where I force them to pick a side.
When I write my sermon, I can safely assume that the voice and thoughts and doubts of the atheist heckler is present in the room in the hearts of mind of most Christians.
The voice of the heckler is the voice of the modern culture in the local context.
Interestingly, the atheist used to shout from the back, “PROVE IT!”
But in the last few years, as culture has taken its eggs out of the basket of objective truth, the atheist is now more of a postmodern secularist. And instead of demanding that religion prove its faith statements, the secularist now largely ignores religion, citing it as irrelevant. The secularist now yells from the back pew, “WHO CARES!!!??”
My hope as a preacher is to engage with that question. How can I use the beautiful truth of Scripture to not just prove, but persuade.
And I do that not by relying on science, or facts, nor do I descend to diatribe, but with truth and love.
The truth part, well, they may not agree with, or understand, but the love… the love will stand out!
The secularist thinks they have a monopoly on love, and are therefore the gatekeepers of who gets to love whom and how they get to love. What they don’t know is that God is love! Not a carrier of love, but the source of love. The foundation of it.
The secularist heckler in the back row doesn’t care for truth, but relevance. And relevance is measured by how it feels. Does it feel loving? Does it seem good? My hope as a preacher is not just to tell the gospel, nor to prove the gospel, but to display the gospel. To paint a persuasive picture of a gospelised culture, a gospelised community, a gospelised life, whilst also lovingly flagging the lies of the secular lifestyle and framework.
The modern preacher must preach to the various hecklers in the hearts, minds, and lives of believers.
The modern preacher must listen to their questions, and provide honest answers.
The modern preacher must come prepared to fight fire with water, a glass of cold water.