Of Preaching and Newspapers
Sermons are rarely more tiresome than when they strive for relevance. Drawing from the latest headlines transforms the preacher into a one-man MacLaughlin Group, a Crossfire without the cross though perhaps with some of the fire, and leaves the congregation thinking, “If I wanted Meet the Press, I could have stayed in bed.” I spent some time once searching for the source of the exhortation, “Preach with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.” My search was unsuccessful, which is doubtless just as well, else I might be tempted to follow an uncharitable impulse to construct a contemporary Purgatorio in which the author of that statement was forced to listen, unto ages of ages, to some of the sermons he inspired. — Peter Leithart, “Of Preaching and Newspapers.”
The whole essay is worth reading, as is Tim‘s “Plea for Impractical Preaching.”