Pastor Mason Beecroft found this little gem from Luther, and it’s renewed my committment to preach in such a way that people are led to the Sacrament:

For the preaching ought to be nothing but an explanation of the words of Christ, when he instituted the mass and said, ‘This is my body, this is my blood,’ etc. What is the whole gospel but an explanation of this testament? Christ has gathered up the whole gospel in a short summary with the words of this testament or sacrament.

Luther on the objectivity of the Holy Spirit’s testimony:

No one in need of comfort, therefore, should wait until the Holy spirit in all his majesty speaks to him personally from heaven. For the Holy Spirit carries out his witness publicly in the sermon. That is where you must seek and await him, till the word which you hear with your ears witness inwardly of Christ in your heart. But such inward witness does not come about until the externally spoken witness of the Word is heard which tells that Christ became man, was crucified, died, and rose again for our sakes.

House Postils, II:149

My friend David Petersen (at least I think it was him; I can’t find it now), pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, wrote somewhere recently, “Preach the Sunday, not the text.” I was thinking about that during the reading of the first lesson yesterday, Ezekiel 37.1-14, on the valley of the dry bones. I became very disappointed with the sermon I was about to preach, as I began to realize all the ways it could have been improved by a more careful consideration of the day’s propers. I was also thinking about the man in the congregation who was baptized at our Easter Vigil. The Introit for the day was chosen with him in mind: “As newborn babes, Alleluia, desire the pure milk of the Word, Alleluia! Alleluia!”

My sermon was exclusively on the Gospel reading. That’s not a bad thing, but I sensed it was lacking.

Preach the Sunday, not the text. I don’t have a formula for how that would be done, but here are a few things I have in mind:

Each Sunday/Festival is larger than its component parts (called the Propers: the lessons, the prayer [collect] of the day, the Psalms [Introit, Gradual, Verse] – the hymns could be considered in this category as well). Each Sunday or Festival has an overarching theme to it, which each part (most especially the Gospel reading) serves to elucidate. Thinking about yesterday (Quasimodo Geniti), here are some of the themes:

• Antiphon, 1 Peter 2.2: Like new born babes, drink the pure spiritual milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. This has in mind the converts received into the church at Easter, and what they should know be about – with broader application to everyone whose baptism was remembered/”renewed” at the Easter Vigil.
• Old Testament: Can these bones live? Breathing on the slain by the Spirit of the LORD  points backward (at creation, the LORD breathed the breath of life into the man, and he became a living soul) and forward (in the Gospel reading, Jesus breathes on the Apostles and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” connecting Holy Absolution to man’s creation, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the giving of the Spirit). All this raises the issue of man’s mortality and future.
• Epistle (1 John 5.4-10): Spirit, Water, and Blood testify/witness to the truth of Jesus. This connects the Sacraments to the death of Jesus (in John’s Gospel, blood and water pouring from the opened side (ch. 19), with the Spirit “handed over” to the Mother and the Disciple whom Jesus loves – i.e., to the Church)
• Collect: Since we’ve celebrated the resurrection, we pray that we might bring forth in our lives the confession of Thomas (in the Gospel) that Jesus is God and Lord.
• Gospel (John 20.19-31): Christ coming to the disciples, instituting the Office of the Ministry; proof of resurrection to Thomas; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe; the 4th Gospel is written so that we can believe in Christ and have life in Him.

All that is larger than the account of Thomas, although that obviously (to me, at least) needs to have pride of place. What, then, is the overarching theme, or how are all these connected? I think there’s one more element: this is the Sunday after Easter. The Gospel lesson is obviously connected chronologically to that, but there’s another factor: Easter is our great festival, new members were brought into the church at Easter, and there’s a “now what” kind of feel to the day. The day’s propers address that “now what” – What does it mean that you are a man created by God, but now in the valley of dry bones? What does it mean that you’ve been baptized? What does it mean that Jesus rose again, for me, now? All that is addressed in the propers, which is what I wished I had attempted to do in my sermon.

So, what I’ve been thinking about based on the maxim “preach the Sunday, not the text” is that maybe my usual pattern of sermon preparation needs to be modified. Instead of studying the Gospel intensively, then looking at the propers if I have time and dropping in a few thoughts from them into the framework of the Gospel, maybe I should study the Sunday (i.e., all the propers) and preach the Gospel reading with those themes already in mind or forming the basis/foundation.

It’s what I do instinctively on the “big days” – Christmas, Easter, Pentecost. On those days, nobody preaches “just” on the text, but on the larger themes of Incarnation, Resurrection, Holy Spirit/Church. Same with Reformation, All Saints – any day that is more “thematic” in nature. It’s also what makes those sermons more difficult, in my opinion, especially when the theme is so monumental. What can I possibly say on the Incarnation or Resurrection of Jesus? Before I became a pastor, I would have thought Christmas and Easter would be the easiest sermons of the year to write. For me, they’re the hardest by far.

These are merely thoughts I’m toying with; I’d love comments from preachers and hearers alike – mostly hearers: you’re the people who have to put up with us lousy preachers. Some pastors have a “parishioners advisory board” to give constructive feedback on sermons and other aspects of ministry. I suppose I could ask the Elders to do that here, but it’s far too frightening a thought. There was nothing worse than Homiletics classes at seminary – I’ve never witnessed greater acts of cruelty than seminarians critiquing my sermons. I’m still scarred by it – seriously.

Well done; funny and painful at the same time! Thanks to MZH for sending it. The video is after the jump.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY4khRpG8O8