I love the take that Fred Rogers had on this topic. (Many people do not know he was an ordained Presbyterean minister who had been to seminary himself!) He told this story on several occasions that I know of, including in at least one of his books:
When I was a seminary student taking my first homiletics course, one Sunday I heard the worst sermon anyone could ever give…I thought! A substitute preacher had come to our church and, in his sermon, went against every rule that we had been taught in class. As he finished, I was ready to give him my unspoken failing grade; but I happened to look at the woman who was sitting beside me. With moist eyes, she turned and said, ‘That preacher said exactly what I needed to hear.’
Well, that service turned out to be one of the most important times of my life. Obviously, something had happened between that preacher’s poor sermon and that woman in need. It hadn’t happened to me. Of course, I had come there in judgment – not in need.
Ever since that day, I have recognized that the space between a person who is doing his or her best and a person who has come in need – that space is holy ground. The Holy Spirit can use whatever we offer to speak to another person’s heart. So whenever I make a television program or give a speech or just talk with a neighbor, I realize that all I need to do is give the best that I can, and God will translate it into whatever is needed most.
If you come as a beggar, as a person in need, then you’ll get what there is to be had. It doesn’t make a poor homily into a good one nor does it remove the importance of priests who make an effort to deliver really good homilies. It does mean that nothing that the Holy Spirit intends to give you will be wasted because you were sitting in judgment.
That applies to so much in life, doesn’t it?