Basket
0 Items
Be like Jeff
Preaching from Years A & B, November 2026 to January 2027
I’m not proud of the amount of time I occasionally spend ‘doomscrolling’ on Instagram. However, in my defence, it is my preferred way to engage with the world of stand-up comedy. In this issue on preaching and politics, stand-up comedians (and comedians in general) are noteworthy as those who have often held a valuable place in politics. Using humour can be an effective way to point out flaws, question those in power, and make political issues easier for people
to understand.
One of my favourite recent discoveries is a comedian called Jeff Innocent. Jeff is a shaven-headed, grandad-figure from East London in his late sixties. He wears a tracksuit and sports an earring which makes him look like a ‘tough cockney geezer’ who you wouldn’t want to mess with. As someone who also hails from East London, I particularly appreciate Jeff’s humour as he makes references to things characteristic to the area and he reminds me of many folk that I know.
One of the reasons for Jeff’s success is the surprise element to his comedy. Jeff touches on subjects that others might avoid, such as the topic of immigration. The surprise is that his position on a wide range of political issues does not match what many might assume based on his appearance. Jeff has a Nigerian wife and a son who is gay. Jeff draws on his life experiences to address, for instance, the harmful rhetoric around immigration that has pervaded areas of British politics.
As preachers, whether we acknowledge it explicitly in our talks or not, we are speaking about things that ought to affect us personally, whether directly or indirectly. Like Jeff, it is through drawing on personal experience and personal affect that we can offer a prophetic and sometimes surprising challenge in our preaching.
The seasons covered by these sermons naturally invite reflection on God’s presence being revealed through ordinary people doing ordinary things. Clare Wordsworth picks up on this theme and suggests, in the light of this, that sometimes ‘the greatest gift we can give another person is hope’. David D. Scott memorably invites a change of perspective that means us embracing being ‘Christmas Nobodies’. Similarly, Liz Shercliff’s reflection on the vocation of Mary pointedly highlights that ‘patriarchal power and clerical clout’ may ‘disregard everyday women, but God does not’.
Other sermons in this collection pick up the mantle to offer a faith-filled response to political issues. In his sermon on a difficult passage, Duncan Macpherson asserts the authority of Jesus over the ‘demons’ of inequality, violence and the warfare that targets the innocent and vulnerable. Alex Summers, a Chaplain for the Royal Navy, also reflects on warfare in a challenging talk for Remembrance Sunday. In another example, Delroy Hall uses a relatable anecdote from his childhood to illustrate Ezekiel’s prophetic challenge to leaders obsessed with self-protection and self-preservation rather than seeking to give life to others.
Like Jeff, as preachers, we have opportunities to confound expectations by speaking with conviction and clarity about political issues that others may not connect with us. Led by the Spirit, we are called to name what matters to Jesus and the body of his Church, and therefore to us, personally. In other words, to engage more fully with the politics of the age, we need to be a bit more like Jeff.
Welcome to The College of Preachers
To explore the website fully, please sign in or subscribe.
Non-subscribers can read up to three articles a month for free. (You will need to register.)
This is the last of your 1 free articles this month.
Subscribe today for the full range of resources from The College of Preachers, including Lectionary sermons for every Sunday, book reviews and more.
Issue 203: Preaching in an Age of Outrage
