2. If Bible is competing for our
meta-narrative, how do we
preach it?
If our lives are story, how can
we see ourselves in the Bible’s
stories?
What kind of exegesis might
inspire creativity, imagination?
How to engage a biblical
imagination not information?
Beyond, “nice sermon, pastor”
From recipients to participants
Different starting point…
10. Function of the Sermon
What do you want your sermon to do?
Effect not message (Mark Allan Powell)
Because the Word of God wants
something to happen to you.
11. the Word became flesh…as event
…something is supposed to happen
John 20:30-31
30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are
not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to
believe/continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that
through believing you may have life in his name.
30 Polla. me.n ou=n kai. a;lla shmei/a evpoi,hsen o`
VIhsou/j evnw,pion tw/n maqhtw/n Îauvtou/Ð( a]
ouvk e;stin gegramme,na evn tw/| bibli,w|
tou,tw|
31 tau/ta de. ge,graptai i[na pisteu,ÎsÐhte o[ti
VIhsou/j evstin o` cristo.j o` ui`o.j tou/ qeou/(
kai. i[na pisteu,ontej zwh.n e;chte evn tw/|
13. John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1 VEn avrch/| h=n o` lo,goj( kai. o`
lo,goj h=n pro.j to.n qeo,n( kai. qeo.j
h=n o` lo,gojÅ
Origin…
Relationship…
Identity…
14. 2 He was in the beginning with
God.
3 All things came into being
through him, and without him
not one thing came into being.
What has come into being 4 in
him was life, and the life was
the light of all people. 5 The
light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not
overcome it.
15. John, the Witness
6 There was a man sent from
God, whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness to
testify to the light, so that all
might believe through him.
8 He himself was not the
light, but he came to testify
to the light.
15 (John testified to him and
cried out, "This was he of
whom I said, 'He who comes
after me ranks ahead of me
because he was before me.'")
21. John 1:18 No one has
ever seen God. It is God
the only Son, who is
close to the Father's
heart, who has made
him known
John 1:18 Qeo.n
ouvdei.j e`w,raken
pw,pote o`
monogenh.j( o` w'n
eivj to.n ko,lpon John 1:18
22. who is the Word made flesh?
ESVJohn1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,
who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
NKJJohn1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
he hath declared him.
NABJohn1:18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son,
God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.
NIVJohn1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the
One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made
him known.
23. where is the Word made flesh?
ESVJohn1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,
who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
NKJJohn1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
he hath declared him.
NABJohn1:18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son,
God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.
NIVJohn1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One
and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him
known.
24.
25. what does the Word made flesh do?
ESVJohn1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God,
who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
NKJJohn1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
he hath declared him.
NABJohn1:18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son,
God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.
NIVJohn
1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the
One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made
him known.
26.
27. Truth (about God, about ourselves), not advice
Transformation, not information
Need, not things to do
Affect, not knowledge
Engagement, not treasure hunt
Particularities, not generalities
Listening, not talking
Immersion, not coercion
Experience, not report
Discovery, not proof
Incarnation, not excarnation
Incorporation, not application
What the Bible does and how the Bible says, not just what
it says
28. I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
Introduction or walk inside the poem's room
To Poetry and feel the walls for a light switch.
Billy Collins I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the
shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
29.
30.
31.
32. I was at Barnes and Noble today studying and working on a sermon for Thursday
and a girl sat down at a table next to me. She said hello and asked me what I was
doing...and being the fool that I am I said..."Working on a speech for a class"...then
feeling that all too familiar kick in the conscious not to be ashamed of the Gospel
and I said, "Well, actually, it is a sermon--something like a speech that pastors give to
give witness to God ..." She said, "Oh, I see, cool." Then she brought all of her stuff,
sat down at my table in the chair across from me, grabbed my notebook with my
notes to look at, and said..."Ok. I'm listening..." And then I preached the word...the
text: John 3:14-21. YES, THIS REALLY HAPPENED. What did [I] re-learn today? Our
pulpits are truly not in the fronts of churches or high and lofty ivory towers; dare we
even say the serpent raising institutions and mindsets, of which I am surely a part,
that have misused and imprisoned texts like John 3:16 with false glory and
condemnation. Nay brothers and sisters, our pulpits are and always have been in the
world, and they are there in every new and unexpected place of darkness calling us
to point to Christ and to shine the penetrating, life-giving light of the Gospel of God.
The God who loves the world deeply. The God who makes all things new...creates
out of nothing...brings hope out of despair...the God who constantly restores and
reorders how we understand power and witness...Yes, our God, the great I AM who
is revealed in Christ on the cross...the God who has called us each his beloved
children...and the God who has freed us to live that very identity in the world. "This
is my commandment: love one another." ♥ Silly God.
