I believe that historically sermons would have been regarded as “public” discourse. In the UK at least, part of “public” worship.
Some, maybe the better ones, (but who knows because we only have what we have not the ones we don’t), would be published, some written down and reported in newspapers, perhaps discussed?
I guess that over the years with the declining cultural significance of the Church sermons have become more as private discourse, addressed to the Church, the congregation, the family as it were.
Through the recent widespread recording and at times enthusiastic publishing of sermons online congregations are making them very much public discourse again, in the sense they are out there, beyond the immediate rhetorical context, for all to listen to and comment on.
One critical difference in this new public of the sermon in contrast to the old, is that the wider public does not share the wider theological underpinning that previously helped the sermon make sense, if not necessarily agreeable, beyond the walls.
I wonder who we think we are speaking to in a sermon, whether the public sharing needs to change our approach, and whether or not their are times we should simply turn the videos off and talk to one another in the house.
politurgy 