Proclaimer Blog
Sermon or lecture?
This morning I've got part three of four sessions with the Cornhill students on the book of Numbers. I'm going to start the day by preaching to them a sermon based on Numbers 5-6. It's a relatively old sermon, some of which I would change were I to preach it in church tomorrow. But I have deliberately left it as it is so the students can think about what is good about it and what needs to be improved. These are useful exercises, though painful for the preacher! We also try to make it real – I get the students to reflect on it first, rather than launch in! This is, after all, the word of God preached, even if it is in a slightly false environment.
Large passages such as this are not easy to preach. Here's a possible outline.
- Purity in the camp (5.1-4)
- Purity in relationships (5.5-10)
- Purity in marriage (5.11-31)
- Purity in service (6.1-21)
All rather worthy and dull and in great danger of being a lecture – where the text is simply explained. Of course, preaching is not less than "giving the meaning" (Nehemiah 8.8), but it is much more. We are called to proclaim Christ, warmly applying the truths of Scripture to our hearer's minds, hearts and lives. So, whilst this outline could work (with a very pliant and forgiving congregation), my outline is slightly different:
My aim is to proclaim the holy Lord:
- The Lord is holy (I will pick up this theme which permeates both chapters)
- The Lord is present (again, this is strongly represented throughout the stories)
- The Lord is concerned (ditto)
This then allows me to preach Christ who is not only the holy Lord but the one who makes us holy (Heb 2.11). The blessing (Numbers 6.22-27) is the blessing of the holy Lord for his holy people. That sort of outline is harder in some ways to carry off, but is much more likely to be a sermon rather than a lecture.