Preaching Wisdom for lay preachers (a guest post)
First, know this: You are a gift to the church.
Secondly: Your willingness to preach the word of God is a gift from God.
Thirdly: The wisdom of God through the Holy Spirit has been imparted to you. (In other words, there is something that people see you “get” about faith—which is why they asked you to preach.)
Fourthly: The gift from God nudging you to preach means you can trust you will receive all the words you need. You have nothing to fear.
Since you have nothing to fear because you can be assured that the words you need for preaching will come from the One who loves you, relax and pick up the scripture texts assigned for each Sunday with exquisite intrigue.
What will you be shown in the words?
Your Voice is Essential
Set aside the voices in your head that say you have not studied the Bible at a seminary.
Set aside the nagging feeling that you don’t know enough.
Faith and proclamation is not based on a graded exam.
Set aside the fear that you do not have the right words.
There are no “right” words. All of our words for God’s love are incomplete.
That’s why we need so many different voices.
Two thousand years’ worth of sermons have been preached on the scripture readings you are looking at. No two of them are the same.
You are in a company of preachers who have listened like you do to the words that are like a window into God’s identity.
God prepares the sermon through you
A friend of mine told me about a dream he had the night before he was going to preach his first sermon.
He had worked hard on his sermon, but he was unsure whether it was good enough.
God showed up in the dream he had that night.
God assured him that his sermon was just fine.
God said, “When you wake up in the morning, go turn on your computer, and you will see the sermon I have prepared for you.”
My friend did as the dream told him.
What he found on his computer was the sermon he had written.
Take this story as assurance that when you turn to God’s word, it is working on you and in you in ways that you don’t even notice.
Let Scripture Unfurl itself to you slowly
Listen to the words of scripture.
If you are preaching from one text, read it carefully.
If you are going to bring in the words of one or two more texts, read them just as carefully.
Imagine the scene depicted or the voice of the one speaking.
Notice the plot.
You might hear a story or you might hear a command. You might even hear a theological argument!
Let it be a joy to follow the points being made and decide whether you think it merits becoming a part of your sermon.
Let Loose Your Imagination to discover new insights
Let your imagination loose.
Ask what is behind the statement if the scripture reading confronts you with a puzzle.
You might read “honor your father and mother” when, of course, you know that some children experience their parents as less than honorable.
What, then, does it mean to do honor to them?
You will be the one to offer insight into how God sees those in need.
Look deeply into the situation being described.
If the scripture reading is Jesus telling Roman soldiers to “be satisfied with your wages,” notice that he also tells them, “do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation” (Luke 3:13-15).
This call to “be satisfied” does not, then, apply to people who are simply poorly paid.
It is for those who cheat others.
Paying close attention to the scripture readings will shape your responses for filling out the Heart of the Message (i.e., what Backstory Preaching calls the “grid”) or discerning the central message of your sermon.
If your worshipping community is used to hear more than one reading, look at the first reading and the Gospel reading and find similarities between them.
Notice what God is doing in each of the readings. This will help you see what the texts are saying about how God is at work in the world. It will become your Belief Statement: what you believe about God as revealed through the text.
Notice what the people are doing in each scripture reading. This will show you what the text is saying about the Human Condition: the Internal obstacles that keep us from believing and living the Good News.
Address The Human Condition
You may find that the readings seem to portray human beings in slightly different ways, emphasizing various facets of what it is to be human.
Connect what God is doing so that it addresses (and maybe even works toward healing) the Human Condition.
Ask yourself how God responds to various all-too-human characterizations.
The intersection where God meets the human condition is where hope, faith, love, and transformation are born.
As examples, here are some human actions and how God responds, pulled from biblical passages:
GREED: One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. God gives us more than we need (Luke 12: 15).
SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR: Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
LYING: The truth will set you free (John 8:32).
WILLFULNESS: Nathan said to King David, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7). God moves the people around us to show us who God wants us to be.
VIOLENCE: “My peace I give to you” (John 14:27).
PRIDE: God protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace when they stood up against King Nebuchadnezzar’s prideful demands (Daniel 3:8-25).
Because you are a lay preacher, you know the Bible well.
You have been asked to preach because others have seen something in you.
Let the confidence of others give you the peace to proclaim God’s promises of endless forgiveness, hope, and life.