A homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at Trinity
Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, October 30, 2011.
“THE BUSINESS OF PREACHING: A PERSONAL REFLECTION”
(Homily texts: I Thessalonians 2: 9 – 13 & Matthew 23: 1 - 12)
This past
week, the thought occurred to me that it might be a good change of pace for me
to reflect with you on the business of preaching. Since I’ve been preaching for about ten years
now (beginning when I was in seminary), the art and the craft of preaching has
been a major concern of mine, since it has to do with the priestly ministry of
teaching.
So what
will follow here arises out of my own journey as a preacher. My prayer would be that what is shared here
will give you a glimpse into the goals that seem important to me as a preacher,
and into the mechanics of going about reaching those goals.
Before
launching into those aspects of the preacher’s art and craft, I might make an
observation, and it is this: Preaching
remains a major concern for God’s people.
Sometimes, in the world in which we live, that amazes me, especially because
people often make comments about “having to listen to a sermon.” Whenever I
hear such comments, it strikes me that the speaker doesn’t intend for the
comment to be taken positively. Perhaps
those comments are mostly meant to be a joke, or perhaps they arise from the
experience of having had to bear with a bad preacher or with bad sermons (they
are out there, to be sure!).
So
preaching is important, and it remains so.
God’s people put a lot of stock into the hearing of good, concise and
helpful sermons. As a preacher, I’m
thankful for that very positive sign of health among God’s people.
Let’s turn
our attention, then, to the business of preaching.[1]
Helpful tools
There are
some practical aspects to preaching which enhance the chances of success. Among them are these:
Humor:
A congregation needs to know that the preacher is a real, live human
being. Humor is one of the ways in which
a preacher can demonstrate such a reality.
In addition, humor can allow us to remember a divine truth (in much the
same way that setting something to music will do, also).
Length of sermon: In seminary, we used to talk quite a bit
about the length of a sermon/homily.
Concerns that peoples’ attention spans are shortening in the age in
which we live as a direct consequence of the design and pacing of television
and videos figured prominently in our discussions. The truth is that people today can sit still
for shorter periods of time than was common years ago, and their ability to
listen, comprehend and absorb teaching/preaching is also cast in shorter
allocations of time than was true in the past.
One seminarian remarked that a sermon/homily ought not to be more than
seven minutes long. I’m not sure that’s
true, exactly, but the truth remains that our sermons need to be shorter today
than they would have been in times gone by.
A humorous, but true, encounter I had with a parishioner will illustrate
the point quite well: Shortly after my
wife and I arrived in the Diocese of Springfield, I was preaching one day at
the Church of the Redeemer in Cairo (located at the very southern tip of the
State of Illinois). A wonderful
parishioner named Russell Ogg greeted me after the service. (Russell was a World War II Marine, a holder
of the Purple Heart, and as a consequence of his military service and his own
natural inclinations was a plain-spoken man.)
He held up his cane, pointing it directly at me, and said, “I will sit
and listen to a 20 minute sermon. I will
not listen to a 21 minute sermon, I’ll get up and walk out.” A little while later, his wife, Louise, came
up to me and said, “He means it. I’ve seen him get up and walk out
before.” I was a little shaken by
Russell’s comment, and said to my wife, “Dear, I think maybe it’s time that you
begin timing my sermons. If it gets to
be anything longer than 15 minutes, maybe we ought to devise some signal – like
having you pull on your earlobe or something – to warn me that I’m getting
toward the time to end it.” (We never
did implement that system, though oftentimes I will ask my wife about the
length of a sermon, its clarity, and her reaction overall…her feedback is
invaluable in assisting me to be an effective preacher. We all – as preachers – need that sort of
feedback.)
Finding one’s voice: Every preacher needs to find the ways in
which they can preach best. At times,
this will involve some of the mechanics of preaching (issues such as: shall I read the text, shall I use an
outline, shall I use just a few notes, or is it best for me to preach without
notes, outline, or text?). It will take
time to get used to the ways in which a preacher’s own mind, temperament and
gifts will dictate how a sermon or homily will unfold. It is usually a trial-and-error process, one
in which the congregation often acts as a guinea pig (pity the listeners who are
on the receiving end of a new preacher’s sermon…what an important ministry!).
Do your own work!: I have known preachers who get sermons off
the internet (yes, they’re out there!).
I have also known preachers who receive sermon outlines or summaries of
lectionary texts. Alas, my sense is that
using such tools short-circuits the prayerful, in-depth encounter with a text
that the preacher must engage in. Of
course, some prominent preachers across the Christian community have gotten in
trouble for preaching sermons that were written by someone else without
ascribing the sermon to its rightful author.
Failure to do the patient, searching work that is indispensible in the
life of a preacher essentially cheats the congregation, for it fails to allow
the congregation to enter into the text and into the preacher’s engagement of
it.
Goals which are kept in mind
No human enterprise will be successful, it seems to me, unless there is/are a goal/goals which are kept firmly in mind. Here are my goals as I write and deliver sermons:
Bringing God’s truth alive: God’s truth is timeless, applicable in every
age and in every circumstance. A goal
that I keep firmly in mind is that I hope to make the truth of God as we know
it in Christ Jesus known in what is said.
Enhancing biblical literacy: We live in an age in which many people do not
know much (if anything) about the Bible.
My, how things have changed in that regard during my lifetime! Time was that most people you might meet on
the street would have some basic knowledge of some of the fundamental Christian
truths and events in Jesus’ earthly life.
Now, that common knowledge base is gone, entirely gone. In its place, we have people who might
confuse Easter with Ground Hog Day (to cite one example that Bishop Martins
recently gave). So one of my major goals
as a preacher is to make the congregation into a group of biblical
scholars. Connected to that goal is
another one: To implant within each
person’s heart a longing to know more about the Bible, and about the truths of
God that its sacred pages contain.
Offering a challenge: One of the preacher’s tasks, it has been
said, is to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” Balancing these two can be difficult, and I
will admit to you that I sometimes struggle to wonder if I offer too much of
one or the other, comfort or challenge.
Of course, the Bible itself challenges us, challenges our very
assumptions about ourselves and our relationships with the Lord. But it also offers much comfort, for its
pages are filled with descriptions of God’s saving power, God’s abiding
presence and God’s compassion and care for us.
Approaches to
crafting a sermon
For each preacher, the approach to a sermon text or topic will vary with the particular skills and aptitudes of the preacher. Here is the approach I generally use (which may vary with differences in the text at hand):
Meet the text(s): An initial reading of the text is most
important. Generally, I do that when I
draft the lectionary insert for the following Sunday, early in the week. (I often will take a full day to allow the
previous Sunday’s text and sermon recede a little into the recesses of my mind,
to “clear the deck” for the new text and topic.) I read and reread the text, over and over
again.
Pray, pray, pray: Then, the text and my
meeting of it are bathed in prayer.
Oftentimes, the prayer is quite short and to-the-point: “Lord, what do you want me to say about this
text?”
Approaches to the text begin to take shape: One or more ideas which will introduce the
text come to mind. (The images and ideas
which arose in connection with our gospel text for today from Matthew were so
numerous that I had to simply pick one…see the section entitled “Forms”,
below.)
Taking the listener into account: No sermon or homily exists in a vacuum. Our Lord’s preaching and teaching was often
quite practical, and was tailored to specific problems or needs of His
listeners. Likewise, a sermon needs to
keep the intended listeners in mind.
Questions which arise in connection with this concern include: 1.
What’s going on with the congregation presently? Is there a particular challenge or problem
present? 2. What is the particular makeup of the
congregation in terms of its age, spiritual wisdom and maturity, and biblical
knowledge? (I will admit that this area
of preaching continues to gain in importance for me personally as I mature as a
preacher.)
Consider the context of the passage: An important question to answer is this
one: What is the overall context or
setting of the text as we have it today?
Oftentimes, knowing the answer to that question will make important
differences in the meaning or the application of the text. Especially important is the matter of looking
at verses which are omitted from the lectionary (no system of reading the Bible
is perfect!). Sometimes, omitted verses
don’t affect the meaning of the passage, but sometimes, omitted verses seem to
be a way to avoid dealing with the “tough stuff” that the Bible often presents
to us. My seminary training wisely told
us to look closely at a passage if the lectionary omits verses or seems to chop
up the passage. “Put those verses back
in, if it makes sense to do so,” was the sage advice received during my
seminary study.
Use of commentaries: One of the blessed kernals of truth which was
provided during my seminary study is this one:
Don’t consult a commentary on the passage you are going to preach about
early on in your consideration of the text.
Wait for awhile, and allow your own study, combined with prayer (see
above), to allow God to form within you what God might want you to say about
the text. Yes, commentaries can shed
important and indispensible light on a passage as the knowledge and insights of
persons who’ve devoted their entire lives to a deep immersion in the pages of
the Bible is shared in commentaries.
Using commentaries allows a deeper understanding of the cultural
settings of biblical accounts to be incorporated into the sermon. It also allows the nuances of biblical
languages (Hebrew and Greek) to be discovered.
But these resources are only meant to be supportive of the preacher’s
own study and preparation, not a substitute or a shortcut for study and prayer.
Biblical languages: I once knew a preacher who was fluent in
biblical Greek. He was one of those
people who could pick up a New Testament and translate it into English at
sight. He could also tell you the verb
tenses, and much of the nuances of meaning that words in the text carry. I envy people like that, for it isn’t a gift
that I have. That said, however, a
preacher’s skill will be sharpened if some knowledge of Hebrew and Greek is in
the training and background of the preacher’s life. Fortunately, today there are many and varied
resources to assist the preacher in understanding what the original languages
of the Bible convey in terms of thought patterns, meanings, and so forth. Alas, for the example I cited at the
beginning of this paragraph, that talented person never used Greek in sermons. I always thought that the listeners were
deprived, somehow, of the vast body of deep knowledge that that particular
preacher possessed. Such abilities are
blessings to be shared with others, to the upbuilding of the Body of Christ,
and using them does not tend to elevate the preacher above the listener, unless
there are issues of arrogance which are present in the preacher’s conduct
otherwise.
Turning the crystal: A wonderful image which has to do with the
business of preaching is captured in the phrase “turning the crystal”. Turning the crystal involves looking at a
biblical text from more than one angle, in much the same way that a piece of
fine cut glass will reflect the light that passes through it in various
ways. Varying the approach to a text
allows the listener to glean insights from more than one angle, particularly
because it is probably true that each listener hears his/her own sermon, and
the meaning grasped can be quite different from the one intended by the
preacher.
Choosing a formal structure: The formal structure of a sermon or homily is
often dictated by the shape of the biblical text itself.
In
former times, the traditional structure of a sermon was known as the “Three
Point Sermon”. Its structure was:
Introduce
the topic
Make
three points about the topic/text
Remind
the listeners of what you’ve just said
That
system probably isn’t used a whole lot these days. Instead, a large number of schemes have
arisen to take its place.
The
structure I most often use is called Hook-Book-Look-Took. These terms need some explaining, so here’s
what they each mean:
Hook:
Some memorable, brief introduction to the subject which is intended to
get (and hold) the listener’s attention.
Book: An in-depth look at the biblical text before the preacher and the congregation, including the context of the passage, meanings of key words, the cultural setting of the original hearers or writers, etc.
Look: We take a look at our own situation(s), applying lessons from the text to our own situation today.
Took: Applications we can take away from the text for our lives today.
Perhaps
this method is a variation on the traditional three-point sermon. It does share some similarities, I think.
Now,
how would Hook-Book-Took-Look be applied to our gospel text from Matthew, and
our epistle reading from I Thessalonians?
Briefly, here’s what come to my mind:
Hook:
One day recently, I was driving into the bright morning sunlight. As the sun’s rays hit the windshield of the
car, just about all I could see was the dirt on the outside of the windshield
and the film inside. When I was driving
away from the sun’s brightness, my windshield looked clean. However, turning the other way was quite another
matter. The Pharisees in today’s gospel
reading were much the same as my dirty windshield: seen in their own light, they looked pretty
good, but seen in the light of God, they became the focus of attention. God’s light showed that their behavior simply
called attention to themselves, and blocked out the ability to see God.
Book: The picture we have of the Pharisees isn’t a pretty one. They come off as self-seeking, self-serving legalists whose demeanor is hateful, arrogant and negative. (The spirit of the Pharisees is alive and well in the faith community today!). The Pharisees’ behavior is one reason that Jesus lamented the state of faith among God’s people. The corruption of the leaders of Jesus’ time can be seen most clearly in their plotting to get rid of Him.
Look: Bad leadership is always troublesome for any group of human beings. But bad, corrupt leadership of the people of God is particularly destructive, for such leadership allows Satan’s designs, which are to undermine God’s truth and to destroy the effectiveness of the gospel, to flourish. This is one reason why St. Paul takes so much time in writing to the Thessalonians to recount to them how transparent their leadership was when he and his ministry team where present in Thessalonica.
Took: Every person in leadership within the Body of Christ ought to be subject to an ongoing evaluation of their behavior, their attitudes, and their faithfulness to the faith once received by the saints. In every case where leaders are self-serving or arrogant, the dangers which arise in response to such leadership should alert God’s people to the threat such behavior poses.
Well, there you have it. I hope this window into my own approach to preaching has been enlightening and helpful. After all, the preacher’s goal ought to be that God will be encountered and seen in the sermon. If that goal is accomplished, then the preacher and his creation, the sermon, will recede into the background in importance.
[1] The entire field of preaching is known as homiletics. To aid in the formation of preachers, many,
many manuals and textbooks exist which are used in the training of preachers
today.
