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The cartoon features a man in clerical garb looking profound, presumably waxing with the eloquence all preachers presume. The text, however, gives a different story:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Isaiah 6, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Unfortunately, for many, sermons are blah-zae, a piling of words, uttered importantly, yet with little apparent meaning. Sure a modicum of Scripture (did you see the ‘Isaiah 6’? look again!) is inserted to lend the sermon its essential ingredient, yet for the listener, the event is largely without power or appeal. Most times the problem is not with the words themselves but with the preacher. Sermons seldom have the power they require unless they have been assimilated.
Unction
Many seem to believe that homiletic preparation involves exegetical discovery and the construction of a sermon. Yet, this is not the end of the journey for the one who desires to preach with power. There is a third stage to preparation, requiring as much time and commitment as the first two. That stage is assimilation, the process by which the preacher is filled with the message by the Spirit of God. Without this filling or annointing (unction), the preacher will have little to offer. Should God not move in the heart of the preacher, a sermon is little more than a speech.
Steps to Assimilation
The sermon is well assimilated when the preacher is so full of the message that it spills out from inside. When the preacher cannot contain him or herself, he or she is ready to preach. Take, for example, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous I Have a Dream, speech/sermon. Without question, the man was speaking of things that were deeply rooted within him. He spoke of what he knew and what he had lived. Such deep assimilation might not be possible every Sunday for the preacher, but such might well be the preacher’s goal.
There are three keys to assimilation. While they are varied in their focus and in their practice, they combine to contribute to Spirit-empowered preaching.
First Step: Live the Message
Embedded within Haddon Robinson’ important definition of preaching is the affirmation that biblical preaching is the application of a biblical concept which God applies “first to the preacher” then through him to his hearers. The “first to the preacher” aspect is critical.
Preachers assume too much. Chief among the preacher’s enemy assumptions is the one that tells the preacher that he or she has already mastered the content. Somehow we get the idea that because we have studied the text in the quietness of our offices that we have obeyed the text sufficient to preach authoritatively. Once we state it baldly, we see the implicit arrogance. Study is supposed to lead to correct action. If we have only understood the text, but as yet have not lived it, we are not ready to preach. Preachers ought to take intentional action toward putting their own sermons into practice before they preach the sermon. Such a commitment is not to be undertaken for the purpose of gathering personal stories to spice up the sermon (although that can sometimes be a welcome byproduct). Nor does one follow this counsel so as to avoid the ugliness of hypocrisy (though that too is another positive outcome). Preachers live up to their message because they themselves have heard from God and want in their heart to obey God. Practice what you preach, preacher.
Listeners are looking for people who identify with their experience. Listeners want preachers who can “feel their pain.” Frankly, preachers need to earn the right to speak to the listeners in their trouble.
Of course, it can make it difficult to find meaningful ways to apply texts in time to preach on Sunday. It may be that God has lead us to texts that are not “front burner” issues for us at present. Nevertheless, the preacher can scroll back into the past to revisit times when this sermon was a live concern. The preacher can seek out fresh ways to put the ideas into practice. This, as well, helps the preacher understand the application of the text. Of course, if the preacher is entirely unable or unwilling to live the message, perhaps he had better not preach the message, at least for now.
Second Step: Speak the Sermon
Somehow the preacher needs to put the sermon into words. The structure built in the second stage needs to fill out with the words that will communicate the content. Typically, preachers take pen or computer keyboard in hand in order to hammer out the nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We speak in terms of writing sermons. Unfortunately, most of these sermons come off sounding like they are written, which would be fine if we were reading. In fact, we are listening. We need a preacher, alive with conviction, speaking freely of those things deep in his or her blood.
We are speaking of the distinction between a sermon built for the ear as opposed to one built for the eye. Reading a sermon is different from listening to one. When one reads a sermon, one can take time to reflect. One can take time to pause when necessary, pondering key concepts and considering critical issues. A reader is able to scroll back a few pages or a few paragraphs in order to resolve or reiterate issues that may be unclear. Written presentations are there on the record, easily referred to whenever needed. None of this is true of an oral presentation. Oral presentations are much more dynamic. While pastors have added literate elements to the sermon by means of the powerpoint projector and the trusty bulletin insert sheet. Nevertheless, sermons remain oral in nature. Listeners process sermons on the fly. Preachers should not assume that the listener will catch every nuance. Most likely, the listener will walk away with a general sense of the preacher’s intention, mediated by a few strong lines, concepts, and stories that have caught the listener’s interest.
In response, some might despair of the value of the sermon, yet few would deny the unique power of one person who looks us in the eye and speaks truth to us. One only has to watch the motivational speakers on PBS or the late night comedians on network television to remind us of the effectiveness of extemporaneous presentation. The best way to encourage this kind of immediacy in presentation is for the preacher to speak the sermon instead of writing it. Instead of bringing the sermon structure to the keyboard, the preacher ought to bring it to the park or to the beach. The suggestion is that the preacher will work out the sermon instead of writing it out. The preacher who works out the language of the sermon while hiking a trail, riding a bike, or just simply pacing in the office, will not only create a more oral sermon, but will gain a greater sense of ownership over the sermon. The best way to prepare to preach extemporaneously is to assimilate the sermon in a similar manner.
Third Step: Pray the Sermon
Prayer ought to be the dominate element of sermon preparation. From top to bottom we must fill the process with prayer. Nevertheless, serious prayer at this stage in the process is highly important to the preacher’s assimilation of his or her sermon. There is no substitute for deliberate prayer in preparation. The objectives of preaching are spiritual. It is reasonable, then, to say that spiritual work requires the power of the Spirit. Nothing eternal will result unless God does it. That knowledge alone ought to compel us to pray.
Perhaps, the preacher ought to consider the integration of the spiritual disciplines into the process. A time of solitude, silence, and perhaps even fasting, could be a valued part of the preacher’s prayerful assimilation of the sermon.
The Unction of the Spirit
The movement of the Spirit in the work of preaching is admittedly mysterious. Yet, without the power of the Spirit, our words are so much “blah.” As E.M. Bounds said, “…without this unction, these results are not secured. Many pleasant impressions might be made, but these all fall far below the ends of gospel preaching. This unction may be simulated. …there are many results that resemble its effects, but they are foreign to its nature.”
The preacher must own the sermon deep in the soul. The sermon ought to come from the gut. Listeners are looking for someone who believes what he or she is saying – someone who knows God and speaks for God.