Why I Lie

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.

 

Colombo and the Dialectical Method

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.

 

This is Perception Theory

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

I know many of you are conversant with the basic formula of perception theory, but I just want to put it down here in preparation for my up coming post, “Why Evangelicals Can’t Make Art.” and “Why it is No Longer Possible to Hear U2, No Matter How Much One Listens.”

 

Choosing the Text

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.

 

The Lord’s Supper As a Revolutionary Act

How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons

The Lord’s Supper  As a Revolutionary Act

1.        A revolutionary act is unexpected—a surprise.  It is the radical surprise.  The unexpected revelation of the obvious.  Something so ordinary, so taken for granted that when acted upon seems radical.
The sacrifice of Christ is such an act.  This sacrifice, celebrated in the Lord’s Supper is at the same time so unbelievable and so expected.  God gives God’s own life for creation, for the ones God loves.  What parent would not do this?  It is the expected response, but to see it done, actually done, and on such a scale, in such a definitive way is revolutionary.
2.        A revolutionary act includes people, does not excludes them.  The act of communion is often not communion at all but exclusion.  The banquet table in the Kingdom of God is open to all.  It is peopled with those we don’t know, understand or like.  Christ sacrificed once and for all, and when we remember that definitive act of love through the ritual of the Lord’s Supper there can be no qualifications in our invitation to the table.  We should seek instead to find new words, new languages—A thousand new ways of inviting people to the table so that a thousand new people will feel welcome.

3.        A revolutionary act trusts God to reveal God’s self and trusts individuals to reveal themselves to God.  The Lord’s supper generally takes place in the context of the community, in the community worship service.  While this context is purposeful and meaningful, it is still an individual act.  It is the individual’s response to God.  Participation should never be seen as a sign of who is in and who is not.  The Words and prayers before the ritual must never seek to convince or persuade the hearers to participate or not.  The church is called to proclaim the good news.  The church is not responsible to clarify, guarantee or double check on the Holy Spirit’s revelation to individuals.  Nor is it the church’s right to demand some demonstration that the individual has received the Good News.
4.        A revolutionary act is an invitation not a threat.  The revolution of mercy coerces no one, believing the Good News is just that.  Before the communion ritual there can be no threats about the proper attitude of the heart or the sincerity of one’s convictions.  It is hard to always gauge the sincerity of ones own convictions to say nothing of another’s.  Christ says, “This is the blood of the new covenant I make with all of you.”  The heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about widening the circle, expanding the definition of chosen, removing the barriers between them and us.
5.        A revolutionary act is, finally that, an act.  An action.  Not an idea, philosophy, notion or intention—but an action.  Ideas only change the world when acted upon.  We are physical beings in a material world, acting something out makes it real.  When we are asked to “do this in remembers of me”, we are ask to do something.  The remembering does not take place simply in our minds.

Preaching with these things in mind, reflecting these things in the sermon leads to revolutionary preaching.
This is a different kind of revolution.  It is a quiet revolution.
It is a good thing to change the world.

 

A Preacher Should Preach

How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons

A Preacher Should Preach

Why are preachers so convinced that it would benefit anyone one for them to share how they feel?  What do I care how you feel.  If we are talking and we are friends or know each other or find ourselves in any sort of a situation where it comes up or is appropriate, please, then share your feelings.  I might share mine with you as well.  But in a sermon?
In a sermon a preacher should preach.  Is that a crazy idea?
A sermon is a very particular form of communications.  It is one part of a service of worship.  It is an interaction with Holy Scripture.
It is not sharing, it is not teaching—teaching!  Teaching sermons are the worst sort of non-sermons there are.  What will you teach me?  The Truth?  God’s Truth for my life?  I would rather have you share you feelings.
A sermon is not a motivational speech.  It is not a life application message.  Don’t tell me how to get along with my coworkers or bring passion back into my marriage.  Preach a damn sermon.  Tell me what the text says and then let me see how you wrestle the Good News out of it.
That can be only concern for a preacher when looking at a text.  What is the Good News here?  It is often easier to find a way to have it remind you of a life lesson that came out of a conversation with your young son, or to see how it could help you eliminate stress if you only prayed more or remembered to be thankful.  Finding the Good News in a nineteen hundred-year-old book written in another language and cultural context is hard.

 

The Evangelical Fallacy

How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons

The Evangelical Fallacy

These guiding principles of the Evangelical Hermeneutic stem from the original misspelled DNA of the cancer—the Evangelical Fallacy.  The Evangelical Fallacy is the bastardization of a logical equation which is never allowed to be resolved—its resolution would overcome the contemporary Christian and reveal their god to be the monster he is and confirm their own long suspected, but unconsciously hidden conviction that they are doomed.  That they will not die but live everlasting torture assigned by the gleeful dripping jaws of a sadistic god, who snarls endlessly, “I told you so.  I warned you.”

The logical equation that is written in the DNA of the Contemporary Christian is simple:

A then B therefore C

But in practice it is always and must always be:

A then B therefore…

The equation is never, and must never be, resolved.

A. God will love you and save you if you are good.

B. You are a sinner and can never be good.

Therefore

C.  God will never love you and save you.

 

Midrash on the Juanitos

Midrash on the Juanitos is the new book by Russell Rathbun, coming August 2008 from Cathedral Hill Press. This new work finds the Rev. Lamblove some six months after the the close of Post-Rapture Radio.

 

The Evangelical Hermeneutic

How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons

Chapter 7
The Evangelical Hermeneutic
The Evangelical Hermeneutic is what keeps the Contemporary Christian Culture Cancer growing.  As insidious as an undiagnosed Leukemia, the Contemporary Christian unwittingly brings this disease to the text.
It is, for one deep inside the conspiracy, impossible to see a passage any other way.  The cancer can not be removed—the patient must be—and that only by death.
When approaching a text such a one unconsciously applies the following principles to elicit its meaning.

1. It is about me.  Whatever the book, be it Pentateuch, prophets, psalms, gospel or epistle—it is talking about me.

2. It tells me what to do or what not to do.  An action is required on my part.  My ability to do or not to do what the bible tells me is equal to my goodness or wickedness.

3. It condemns those that are different from me.  People who are non-Christian (those who freely admit their lack of faith or worse profess a false faith) or unchristian (people who say they are Christian but demonstrate their lack of salvation by their actions, whether it be thinking premarital sex is not bad or going to an Episcopal church).

4. It implies the opposite.  Every pronouncement of grace points to my own condemnation if I fail.  Every promise is a threat.  Everything that God does, reveals what I must do.

 

I Used To Be So Sure

How to Preach Real, Relevant, Relational and Revolutionary Sermons

I Used To Be So Sure

I used to be so steady. I used to be so sure. I used to know all the answers. I used to ride my bike with no hands. Now I just concentrate on moving the pedals. I used believe as hard as a rock, now everything is soft and I only have a little faith. Only a little faith. Only a little.
I used to be so rock solid sure; I used to misunderstand so much. And I used to preach that misunderstanding, preach it hard like my rock of faith. And I used to pound that misunderstanding hard until other people believed it.
I used to be so sure.
Now I preach questions and a little faith. And reaching out to take the steady hand of Jesus and to reach out to steady someone else. And forgiveness, I preach forgiveness. I do this not for any credit in heaven or eternal reward, but because this is how I try to live my life.

I try to have a little faith and two outstretched hands. A little faith and two outstretched hands.