My Favorite Episode of The Twilight Zone

My favorite episode of the TV classic The Twilight Zone is "The Shelter". It's long struck me as having substantial homiletical application, as demonstrates the hidden viciousness and depravity of humanity; the brutality and selfishness inside all of us, invisible even to ourselves except when our survival is threatened.

"The Shelter" is the story of a group of families in a suburban neighborhood at the beginning of a nuclear war. Only one family has built a shelter.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Total run time: 25 minutes.

Brian's Sermon from Monty Python's The Life of Brian

[YouTube Link]

Art and Ideology

Will Deuel has an intriguing post up in which he muses about the intersection between art, ideology, music and homiletics. At the end, he ponders several questions:

1. Is the sermon an art form?

2. If so, is the art best served by being in tune with my own deepest passions, desires, fears, hopes, dreams?

3. Is the art well served by being in tune with the congregation’s deepest passions, etc.?

4. Am I guilty of preparing art in the service of ideology rather than passion?

Real Preachers of Genius

Mocking holyrollers and megachurches.
Part 1:

[YouTube Link]

Part 2:

[YouTube Link]

HT: David Wayne

Thoughts Upon the Lectionary

I've been experimenting with the lectionary since Christ the King Sunday, albeit with modifications. We have two formal Scripture readings at my church, not four, so I can't use all of the passages, nor do I think that it is a good idea to do so.

The first advantage apparent to me is that I don't have to think too much about what to preach on. I have a list of passages and choose from them for the sermon. I don't, however, always stick to the lectionary's restrictions. For last Sunday, my lay speaker read John 1:1-17, which I also wove into my sermon on Matthew 3:1-12. I used the lectionary Pslam 72 for our responsive reading, but it really didn't fit with my sermon.

I have been to Lutheran and Episcopalian services where the sermon was based on all four readings, and saw an immediate disadvantage: in a sermon thus constructed, the preacher must interpret the passages in reflection of each other, thereby skewing the exegesis.

I like the idea of my preaching being ordered in a thoughtful, not erratic manner. And I also like the idea of keeping close to the liturgical calendar. But I dislike the lectionary's omission of large sections of Scripture. For example, one of my better sermons is from Habakkuk 3, which is not covered during any part of the lectionary cycle.

I would be interested to see a lectionary that encompassed the entire Bible, even if it took a decade to complete a cycle.

Reblogged: The Wand

[Video Link]

As John Battern said, "That has sermon illustration written all over it."

My Preaching Thus Far

I've now preached weekly for six months as a student local pastor, giving me a lot to learn about the proclamation of the Word of God.

• I'm basically an expository preacher. My usual pattern is to ask people to open their Bibles to the selected passage, introduce with an illustration, read the text, teach upon it, and then conclude with a prayer and an altar call.
• I rotate between Gospels, Acts/Epistles, and Old Testament in my passage selection. I might move to Lectionary preaching someday, but right now I only do it for high holy days.
• I preach from the selected text, but I also weave in other texts. These seem to pop up frequently: Micah 6:6-8, 1 John 2:7-11, and Luke 11:37-44.
• I have managed to move Holy Communion from a free-standing element in the liturgy to now follow the sermon. I think that I will make the last lines of my Communion Sunday sermons the opening words to Word and Table II. This is still in the experimental stage, though.

Sermon Exegesis on a Shoe-String

I don't have much of a exegetical library. Sometimes I can borrow circulating commentaries from the Asbury library, but I'm usually doing my sermon exegesis from four sources:

• BibleWorks 7
  
• Eerdmans' Dictionary of the Bible


• Brown's Introduction to the New Testament


• LaSor et al's Old Testament Survey.

I'd like to have more, but to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you go to exegesis with the library that you have.

After prayer, I begin by opening up a Word document and taking notes. This is the typical result (the odd characters on the first page come from my pdf converter getting confused about Hebrew). I start by looking at the passage in its broader context, and then outlining it from the English. Next, I open up BibleWorks and examine the Greek and Hebrew, picking apart key phrases and words and seeing how they are used elsewhere in the Bible. Then I ask a set of exegetical questions. The books come next: I look at relevant entries in my Bible dictionary and Testamental handbook. Finally, I provide my interpretation and describe how it can be used homiletically.

And that's how I'm doing it now as a total noob. It takes about two hours.

What is your process for sermon exegesis?

They Will Know That We Are Christians By Our Love

Ben Arment:

What if you couldn't start with the Bible as an authoritative voice in people's lives. What if you couldn't start your messages with, "Are you ready to dig into the Word today? Then turn with me to..."

Don't get me wrong: the Bible is authoritatively God's word, and I believe in its power to transform hearts and minds. I also believe that no scripture we utter will return void. But what if you couldn't even gain an audience around the Bible as a place to start communicating spiritual truths?

So begins the work of a missionary.

[snip]

If the Bible has immediate application and adherance in people's lives, I'm probably not reaching the right people.

Hat tip: Thomas Conard

Translations for Preaching

I usually preach from the same translation that I study from, the NASB. However, this week, I preached on 1 Peter 2:1-3 and found one critical phrase in the NASB irreconcilable with the Greek -- as far as my limited Greek skills will permit. So I selected the NRSV as my preaching text. It's just as well that I make the transition to the NRSV anyway, as it is the (essentially) official translation of the UMC.

Pastors, what translation do you usually preach from?

My Sermon Preparation Schedule

Monday: Select Scripture passage.

Tuesday: Exegesis.

Wednesday: Write rough draft of manuscript.

Thursday: Write final draft.

Friday: Go on date with wife.

Saturday: Practice sermon recitation up to 8x, bare minimum 4x.

How about you? What's your schedule?