Being Eucharist and Preaching

In a challenging chapter from their book Jesus Wants To Save Christians,
Rob Bell and Don Golden write of eucharist:

Eucharist is a good gift and, 'Jesus is God's good gift to the world' (p. 148). And then, because the church is the body of Christ, 'The church is a living Eucharist, because followers of Christ are living Eucharists' (p. 150).

The church here becomes a good gift from God to the world. Not an empire which uses power or resources to defend a position or maintain influence. A good gift from God to a hurting world that needs to see weakness and brokenness in God and his people.

So, this is, among other things, cashed out in relation to preaching as follows:
The measure of a sermon is not whether it affirms what you already believe. A sermon is not a product to be consumed and then evaluated according to how good it was or whether it was pleasing or enjoyable.
If a sermon can be resolved in the time it took to deliver it, then it missed something central to what a sermon even is, which is connected with what the Eucharist is. The gathering of the church, in a service or worship or teaching setting, is to remind, instruct, and inspire people about being Eucharist for the worlds they find themselves in. It's written in the letter to the Hebrews that they shouldn't give up meeting together because they should "consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." (Heb 10:24)
These gatherings aren't the end; they're the beginning. They're the start. They put things in perspective, they remind, they provoke, they comfort, they inspire, they challenge, but ultimately they are about the Eucharist. About these people in this place at this time being equipped to be a Eucharist.
The Eucharist is ultimately about what we do out there, in the flow of everyday life. (p. 159-160)


How many sermons are preached to the gallery and applauded only because they tell us what we already believe?
How many sermons are forgotten before the last hymn is finished and never influence life in any way?
How poor is our form of worship when we omit a weekly celebration of the Eucharist as central to our calling as the church and our being God's good gift to God's world?