Preaching Verse by Verse PDF
Preview Preaching Verse by Verse
Page iii Preaching Verse by Verse Ronald J. Allen Gilbert L. Bartholomew Page iv © 2000 Ronald J. Allen and Gilbert L. Bartholomew All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 402021396. Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by permission. Book design by Sharon Adams Cover design by Pam Poll First edition Published by Westminster John Knox Press Louisville, Kentucky This book is printed on acidfree paper that meets the American National Standards Institute Z39.48 standard. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 — 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 A catalog card for this book may be obtained from the Library of Congress ISBN 0664258042 Page v Contents Introduction vii Chapter 1: The Attractiveness of Preaching Verse by Verse 1 Chapter 2: The Lively Tradition of Preaching Verse by Verse 13 Chapter 3: Preparing the Verse by Verse Sermon 32 Chapter 4: Suggestions for Structuring the Verse by Verse Sermon 69 Chapter 5: Tips for Keeping the Sermon Interesting 113 Chapter 6: Occasions for Preaching Verse by Verse 127 Notes 138 Page vii Introduction In the last twentyfive years, a revival in homiletics has occurred. Approaches to the sermon have multiplied to the point that the preacher can choose from among a great chorus of homiletical possibilities. 1 Among the most widely known are inductive movement,2 the sermon as story,3 the Lowry loop,4 the sermon as a journey to celebration,5 the sermon as an act of overhearing,6 the sermon as a plot of carefully developed moves,7 the genre and function of the text shaping the genre and function of the sermon,8 the sermon as an act of the imagination,9 the sermon as a movement of images,10 the sermon as a distinctively oral event,11 the sermon as conversation.12 The topical sermon is even making a comeback.13 And blessed are the preachers who create their own homiletical styles. A preacher derives great benefit from such a large array of approaches. He or she can select or create a homiletical form that serves the needs of a particular sermon to a particular congregation in a particular situation. We can even imagine congregational settings in which the structure of three points and a poem can offer an articulate and evocative homiletical witness. However, one historic voice has been strangely quiet in the current homiletical revival in the pulpits of the longestablished denominations. To our knowledge, few in these churches are giving significant attention to the sermon that moves through the text verse by verse, essentially providing a running commentary on the text.14 This type of preaching goes by different names in different eras and in different books and articles about preaching. It is sometimes called expository preaching, or textual preaching, or continuous exposition, or verse by verse preaching.15 By sermon as running commentary, we mean preaching that centers in exposition of the ancient and contemporary significance of a biblical text by following the Page viii structure of the text itself. The sermon unfolds much like a commentary on the Bible; the preacher interprets the passage sense unit by sense unit, sometimes word by word. 16 Sometimes the preacher draws out the significance of the text for today as the sermon unfolds; sometimes the preacher identifies contemporary implications at the end of the sermon. Preaching verse by verse has shown remarkable power to help congregations in many different times and places to encounter the living God. Its roots are as old as the Jewish people of antiquity. However, it can be as contemporary as the hair still damp from the shower on the heads of some of those in today's sanctuary. We do not advocate preaching verse by verse as the only needle on the preacher's homiletical compass. The current homiletical revival correctly emphasizes that specific occasions call for homilies that are shaped, in both content and form, for specific occasions. The sermon as running commentary takes its place as one generative homiletical venue alongside others. A critical task of the preacher is to assay the situation of the congregation in order to determine the style and content for a sermon that seems fitting. However, we hasten to a qualification. The newer approaches to preaching are exciting and imaginative, but they do not yet have a proven record of being able to encourage the biblical literacy and theological depth necessary to sustain Christian identity, community, and mission. Indeed, our observation is that the newer approaches are easily susceptible to misuse. Preachers can become so intent on their own cleverness that style supersedes substance. As we point out in the first two chapters, the sermon as running commentary has repeatedly shown the ability to help a preacher and congregation grow in Christian maturity (providing, of course, that the preaching is well done). In chapter 1, we note the attractiveness and timeliness of preaching in the mode of running commentary. We observe that preachers from many different theological perspectives can preach in this medium and honor the full range of their theological commitments. Chapter 2 offers representative voices from the long and powerful tradition of preaching as continuous exposition. Chapter 3 enumerates practical considerations for preparing a sermon in Page ix this style. We offer five sample exegeses, drawn from different genres of biblical literature, to illustrate the wideranging applicability of verse by verse preaching. Chapter 4 develops options for structuring the sermon in this genre, and lays out five sample sermons from our own preaching that illustrate treatments of different kinds of biblical texts. The sermons are briefly annotated so that readers can know what we are attempting to do in these sermons. Chapter 5 offers tips for helping this type of preaching be fresh, vital, and engaging. Chapter 6 considers occasions when running commentary may be an especially suggestive mode of preaching. Each author wrote first drafts of selected chapters. We both then worked together to revise and refine each chapter. Gilbert Bartholomew did the primary work on chapters 3 and 5. Ronald Allen did the initial drafts of chapters 1, 2, and 6. Each prepared two sermons for chapter 4. Linda Milavec also contributed a sermon to chapter 4. At its best, preaching verse by verse can help preachers join the writer of I John in witnessing to what they have heard, what they have seen, and what they have touched with their own hands concerning the word of life (1 John 1:1). In so doing, the congregation's communion with God may deepen and strengthen. Page 1 1— The Attractiveness of Preaching Verse by Verse As noted in the introduction, we have great confidence in the power of preaching in the mode of running commentary. However, some of our clergy colleagues are skeptical when they hear about this proposal. A friend, a pastor in one of the longestablished denominations and schooled in the historicalcritical and literarycritical methods of biblical interpretation, sums up her uneasiness with this way of preaching. "Why should I be interested in preaching that is dull, dull, dull? The only people I know who use running commentary are television preachers who say some things I do not believe. I won't prance in front of a congregation brandishing a limpback Bible. And those preachers assume that the congregation is made up of passive sponges, just waiting to soak up the water that the preacher splashes at them. This style asks nothing of me as a creative communicator or the congregation as active listeners. I could just read from The New Interpreter's Bible." We now explore why, and show how, preaching as running commentary can be an exciting option for this pastor and for today's congregation. In addition to providing a positive rationale for this approach, we hope to allay the skepticism represented by our friend. A preacher can partake of the blessings of running commentary without sacrifice of theological or ethical substance and without compromise of integrity. After developing the major strengths of this approach, we turn to an evaluation of its weaknesses. Page 2 Congregations Respond Positively James Fish is an administrator at a theological seminary. For the past ten years, he has served several interim pastorates. During these assignments, he has experimented with how the congregations respond to different types of preaching. Working through a text one verse at a time was one experiment: "These 'expository Bible studies' have consistently drawn the strongest positive response from the congregations." 1 Fish concludes that many congregations feel a need to learn the Bible. Indeed, some had "given up trying to remember my wellintentioned but too crafty sermons. Perhaps they had also given up on adult Bible classes or found the anonymity of worship more comfortable than a class setting. The reasons are, no doubt, many."2 Fish's anecdotal experience is reinforced by the wider research of Lyle Schaller. Schaller has investigated many growing congregations that have a high percentage of relatively young members with a high degree of commitment to the mission of the church and who believe that they are maturing in faith. He finds that in such congregations, the sermon usually has a teaching character.3 Frequently the preaching takes the form of verse by verse exposition of a biblical text. Many people in North America associate encounter with the Bible with encounter with the transcendent. When the preacher deals seriously with the Bible, many in the congregation have the impression that the preacher is dealing significantly with God and life. Systematic programs for the study of the Bible (such as Kerygma, Bethel, ABIL, the materials from the Mission for Biblical Literacy) often attract large numbers of people. This suggests that many Christians today feel a need to study the Bible and to deepen their awareness of God. Running commentary can help respond to this felt need. Some leaders in the field of preaching suggest that pastors need to preach short sermons and that we need to divide each sermon into soundbitesize chunks so that the sermon will be brief enough and fast paced enough to keep the attention of the MTV Page 3 generation. However, when a preacher is an energetic communicator who deals with matters of significance, the congregation can become invested in a surprisingly long sermon. This is particularly true of running commentary. Lyle Schaller finds that "an expository sermon may hold people's attention for 25 to 45 minutes." 4 We are not calling for long sermons, especially when the congregation is not socialized to expect one. (A dull, insignificant sermon is too long, no matter what its genre and length.) But we highlight the possibility that lively running commentary can attract and hold people's attention. Running Commentary and Moments of Christian Renewal Sermons in the form of running commentary have often contributed to regeneration of Christian faith and life. Augustine favored this mode of preaching in his reemphasis on the priority of grace as the center of Christian existence. At the time of the Reformation, both Luther and Calvin preached in running commentary almost daily On the United States frontier of the early 1800s, the Restoration movement led by Thomas and Alexander Campbell gave priority to this pattern of Sunday study, "examining the different books [of the Bible] in regular succession."5 At the beginning of the twentieth century, Karl Barth excited a vital theological conversation through his commentary on Romans. In our own time, many congregations on the evangelical end of the theological spectrum gather around such preaching. Many of these congregations are growing in size. The congregations tend to be young in age, to enjoy a high percentage of members who attend worship, to have an intense commitment to mission, and to feel that they are deepening in faith.6 The sermon alone does not generate these vital qualities; they result from the congregational life system. But such running commentary helps the congregation feel that they encounter transcendent reality. The turn to running commentary will not result automatically in the revitalization of Christian faith and witness. But its participation in previous discoveries and rediscoveries of Christian
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