Sermon Prep and a Lost Paragraph
I occasionally post a sermon that I have written on this site. I don’t do a lot of that as the preaching moment is just that, a moment during worship, that relies on the hearer as well as the one preaching. It is hard to read a sermon that is written to be heard rather than read. I am that style of writer for the preaching moment. Sometimes I am asked how I go about sermon preparation. If you have not asked your minister about her or his preparation for preaching I encourage you to do so!
I do the study, reading, thinking and listening during the week to ready myself to write. A title helps me so I select something and then I begin free writing paragraphs until I am out of words. I sit with those paragraphs for a day and then begin arranging them into my words for Sunday. Sometimes it takes several tries to get them into an order that makes sense and that can accept transitional thoughts. Once they are in order I tweak sentences, words, and ask my companion for her thoughts and suggestions. There is almost always a lost paragraph. Some words that don’t seem to fit the tone, flow, thought process, or are just too far out there to be said from the pulpit; but better fit smaller conversations or group study. I wonder if other that preach have a similar experience? I decided that when I have those lost paragraphs I would publish those. So, here is the first.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. It is the first time I have preached on Palm Sunday so I will publish that sermon text here which is my practice for a “sermon first” for me. Here is a lost paragraph from my words for Palm Sunday. Some of these words made it into the final text, but not in the form below.
“Disciples Began to Praise” | Luke 19:28-40
Post-Easter, fourth-century centered Christianity shouts “hosanna” or “crucify him” with sunrise service on our minds: an empty tomb, Mary Magdalene, divine Lordship, soteriology, and a cosmological defeat of good over evil. Ours is an overt acceptance of sinfulness seeking reconciliation without looking at the photo album (the biblical witness) and studying, recognizing, or struggling with how humans can at one moment shout “Hosanna” and then days later shout, “Crucify.” There were no marketing firms, 30 second commercials, lobbyists, or talk radio in the ancient world to swing public opinion or sway government officials. There must be more to this mystery of the human condition than simply labeling it sinful, original, or reconciled in the death and resurrection of the man, Jesus of Nazareth whom we call Christ. The scandalous gospel that Jesus preached and taught is what led to Jerusalem, to this parade day of palms and cloaks. It is the content of that gospel about the kingdom of God already, but not yet, that leads through the city gates, to an upper room, and a cross. It is when we linger with this scandalous gospel: release to the captives, sight to the blind, good news to the poor, love your neighbor as yourself, that the spirit of God might descend on us and with the multitude of disciples begin to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that we have seen, saying, “Blessed is the king, the one, who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” (19:38).