Sunday Morning in New York

It’s Sunday morning and we plan to attend worship at Riverside Church, where Harry Emerson Fosdick served from 1926-46.  Fosdick was a great preacher and people would line up early at Riverside to make sure they could get a seat in the church.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Fosdick sayings.  To preachers, who often give sermons bogged down in the minute exposition of every detail of scripture, Fosdick says, “Only the preacher proceeds upon the idea that folk come to church desperately anxious to discover what happened to the Jebusites.”

Rather, Fosdick thought people came to church because of some real need, perplexity, or desire.  For them, the Bible is a “searchlight” to be “thrown upon a shadowed spot.”

Still pretty good advice.