Of all my blogs, this series on preaching has generated the most thoughtful responses and observations. This confirms my sense that most clergy care about our preaching. So, I want to conclude this series with some help for you in this and the next and last blog on this topic.
Exegesis: But first a word about exegesis. Several of you noted the issue of Exegetical Preaching and felt that I should say more on this topic. I would start with this. I make a distinction between exegetical work and Exegetical preaching. There is no doubt that if you are going to be good at this craft of preparing and delivering sermons, you MUST do your exegetical work. If not, you will yield to what one of my teachers at Yale called eisegesis, the word out of context. The world of biblical studies has been through a tremendous time of scholarship and understanding of our texts since 1870.
Therefore, the preacher today has more resources available via our library and the internet than any other age of the Church. Not to avail ourselves of this information is nothing short of a dereliction of our duty. I have always started my sermons with a study of the texts produced by outstand scholars. Notice that I said outstanding and not necessarily contemporary.
However, I learned from some great preachers that once having done this work, I must remember that my task is not to regurgitate what I learned to the congregation. To help me with this, I did my study on Mondays and my writing or structuring my sermons on Thursday or Friday. As I decided on my theme or what Fred Craddock called “the sermonic sentence, a single declarative sentence that was my subject for the sermon, I eliminated as best I could any story, illustration, or research that did not serve this theme. On Saturdays I would focus on delivery often revising my outline.
Some texts of scripture, the Prodigal Son, and other stories, lend themselves naturally to Exegetical Preaching. When that is the case, I use this method, if it serves the proclamation of the Word, why not? The only standing ovation that I received was in 2003 preaching in the largest attended Episcopal Church on the prodigal son. It was an Exegetical Sermon. But not all Exegetical Preaching serves proclamation, and it becomes more teaching. A good sermon has teaching in it, but a sermon is not only teaching.
Bruce Thielemann, the great preacher from First Presbyterian in Pittsburgh also observed that preaching verse by verse, a favorite of more fundamentalist and evangelical preachers, often produces better Pharisees than big hearted Christians. Thielemann also said, “Aim at the big idea, because life is too short to focus on bible trivia.” This leads me to my next point.
Proclamation: The Gospel is literally “God’s news, the good news” and this is our primary reason for preaching. When I would struggle with a text or message, I would prayerfully sit back and ask God and myself this question: What is the good news that I should proclaim today?
There are times when the imperative is necessary, but as I said in my last blog, it is much overused in TEC. Speaking of the good news, faith, hope, and love (agape) are the theological virtues produced in us by the action of the Holy Spirit. The Good News, of course, according to Paul, the Apostolic tradition, Augustine, Francis, Luther, the English Reformer Bishops, John Donne, Barth, Bonhoeffer to mention only, a few, is “We are saved by Grace through faith in the Son of God.”
Doctrine: Speaking of teaching; the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost (including the person of the Holy Spirit,) the Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of Sins for examples, are all part of this comprehensive God News. They also give us the chance to expand our congregation’s understanding of the Faith. I once preached as a visitor when the lesson came from the fifth chapter of Romans. I preached on being saved by faith and not works. At the coffee hour many long-term Episcopalians told me that they had never heard that preached before by which they meant both the text and the message. No wonder our people are so easily swayed by moralism!
Life in the Spirit, or Sanctification: One of the reasons that Charismatic Renewal of the 70’s and 80’ spoke to so many people was its emphasis on the experiential reality of the power of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life. This is, of course, dependent on God’s grace given to us in the gift of the Holy Spirit and not by any methods or techniques humans come up with on our own, even if the human in question is a priest or bishop. The first step of life in Christ, or Spiritual Life, is surrender, so too is the last step at our passing, and all that happens in between.
Sam Keyes an excellent writer and a former Episcopal priest, now a Roman Catholic, recently made this observation about our contemporary church life. “We often hear from secular people that they are “spiritual but not religious.” He observes that the Church should be the first to speak about the reality of human spiritual life, but then he asks, “Why then has the Church decided to offer religion without the spirituality as an alternative to secularism?” If you do not get his meaning, may I recommend that you find a good spiritual director!
In my next blog, I will conclude this series with some practical suggestions on how we are to preach.
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