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The following examples, all taken from published sermons, show examples of ways that preachers help listeners engage their innate problem with the point described by their texts. In most cases, these are portions of longer arguments (and longer sermons). The nature of the presentation varies according to the text.
R.C. Sproul – Luke 13:1-5 – We’ve Grown Accustomed to His Grace
Maybe Jesus would say something like this: “I told you that my Father sees every single thing that happens on this planet. I’ve told you not even a sparrow landing on the ground escapes the notice of my Heavenly Father. In fact,” Jesus said to his hearers, “the hairs of your head are numbered. But on this particular afternoon when the tower fell in Siloam and killed these eighteen innocent people, my Father was preoccupied with some bushy-haired fellow who had so much on top of his head that God’s attention was diverted just for a second away from this tottering towaer, and it crashed. Again, I will take it up with the archangels and ask my Father to be a little bit more careful and pay better attention to what’s going on in the future.”
_That is not what Jesus said. Instead Jesus responded to these honest, painful questions with words that terrify me. He looked at those around him, who would ask about the tragedies that had befallen their people, and said, “Do you think those Galileans’ blood was mingled with the blood of the sacrifice betcause they were worse sinners than the rest of the people in Galilee? No, no, no!” Jesus said. “But unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Do you think those eighteen people who were walking down the street minding their own business were more miserable sinners and more disobedient to the laws and commandments of God than the average person in Siloam? “No!” Jesus said. “But I say to you, unless you repent, you too will perish.”
How do we respond to that? As I said, this is a hard saying. This is a harsh Jesus speaking. We have to think what Jesus is trying to teach those who are asking these questions.
I can restate Jesus’ words in another way. What I hear Jesus saying to those who are raising that question is this: “You’re asking me the worng question. You’re asking me about things you shouldn’t be asking about. You are shocked at the wrong point. You have located your astonishment at a different place from where I was looking.”
There is a song we sing in the Christian church. It’s called “Amazing Grace.” It’s an interesting title and an interesting concept, but I wonder if we really are amazed by grace. I think we express more amazement at God’s wrath than at his mercy. We’ve come to the place in our religious thinking where we assume that God will be merciful; God will be kind; God will be gracious. We’re not surprised when we experience his kindness. What shocks us is seeing something bad take place, especially an expression of the wrath of God.
That’s what I hear Jesus saying in this particular situation. “You people are asking me the wrong question. You’re asking my what that tower fell on the heads of the people in Siloam. You should be asking this question: ‘Why didn’t that tower fall on myhead?’”
Notes on Sproul
This is a tough passage and a difficult concept to preach. The thing that strikes me immediately about Sproul’s sermon is his honesty. Having given Jesus an easy way out, an approach that might seem reasonable from a human perspective, he demolishes the possibility with the words of the text. Sproul isn’t afraid to ask hard questions of the text.
I like that the preacher has anticipated the listener’s honest objections and is willing to state those objections forcefully in the listener’s voice. “How do we respond to that? This is a hard saying…” It might have been easier for the preacher to just hammer home the proposition, but this way has more impact. By acknowledging the listener’s difficulty, the Sproul is able to drive the point home. The question is not why did the tower fall on their heads, but why didn’t it fall on my head?
This is a tough question. By not sweeping it under the carpet, the sermon will speak on a much deeper level than it might have otherwise.
Frederich Buechner – Gen.32:22-31 – The Magnificent Defeat
This is not a very noble truth about life, but I think it is a truth nonetheless, and as such it has to be faced, just as in their relentless wisdom the recorders of this ancient cycle of stories faced it. It can be stated quite simply: the shrewd and ambitious man who is strong on guts and weak on conscience, who knows very well what he wants and directs all his energies toward getting it, the Jacobs of this world, all in all do pretty well. Again, I do not mean the criminal who is willing to break the law to get what he wants or even to take somebody’s life if that becomes necessary. Imean the man who stays within the law and would never seriously consider taking other people’s lives, but who from time to time might simply manipulate them a little for his own purposes or maybe just remain indifferent to them. There is no law against taking advantage of somebody elses’ stupidity, for instance. The world is full of Esaus, of suckers, and there is no need to worry about giving a sucker an even break because the chances are that he will never know what hit him anyway. In fact, a sucker is by definition the man who never knows what hit him and thus keeps on getting hit – if not us, by soomebody else, so why not by us?
And the world is full of Isaacs, of people who cannot help loving us no matter what we do, and whose love we are free to use pretty much as we please, knowing perfectly well that they will go on loving us anyway – and without really hurting them either, or at least not in a way that they mind, feeling the way they do. ...
Only what does it get him? I know what you expect the preacher to say: that it gets him nothing. But even preachers must be honest. I think it can get him a good deal, this policy of dishonesty where necessary. It can get him the invitation or the promotion. It can get him the job. It can get him the pat on the back and the admiring wink that mean so much. And these, in large measure, are what we mean by happiness. Do not underestimate them.
Notes on Buechner
If the sermon is going to resonate for the listener, we have to treat the counterpoint with appropriate gravity. In this example, Buechner resists the urge to make it easy for the listener. Instead he takes things to another level by honestly reflecting what every listener knows to be true, that we really could get some of the things we want out of life by taking advantage of the Isaacs in the world.
It doesn’t sound like what a preacher is supposed to say, but it is true and every listener knows it. By being truthful about this, the preacher is able to do soul surgery rather than cosmetic surgery. The listener is taken seriously.
William Willimon – Matthew 13:24-30 – Some Way to Run a Farm
It was out of this mess that came the ancient biblical cry, “Oh Lord, how long, Oh Lord how long shall the wicked exalt,” Psalm 94. And we look at these weeds and this wheat and this is our question, “How long?”
When Duke lost the national basketball championship to a school somewhere out in the desert, I wrote our coach and advised him to look up Jeremiah 12:1 in his Bible, “Lord why do the wicked prosper? Why do the treacherous survive?” But of course it is no joking matter when it is your life and evil sometimes flourishes and goodness withers. It is not funny when those cancerous cells spread throughout the body and good cells starve – when defenseless students stand before tanks in Beijing and are crushed – when drugs despoil our youth and enrich those who sell them. At such times we are apt to ask, “Lord did you not sow good soil in your field?” It is a mystery and even by the end of the parable it remains a mystery. By the end of the parable there are still weeds just growing right alongside the wheat and you wonder what is going to happen.
We don’t know. We’ve gto to wait. We have got to wait until the harvest according to the story. I mean maybe what the farmer is doing is a good strategy. Yet everything dear to agriculture suggests that this farmer is taking a big risk. He’s heading for a tough harvest. He’s putting a lot of good wheat at risk.
“Do you want us to go gather up the weeds?” asks the servant. We suspect that makes the most sense.
“No, no, let’s wait,” says the father, “let’s just wait. I’ll risk it.
Isn’t that wasteful? Especially for conscientious ethically sensitive religious people like us? Isn’t that wasteful? What kind of way is that to run a farm?
“Well,” says this farmer, “I don’t only do sowing, I am also into animal husbandry, and I remember the time I had this one sheep that was lost, this one sheep, and I went out and left all the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness, risked that, I went out after that one sheep and searched till I found it. And then last year I gave this dinner party and I told my servants go out and bring in everybody off the street, anyone you can lay your hands on, both good and bad. It was rough on the furniture but man did we have a party. Then I had these grapes to harvest and I went out and I needed other people to harvest them. I went downtown and got people. I went downtown again. At the end of the day I was feeling so good I said, Hey, I’ll pay everyone the same wage, even those who worked only one hour. And they grumbled then and I said, Hey, this is my farm isn’t it? I’m going to run my farm the way I run my farm, okay?” You can read about it in Matthew.
But I tell you it takes patience to work on such a farm. It takes patience to endure such a weight, such a risk.
At my last church, at the end of a long day, I was tired. And one thing that gets you as a pastor, you know it seems like there is just so little results, so little progress. And at the end of some days I would be so tired, I would pour myself a cup of coffee and I would pour the Lord a cup of coffee and I’d say, “Okay now Lord, let’s go over this one more time. Why did you think it was a good idea to have a Methodist church up here on Summit Avenue in Greenville?” And then I’d listen, but I’d never understand. I said, “All right, okay, but why would you try to build a church with these people? If I were going out to try to build a church I could have done a better job than these people.”
And then the Lord would say, “Okay now look. This is my farm and I’m going to run my farm the way I run my farm. It’s my farm.”
Notes on Willimon
Willimon has a wonderful way of telling a story and in this example, he plays out the parable of the seeds with devastating relevance. The problem is that the parable doesn’t make any sense. Many preachers look to try to help the Bible out a little by making the concepts seem less offensive, but Willimon is having none of that. If anything Willimon heightens the tension by drawing in parallel texts and by describing the story in contemporary terms. In the end, Willimon is content to let God be God. He doesn’t try to fix what God is saying. He simply wants people to hear what God is saying.
Willimon pushes things. “Isn’t that wasteful?” he asks. Of course he knows the answer to his question. It is wasteful. Of course it is wasteful. “What kind of way is that to run a farm?” Leading the listener to ask a further question, “What kind of way is this to run a church? A world? A kingdom?”
Willimon believes that God can stand the scrutiny and that the Scripture will hold up to the examination. By taking the argument seriously, the listener is deeply engaged. It may in fact lead to a deepened faith.
Sometimes God says things that the preacher doesn’t want to say. Willimon’s approach shows courage in these “seeker friendly” days. This kind of courage will bear fruit in preaching today.