Plagiarism Smagiarism

Recently Christianity Today reported that a minister had been disciplined and requested to leave his church because he had been preaching sermons that had been written by someone else. Poor soul!! He had the audacity to use someone else’s thoughts! I suppose no one else has ever done such a dastardly deed. In 63 years of attending church, I just wonder how many sermons I have heard that were originally preached by someone other than the current speaker?? Oops, and I wonder how many I have preached?
Plagiarism is an age old dilemma. It seems I remember an often quote wise King as saying, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9) We are in a religious stupor today which seems to require the pulpitier to have stimulating, contemporary, “catchy” titles and contents, the which have never before been heard. Believe me; I’ve heard a few doozies! More than that, I’ve preached a few of those myself, and now look back “in awe of myself” and wonder where in the world I came up with that!!!
Probably more than 30 years ago now, my father shared with me a message he had preached the Sunday before. He was excitedly sharing with me his “new” message. You could hear the adrenalin rush in his voice as he begins telling me of this “brand new, never heard before” sermon that he had developed. I quietly reached over to my library and pulled out a book of messages preached over a hundred years ago by one of the great preachers of that day. I opened it and handed it to him, and there was his message, point by point, scripture by scripture, and thought by thought. He laughed, used his favorite bywords, “Oh good night,” and said, “Well, at least it was new to me.” I hated to burst his bubble, but truly there is nothing new under the sun.
The Word of God is ageless, timeless, and complete. It’s the same pie and there are only so many ways to cut a pie! Yes, perhaps the pastor could have or should have prefaced his remarks with, “as so and so said in his sermon, or, “I was reading so and so’s message on this subject and he said…” That possibly would have passed protocol. He didn’t, and I haven’t always either, and probably neither have 99% of all other preachers. Sometimes I wonder what really might be accomplished if no one cared who got the credit. Just because someone uses something that someone else has used, doesn’t necessarily mean he is dishonest, maybe he’s just honest enough to believe someone else has a better word or way of saying it than he.
As one radio personality in our area says, “You know what just burns me up??” I’m grateful for most of the contemporary music that we hear today, some of it though is of the stomach turning variety. I hear songwriters and musicians who have been made wealthy by their “ministries” say all teary eyed, “God gave me this song.” Okay God gave it; He should have the copyright, not them! However, if you use their song without their permission and paying them a fee, they will sue you for infringement. Now that’s just downright holy!! When I was growing up there were still hymnals in the racks at church that are now reserved for other things such as gum wrappers. I remember as a kid reading through them, I guess it was when the preacher was using someone else’s material to preach, and seeing the copyright notices. I recall one that stood out to me, as in the place of the copyright notice, it simply said, “Not copyrighted, and may this song never be. It is to the glory of God.” Now that writer has a reward in heaven. Perhaps others have their rewards now, in their bank account.
Through the years I have depended on the inspiration of the Almighty, and still do. However, I just wonder what I would have done without Pulpit Commentary, William Barclay, Vance Havner, Clovis Chappell, and the long list I have “plagiarized”. I thank God for them; they are my heroes and got me through many a Sunday morning!!
Incidentally, in the outside event anyone wants to quote anything here, it is not copyrighted and please don’t give me credit!!
As they say, “Use all of my ingredients you wish, just make your own chili!”