The Sermon in Three Acts
“Plot” is the sequence of events through which a story moves. Aristotle saw two fundamental movements common to all plots: the complication and the dénouement. (Poetics, XVIII) Contemporary fiction writers expand the list to five events. It is no coincidence that these correspond almost precisely to the five movements described by Lowry as the “homiletical plot.” (The Homiletical Plot: The Sermon as Narrative Art Form. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001, 27-87) They are time-honored and universal—prominent in all narrative genres and media, from simple storytelling, to literature, to the silver screen. Film makers arrange these five movements into three acts.
Exegetical Conclusions
Once you have studied the literary and historical context of the passage, considered its genre and form, analyzed its structure, defined its words, and verified your findings through some good research, you are ready to summarize your conclusions in some straightforward statements about the text’s meaning in its original setting.
Commentary Study for Sermon Preparation
Once you have done your own work on the text, there is real value in going to some trusted biblical commentaries to add the insights of others to your study. Here are three major purposes for this reference study, and some tips for doing it well.
What Kind of Literature?
True fishermen never stop looking for just the right combination of bait and technique to catch a fish in any given pond or stream. Lure, minnow, worms or stink bait? Spinner, jig, or fly? They study fish and habitats endlessly, to make the best possible choices, and increase their chances of catching the “big one.”
I’m no fisherman, but I think I understand their drive. As a preacher, I’m always looking for the “big one” — the big idea of a given passage. But each passage is unique, and it swims in a particular pond or stream. Different kinds of texts work differently and communicate their truths in distinctive ways. If I am to coax the right truth consistently out of every text, I must learn to read each text according to its own rules. Like a fisherman who never stops studying fish and habitats, a preacher must make a life-long endeavour of studying literary genres and forms.
The Story Around the Text
Politicians and marketers may deliberately take words out of context to serve their own purposes, but could preachers do the same thing? We should give one another the benefit of a doubt. We need not assume deliberately malicious intent. But we should acknowledge that we sometimes pluck words, phrases, and verses out of their context to make a point that we want to make, regardless of their actual meaning.
Here’s the good news: Ignoring the literary context of a passage may be the most frequently-committed exegetical error among preachers, but it is also the easiest to correct. Here are some steps you can take to get the context right.
The Story Behind the Text
Not knowing the story behind a text can be like walking blindly into the middle of a conversation. There’s a very good chance you could miss the meaning altogether. This is why we begin to gain an understanding the big picture of a biblical text by studying its historical context.
Getting Started Without Getting Stuck
Maybe your pastor, for a reason clear to him but a mystery to you, has asked you to preach. Or you are going on a mission trip, and every member of the team must be prepared to speak. Or you are the designated preacher for your family reunion. Or perhaps you are a new pastor, suddenly overwhelmed with the responsibility of preaching at least once each week.
Whatever the reason, you are faced with the daunting task of bringing a word from God to the people of God. Where do you begin?
Cultivating Sermon “Seeds”
I’m on record as being strongly opposed to preaching someone else’s sermons. So why would I have a “Sermon Seeds” category in this blog, where I give you preaching ideas?