Faithful Art
(or)
A Lesson Before Preaching
Richard Lischer
Overview: The Four D’s:
Discovery Discernment Design Delivery
Discovery—search for and sum of everything in the text and elsewhere
Discernment—based on what you’ve meditated on and learned, what will this text say to my congregation? The answer leads to an intuition of its
Focus—the central, unifying idea of the sermon
Function—what you, the preacher, hope it will do or achieve in the listener
Design—a strategy of communication; a journey in thought and feeling
Delivery—oral practice and performance of the message, not a reading of it
We seek a method that is:
a. responsible to our calling
b. repeatable without reinvention
c. realistic to our talents and the time at our disposal
Tips (about the process)
devote as much time as possible; work over multiple days; the method cannot be compressed into a night—no more Saturday Night Specials!
It is not work that others can do for you on a consistent basis. The key elements of the sermon come from your own heart and brain.
All stages are integral to the process of preparing a sermon; the last stage (delivery) is as important as first.
Develop a routine. A habit, even. Trust the spirit to work through the process.
Make preparation as oral as possible. Try talking the sermon through from the beginning.
Do not bond with your first inspirations or your first inclinations.
Don't rush to commentaries or other sermons. Start with prayer and scripture.
Seek the distinctive message and purpose of each text, especially, in what appear to be parallels passages.
Preach on one text, never three.
Pre-Method / Pre-Everything
Pray about the sermon. Pray using the themes or imagery of the text. Pray as specifically as possible for those who will hear it. Pray for the church. Pray for yourself. Pray after the sermon. As Luther said, if you have preached the gospel, there is no need to ask for forgiveness.
Step 1. Discovery
Discovery asks a series of respectful questions:
Think of it as a respectful dialogue: It is a grid of questions you answer as you prepare to preach: Rule: You are not an interrogator, asking "Tell me what you know" but, with the psalmist, confessing, "You have searched me and known me" A believer's exegesis always involves the interrogation of the subject—you.
Visit the following frames or “sites” of questioning:
liturgical
personal
text-context (see the OT, Epistle, and Gospel worksheets appended)
literary
historical
theological
Liturgical questions:
The basic unit of meaning on Sunday morning is the service not the sermon. The sermon is always a part of something larger than itself. The sermon is always a part of something larger than me.
Church year: what is the mood of the season? No need to give a lecture on the church year, but you must catch the mood, e.g. Advent=expectation
Guiding principles of the church year: a. preparation b.celebration c. reflection—note how the New Testament follows these principles when it speaks of Christ’s resurrection.
Liturgical time = a necessary alternative to calendar and programmatic time that we live in.
Look for the Kairos of the day.
are there baptisms, eucharist, special prayers or actions?
hymns, prayers, psalms--readings--let them all, including the sermon, try to do the same thing.
Personal Questions
It’s not about me, but it’s hard to avoid the preacher’s prominence in the act of preaching. Preaching is the church's gospel as it is displayed through your particular effort. It's not like the sacraments. You are a conduit, but your preparation, intelligence, and spirituality do matter in the process.
Preparing to preach is your spiritual discipline: It works like this:
Ancients knew the following steps:
Reading
Meditation (Self-examination. How has this text been activated in my life?)
Praying the text for yourself and others
Contemplation (looking uncritically at the text with the believing eye of a child)
Read slowly— When it comes to textual preparation, the idea is not to "gut" the text as though it were a class reading assignment.
Read aloud—dramatically—read it in the sanctuary.
Read the text prayerfully. Pray the text and for others. For example: read portion of John 5: view it, then pray for those who wait for deliverance. Think of those who wait within our own experience. Pray for them Go to them. Pray for yourself.
Read and meditate on those who listen (in their locations if you wish).
There are two locations for exegesis: sanctuary or your work place and the places where you are with your people—cf. John 5 Bethsaida=hospital or rehab center, a prison, an airport.
Textual Questions: Assemble your trusted books
Literary basics
What kind of literature is the text? Prose or Poetry? Parable? Miracle? Allegory? Short story? Apocalyptic Vision? The genre is the first thing you notice.
It’s important because often, the genre gives the initial clue to the kind of reader-reaction that is expected. Miracle exacts a “wow”! A beatitude is a blessing, not a strategy. Poetry is not meant to be analyzed logically but experienced.
Quoth the meteorologist:
“A combination of warm air mases and industrial pollutants produced a thermal inversion with a density rating of .4 ending at 11:28 A.M.
Quoth the poet:
The fog comes
On little cat feet;
It sits looking
Over harbor and city
On silent haunches,
And then moves on
Ex. 14: (prose)
The waters returned and covered the
chariots and the horsemen and all the host of
Pharoah that had followed them into the sea.
Not so much as one of them remained.
Ex. 15: (poetry)
I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed
gloriously; the horse and his rider he has
thrown into the sea. the Lord is my strength
and my song, and he has become my salvation.
Preaching deals with what Luke in Acts l8:25 calls the ta peri tou Jesu which the NEB translates, "the facts about Jesus," but, notice, most of the great Christological assertions are in poetry. Why?
Additional literary basics:
How is this story a subplot of the larger narrative: e.g., how is the Sending of the Seventy in Lk 10 a part of a larger narrative, the Travel Narrative beginning Lk 9:51
Notice the language of the text. E.g, the judicial language of Rom 8:31 ff.
Notice the conflict in the text (it’s there in every text).
Notice the dialogue in the stories. Who gets the last word (German Stichwort)? The “point” or “cue” is often in the last word of dialogue.
Notice the atmosphere of the text: E.g., John 13:30 “And it was night.”
Notice the setting of the text: mountains? sea? city? temple? Galilee? Caesarea Philippi?
Notice the imagery of the text: unpack the Pauline metaphor—e.g., forensic rhetoric of Romans 8:33 ff. Or the Feeding of the Five thousand and its eucharistic imagery in Mark’s Gospel. The images are trying to help you preach this text.
Text/Context questions:
Words: underline important words. Look them up in a Bible dictionary. Trace their usage with a concordance. What is the significance of each word? Mercy seat, redeem, revelation, cosmos, justified, slave, servant, ministry, covenant, reconciliation. Use a comfortable (to you) Word Book. Is there a pattern to the way these words tend to appear and reappear in this book of the Bible? e.g. the word “truth” in the Gospel of John.
Do you understand the argument, or the line of reasoning, in the passage?
(You may have to diagram the passage).
Do you see motifs voicing the same themes or imagery in the book?
How does your passage exemplify the theme of the entire book?
How does your passage preach/embody the gospel of Jesus Christ? (Do not proceed too far before answering this question!)
The gospel is not initially what we should do (moralism), but what God has done on our behalf in the person, work, death and resurrection of Jesus. The
New Testament is written in such way as to necessitate the gospel. Our sermons should do the same. (more later)
Context: The single greatest clue to meaning of your text is what comes before and after it. Consider the contextual relationship of the parables in Luke 15 and Luke 16. Despite their surface differences, they have much in common in terms of plot, characterization, and language. Note the word “squander” in both. What is the congregational context of Paul’s gospel in Galatians? The cultural context of 1 Corinthians? What about the journey section in Luke?
Importance of Parallels in the Gospels: Discover the distinctives in each. No need to resolve differences. Preach Mark’s spare version of the Temptation one year, Luke or Matthew’s another. Who does Luke seem to be reaching out to in his Gospel? How do his parables differ in scope from Matthew’s? Etc.
Historical matters: What do we know about synagogue worship? Gnosticism? Jewish law? Herod the Great? Life in Israel after the return from Exile? First-century Jewish marriage feasts? Taxation? Slavery? The Jewish antecedents of the Parables? The oral roots of the Gospel of Mark? The questions are endless. Avoid giving a history lecture, however! As the great preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick said, “No one comes to church with a burning desire to know what ever happened to the Jebusites!” (or words to that effect)
Theological questions and answers: (I put this last because everything in our preparation is weighted toward answering these questions. Realistically, however, the first tentative thoughts about any passage are theological and not technical. But don’t move to fast).
How does this text allow me to say something remarkable about God? Who is God as revealed in this passage? How does this text reflect the greatness of our God?
How is this text a vessel of good news? How does this text enable or empower me to preach the good news of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ?
What claim does it lay upon us? What is it leading us to be or to do in the world and toward one another?
What are the possible results of ignoring this text?
How does this text stimulate praise and worship, obedience and thanksgiving? Where’s the joy?
What problem or explicit (or implied) sin does it address? How does it illumine our need of forgiveness, healing, reconciliation? etc.
How does this text open our eyes to the needs of others? What should we be doing about them?
Where does this text cut the deepest? How does it cut against the “plausibility structures” of our culture and our own thinking and acting?
What’s weird about this text? Anything?
How did this text surprise you? (How did it surprise the Pharisees?)
Why would you rather skip this text/assign it to the intern?
How is this text a “church word”? That is, how does it perform more than a personal ministry to the individual? How does it affirm or shape our existence as ecclesia? A people “called out”? Church.
Step 2. Discernment
Something is forming in the process. Hours of thought and reading have brought you to a new point in the process. Thanks to the Discovery phase—with its liturgical, personal, biblical questions— something is forming in your homiletical spirit. As the novelist E.M. Forster said, “Only connect.” This “something” is beginning to connect not only to you but to the realities of your community.
Discernment is what the Greeks called phronesis. It is a peculiar kind of wisdom, not in regard to universal or abstract truths but particulars. Not “what is truth?” but pastoral truth: what is the true thing we need right now?
You may want to formulate the following:
Focus: what God is saying through this text to our community (what it means)
Function: what I pray a sermon on this text will achieve in our community (what it will do)
What makes a statemen a focus statement?
brings some unity to the text. It discerns a center in the text (and in the sermon) from which other elements in the text will radiate. Think trunk and branches.
encapsulates the gospel—there are many motifs, images, and dimensions of the gospel of Jesus Christ, e.g. deliverance, healing, justification, reconciliation, justice, hope. Let them all find a voice in your sermons (but not all in one sermon!) What is the appropriate modality of the gospel for this sermon?
is related to real life: the center of the text is—must be—discoverable in the lives we lead. In other words, get real! This focus may not be the answer to all existential questions, but it will acknowledge their reality in a way that the congregation recognizes. It will possess a currency that listeners crave.
The Function statement:
The purpose for this sermon: This for you, the preacher. It’s one of those questions we forget to ask: what do I hope will happen as a result of the hearing of this sermon?
Step 3. Design (giving it a shape)
I usually have but three questions about design:
How do I begin?
How do I end—as opposed to “quit”?
How and where will the climax occur?—every sermon must have one
What do I mean by the climax of the sermon? It is the moment when you unfold the text’s meaning and purpose at the deepest level of intensity and in the idiom of those present in the room. It is a transaction: it is the phase at which the full import of what you have been developing is handed over (traditio) to the hearer. (Martin Luther King, Jr. called it his “landing strip”). In black church worship the climax is celebration. It celebrates the previous content of the sermon but with heightened language and greater energy.
Figuratively, if not literally, you write the climax at the bottom of the page and preach toward it. Climax = telos, not “the end” but the culmination of the sermon.
Three Laws of Sermon design
Unity: (built around the sermon’s focus)
Clarity: not only of expression but of the connections between ideas; i.e. does it follow? Does it hang together?
Movement: so important and so often overlooked. “Sermon” means “conversation.” It is a verbal journey. Make sure the parts of the sermon are not interchangeable! The ending doesn’t have to be announced in the beginning. Just do it and get there.
The Stepping-Stone Theory of Sermon Design
A sermon is a thematic conversation. Or, it’s a way of getting across the creek.
No predetermined outline is required, only a beginning, end, and climax. No matter if the sermon follows a reasoned argument (as with Paul’s letters), a narrative, a series of scenes, or a thematic conversation (my favorite)—think of crossing a creek, moving from one flat rock to the next. The stones aren’t laid out in a geometrical design; they may be irregular. You just move from one to the next. Try walking out your sermon in a deserted room.
A sermon should have four or five flat rocks in it. It’s better to think of “moves”(the word used by homiletician David Buttrick) rather than “points” on an outline—because a sermon is an event in time, not an essay on paper.
There are many models for sermon development:
A thesis defined and defended
A biblical story re-told
A narratively-conceived sermon
A conversation featuring point-counterpoint and other conversational devices
A “master metaphor” or important image developed throughout the sermon
Any model will entail four or five basic moves. There is no way to codify the moves, but here are a few hints:
The first move will set the scene, raise the issue to be discussed, pose a problem, question, etc., or make an observation about the text just read. It will help the congregation know what our field of concern will be. It may feature what Fred Craddock called “the nod of recognition.” (The “shock of recognition” may come later).
The moves in the sermon should interlock. There are ways of connecting them. They shouldn’t entail too great a leap for the preacher or the congregation, else both will fall into the creek!
The second or third move may entail a. a complication of the first move. b. an elaboration or further exploration of the first move. c. a contrasting observation, a “yes, but” or “on the other hand.”
Any move may entail what Buttrick calls a “bringing out.” There are two types of “bringing out.”
One is an expansion, explanation, or illustration of a statement. The idea is to help people see more clearly. Here are a few of the sources of this type of “bringing out”: other passages in scripture, history, personal observation, probing questions or objections, the arts, statistics, etymologies, current events, cultural habits and artifacts, etc.
A second form of “bringing out” is called (by Aristotle) an “artistic proof.” These are more poetic, even metaphoric in nature. They occur
by analogy or metaphor, e.g. comparing the birth of Jesus to, as in Edmund Steimle’s sermon “The Eye of the Storm” or Paul Tillich’s sermon about the resurrection, “Born in the Grave.”
By “for instance.” These are factual examples from real life. E.g., Dorothy Day (or someone in your neighborhood) as an example of caring for the poor.
The last or second last move in the sermon may be the climax (see above).
The last brief move (not much should follow the climax) or half-move is closure or denouement. No new material is welcome here.
Tips
Don’t front-load the sermon with exegesis and “background” and save the “application to life” for the very end. Try to integrate the real-life currency of all that you say throughout the sermon.
At some early point, “they” referring to the Corinthians, must change to “we” referring to us. Check your sermon for the use of “they” and “we.” No “theys” in the last two-thirds of the sermon!
Sermons usually move from the platform of the familiar to the shock of the unfamiliar or more challenging.
Some texts organically yield a sermon plot, but not all do. The preacher often synthesizes the sermon’s plot.
Many sermons move from the intellectual to the affective planes.
So-called introductions are not necessary, especially the kind in which you announce beforehand everything you intend to do! But every sermon has a beginning! An on-ramp sign. A recognizable field of concern. How you begin is governed by how you plan to end.
Watch out for irony and comedy. Augustine said some sermons offer delight, but the best ones “move” the hearer.
Avoid excessive self-referencing. The sermon’s effectiveness does not lie in my ability to tell about myself, my childhood, or my children, but rather it consists in the preacher’s willingness to imagine the lives of those in the pew. As Ezekiel says about the exiles: “ I sat where they sat.” That is harder and more rewarding work.
In the throes of analogy, metaphor, and story, don’t forget the importance of “decisive speech.” Tell the gospel straight-on, from one heart to another, and do it with urgency and clarity and pastoral discernment.
Step 4. Delivery
The sermon is twice born said Bonhoeffer: once in the study in the discovery of meaning, and second, in the assembly on Sunday morning where it is born again in the "creative moment of delivery."
Goals in delivery:
to speak directly to your congregation with the greatest immediacy possible—keep the line taut. Avoid filler, throat-clearing, and weasel words.
to put nothing in the way between message and congregation.
Our goal is to relate directly to the audience without dependence on an intermediary, i.e. reliance on a manuscript.
The preacher’s primary orientation is to the people. His or her secondary orientation is to notes or a manuscript. One does not occasionally look up at the people, but one occasionally looks down to notes.
Suggestions
Don’t first write a perfect manuscript and then, with the sermon “finished,” begin memorizing it. Be as oral as possible from the very beginning of the process of designing a sermon. Talk it out from the beginning. Design it for the ear.
Speak it for the ear. Sermon = oral event. It becomes a sermon only in the hearing of it.
Note these characteristics of oral speech:
contains figures of speech, mnemonic devices, repetition, rhyme, word schemes, rhetorical questions
exaggerated clarity
simplicity of argument; too much subtlety is not welcome in oral discourse.
interactive engagement with listeners; has this happened to you? do you understand? Have I got a witness? Say one of these is ‘you’; “who among you?”
pauses are natural. If you forget or get lost? Pause, stroke chin, and look incredibly thoughtful.
One delivery-model for the sermon is what Fosdick termed “animated conversation.” That model strives for vocal variety: in pitch, rate, quality, and force.
Leave plenty of room for improvisation.
In a good sense, the preacher “performs” the gospel, but the sermon is not a “performance” in any way that spotlights the preacher or detracts from the message.
Tips for internalizing (not memorizing) the sermon:
during the week (not just Saturday night), talk through the sermon as quickly as possible for the big picture; see it as a whole.
talk through by moves, overlapping into the next move. In order to free yourself from reading, begin with sections with which you are most comfortable. Don’t memorize by rote but by theme and important words. Associate each move with a location in the church or a physical symbol of some kind.
code ends and beginnings of moves to ensure that they are “logical” and easily remembered (by you).
employ structural devices like q & a, repetition, or “shaped” cues, e.g., the angel’s question “Why Do you seek the living among the dead?”
On Saturday night put manuscript aside and get enough sleep. This message has become a part of you.
Nervousness is excitement. It dissipates with good preparation, involvement with your material, connecting with your listeners in a class setting before the worship service, etc. Deep breathing always helps (but not in the pulpit!).
Appendix
Exegetical Worksheets
Exegesis Worksheet for Gospel Text
If possible, make a translation of your text. Or read it in several versions.
What stories come immediately before and after your text? Is there a connection?
How does your text serve as a microcosm of the Gospel in which it is found? How does it typify the theology of the Gospel in which it is located?
Define and explain three or four important theological words found in your text (see concordances, Kittel and other wordbooks; IDB, etc.
Is there a parallel to your text in the Gospels? If so, what is the significance of the differences? (see Gospel parallels)
What is the literary form of your text? What does such a form usually evoke? Who are the most important characters in your text?
What is the most important dialogue in your text? Why? (see commentaries). Who gets the best lines in your story? What is the significance of the “last word”?
Is the Old Testament quoted or alluded to your text? What is the Evangelist saying by using the Old Testament in the way that he does?
How do the historical, cultural, or religious backgrounds contribute to an understanding of your text? Be specific. (see commentaries)
Write your own free paraphrase of the text. If a story, outline its scenes.
How and where have you seen this little story at work in our world or community?
On the basis of your text, what would you like to tell your congregation? What do you want them to take out of church with them? What is your focus?
What would you like to see happen as a result of this sermon? (function)
What is the provisional title of your sermon?
If your text is a parable, one of the Ten Commandments, from the Sermon on the Mount, etc., consult studies of those specific forms.
Exegesis Worksheet for Epistle Text
In brief, write down your initial reactions to the passage.
Make a brief outline of your text in order to trace the passage's argument.
Summarize what comes before and after your text. Make certain your passage is properly delimited.
How does your text relate to the church's liturgy, calendar, or life?
Make your own translation of the passage, or note any interesting discrepancies between two or three English translations.
Does your passage raise a problem to be solved or pose a dilemma to you, the interpreter? If so, what is it?
Using dictionary and concordance, explore three of four important theological words in your passage.
Write a couple sentences describing the underlying image or metaphor in your text, e.gs. in Eph. 2: 11-22, the wall or fence, or a building; Phil. 3:7-16 the race.
Does your passage have an identifiable rhetorical form? E.g., a hymn, forensic (law court) reasoning, household table of duties, etc. etc.
What is the relationship of your text and other Epistle texts? Does your text use ideas and language prominent in the Old Testament?
Does your text remind you of passages from literature, music, or culture? If so, what?
What is the focus (main message in 25 words or less) of your text. I.e., What is Paul trying to "preach" to his congregation?
What would you like a sermon on this text to do in your congregation (function)?
What is the provisional title of your sermon?
How might you begin this sermon?
Exegesis Worksheet for Old Testament Text
In which division of the Old Testament is your text found? Law, Prophets, Writings?
If known, who is the writer, and what was the writer’s role in Israel?
Consider various translations of your text, including Tanakh: the Holy Scriptures (Jewish Publishing Society, 1988 [Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim]).
Broadly speaking, what is the literary form of your text? Epic, salvation oracle, wisdom saying, etc., and how does the form contribute to the meaning of the text?
Comment on the most important or arresting stylistic elements in the text, e.g., imagery, poetic expression, diction, parallelism, etc. What makes it beautiful or powerful to you?
If your text is a narrative, outline its plot and consider the implications of the story for the future history of Israel, e.g. the story of Ruth.
If your text is a narrative, comment on the characterization in it. Who makes the most important speech in your text?
Briefly describe the material that comes immediately before and after your text. What is the connection?
How does your text serve as a vehicle of the overall message of the book in which it is found?
How does your text function in the religious tradition of Israel? What great themes does it sustain?
How does this text enable you, the preacher, to draw closer to God?
If your text is in the Revised Common Lectionary, tell where it is found and briefly assess its relation to the other texts appointed for the day.
How does this text resonate most deeply in the worshiping community of Christians?
On the basis of your text, what would you like to tell your Christian congregation? What do you want them to take away from the sermon? This is your focus.
What would you like to see happen as a result of hearing a sermon on this text? (function)
What is the provisional title of your sermon?