This past week I enjoyed the privilege of spending time with masters level students at Lancaster Bible College/Capital Seminary and Graduate School in Lancaster, PA and Greenbelt, MD. Because I’m teaching an Advanced Homiletics class, we spend a lot of time in Old Testament narratives (as opposed to NT epistles).

One of the things I wanted them to think about was that because the Bible is literature, theology is conveyed in narratives through the storyline. So, take a detour from the storyline and you run the risk of losing the theology God conveys through the narrative.

Why would a preacher stray from the storyline in an effort to preach a narrative? One reason is because many of us continue to develop a sermon on the basis of what jumps out at us in the story. I call that the Jack-in-the-box method. The problem is we tend to interpret and apply what jumped out at us without linking it to the rising action of the narrative.

Another reason I’ve seen over the years is the tendency to identify timeless principles from the narrative and preach them in isolation from the rising action. The principles function on their own and the preacher gives the impression that the principles are conveying the theology, not the storyline.

So, before Sunday, if you are preaching an Old or New Testament narrative, see if you are allowing the storyline to carry the theology of the preaching portion. See if the rising action is the source of your sermon’s subject matter.

Preach well so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal