March 28, 2008
How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
What Sermons Are About
Sermons are about Jesus.
You don’t have to mention Jesus. Sometimes it is better not to. Hide what you have to, use what ever rhetorical device or character the text calls for, but underneath the sermon must be about Jesus, not you or the congregation or Martin Luther King Jr. or the president. Jesus.
March 20, 2008
How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
Why I Lie
It is not completely honest for preachers to think they are being themselves while preaching. I can not think this it is just me up in front of the congregation, just talking about the bible, like I would in a bible study or a personal conversation. A bible study or conversation seeks to do different things than a sermon. A sermon is part of a service of worship. It is worship. And worship is not a classroom, a lecture hall, living room or the pastor’s study.
Preaching must be worship and worship is the people coming before God, not the preacher coming before the people. A sermon must be the people coming before god. Encountering god in the text. The text always points to god, is about god. It is about pointing to Jesus in a way that we might all look in that direction and see god reveling god’s self in Jesus the Christ.
So this demands a different kind of speech, speech that seeks revelation and demands a different kind of speaker.
A preacher cannot think she is being unselfconscious in her delivery.
In liturgical traditions vestments are used to make this point. The preacher dons them to say I am not Pastor Doug or Rev. Debbie, I am a Priest. I am the facilitator of this worship of god. I am the Preacher.
For so long I tried to be sincere in my preaching, to make sure that I was not putting on airs or playing a part, but to be the authentic me, talking, really talking in a real way to the congregation. To talk just as I would to a friend.
Why did it take me so long to realize what a lie it was? I am not me when I am preaching. No matter what I tell myself. No speaker is. The situation precludes it. I am not just talking to a friend; I am preaching a sermon to a congregation. It is a specific occasion with particular exceptions on the part of both the hearer and the Preacher.
Why did it take me so long to realize what an unhelpful strategy it is to try and be myself.
If it is truly not possible to be my self while being the preacher then why not spend as much time figuring out who I should be for a particular sermon as I was would worrying about trying to be the authentic me.
So I lie.
In truth I am not really lying. I am acting, embodying, telling a story—I am preaching a sermon. I am not lying unless I think I am really being me.
March 13, 2008
How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
Colombo and the Dialectical Method
I refuse to believe that people will not listen to sermons. Yes, it is true that most congregates in most churches can not remember the theme, main points or scripture a sermon was based on by the time they leave the parking lot, but that can not be the fault of the congregation. They are not dumb, lazy, thoughtless, shallow or bad. It can only be the fault of the Preacher and her or his sermon.
There are generally only two things wrong with most preachers—what they say and how they say it. Other than that everything is good. They usually look nice and are pleasant to talk with.
Maybe people stopped listening to sermons for very good reasons. They have heard preachers and they have heard sermons and the preachers always say the same things in the same ways. Mostly both the content and the presentation are inauthentic—not that the preacher knows that. The Conspiracy has indoctrinated the preachers with the absorbed reading and the evangelical hermeneutic to an even greater degree than the congregant. The preacher tells the lies of the C.C.C.C. happily or at least ignorantly.
So people stop paying attention because there is nothing worth spending their attention on. Unfortunately, when something new or true or remotely interesting does come up in a sermon the people will never hear it because they have trained themselves not to listen. They know what the preacher is going to say. But the one person that everyone listens to–pays attention to—the one person whose opinion everyone trusts and believes is his or her own. So a preacher to be successful must engage the hearer in a way that compels them to extract some meaning from the sermon.
To this end I have tried to develop a method that allows people to discover what I want to say in a sermon on their own. This is not easy and does not happen right away. Most of the congregation, I think would report as they were leaving the parking lot that, not only did they not understand what I was talking about but are pretty sure that I did not know either—but they remember the sermon. I try to preach for Wednesday.
To do this I draw on Kirkegaard and Colombo for my methodology. Kirkegaard will sometimes present two opposing viewpoints, arguing both with equal credibility. This, hopefully, compels the hearer to examine and engage the argument. It is also valuable sometimes to present a sermon that contradicts what I am trying to say. The engaged listener then picks up the point by finding fault with my argument. Then the truth is theirs. I did not give them any answers; they had a moment of understanding.
The Colombo Method is taken from Peter Falk’s characterization of the TV detective. Colombo never really solves a crime or accuses anyone of anything, he just asks questions and people confess. Colombo is not at all threatening. He is at best endearing and at worst irritating. He comes off as confused and inept. By admitting that he does not have the answers, people let their guard down. The listener goes from a defensive or disengaged position to a feeling of superiority and amusement. When Colombo fails to pick up even the most obvious fact the listener can not resist pointing it out.
People do not like to be talked down to, but seem to love to be talked up to. Therefore, if in a sermon I say, “What St. Paul is saying to us is…” or “What Jesus means by this is…” well that is standard fair people have heard those phrases many times before. If I say, “What in the world does St. Paul mean by that?” or “Who could ever figure this out?” Then perhaps the listener says to herself, “I can” and they do.
In preparing a sermon using the Colombo Method I first ask myself, “What is the Good News in the Text?” When I discover what I think it is, I ask myself next, “How can I hide it in the manuscript?” Then I go about planing clues throughout the sermon.
If I have done my job, the listener will put the clues together.
March 8, 2008
Perception theory says, that when a thing (person, work of art, theory, idea, belief, band, flower) is put into the service of an ideology and that ideology has sufficient power to energize (promulgate, distribute, sell) said thing is no longer accessible.
Or
When something that is cool becomes wildly popular (which means there must be an energizing agent) it is no longer about what it was about. It is about the energizing agent.
Or
Thing + EA = Whoo Hoo!$!$! is < Thing
March 4, 2008
How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons
Choosing the Text
OK. This is harder than you think. First what is the text. Where did it come from? Did you pick it yourself or was it prescribed by the Lectionary?
It is a dangerous thing to pick a text yourself. What are your criteria for selecting a text? You have something you want to say? You have a lesson you want to teach? You have a point you want to make? You want to address a particular situation? These are all wrong reasons to pick a text. You don’t get to chose what you are going to say the text gets to choose what you are going to say.
Have faith in the text. Have faith in the Bible. There is Good News there. You have to believe it with everything that you have. Or believe as much as you can with as much as you have.
Use the Lectionary. Follow a program of prescribed readings. That way you are free. You are free to be confronted by the text. This saves you from the first temptation to manipulate. Choosing a text on your own always comes with the temptation to choose your subject. Again you don’t get to choose what you are going to say, the text gets to choose.
That way when some one asks you, “What are you preaching on this Sunday?” The answer is not, “Redemption,” or “The Christian Meaning of Love” or “Forgiving Your Enemy,” or “The State of Our Heath Care System,” it is Luke 17:1-10 or John 5:23-37.
