Category Archives: big idea

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Do You Know How to Interpret Scripture So it Functions for the Church?

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What kind of interpretation do you practice?

A few posts ago I mentioned returning to this subject of interpreting portions of Scripture so it could function for the church.

This past week I had the privilege of teaching a required Ph.D. course for Lancaster Bible College’s Biblical Studies program. The course is OT Hermeneutics and Theology and I spent some time talking about a method for interpretation.

One thing I noticed is that we are better at summarizing a passage than interpreting it. Even the big idea method I’ve taught for years in advanced homiletics classes is a matter of summarizing, not interpreting.

So, back to my example in Exodus 4:24-26

24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ex 4:24–26.

Do you know what that pericope means? Do you know which meaning you’re after?

My method aims at meaning that combines exegetical content plus illocutionary intent. The last part is a fancy, speech act theory way of saying that meaning includes what God intends to do to the reader with that Scripture.

So, according to my working theory, we have not interpreted a text until we are able to state God’s intended effect on the reader. Are you able to do that for Exodus 4:24-26?

It might sound something like this:

The result of God attempting to kill Moses at the lodging place was that Zipporah circumcised their son, called Moses a bloody bridegroom, and God stopped the attack with the intention of urging the church to trust that, unlike Moses, their Redeemer kept the covenant for them and transforms them into covenant keepers.

It’s a mouthful, I know. However, the “with the intention of,” part is the critical part of interpretation.

More on that a little later.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you faithfully interpret Scripture.

Randal

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Our New Commentary on Genesis Has Arrived!

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John and I took seven years to write this! Slow, I know!! (*smile*)

What was “forthcoming” for some time is now here!

While I was away on my annual motorcycle ride to old Quebec City with seven others, Michele sent me a picture of the two boxes Kregel sent me. When I got home I had the joy of opening the author copies of my new commentary on Genesis.

It took approximately seven years to complete this project. More than once I said to the Lord, “I love Genesis, but I am so done with it!” (I’m writing now so God was gracious in understanding what I meant.)

The Kerux Commentary series matches a biblical scholar (Dr. John Soden) with a preaching specialist (me). As you’ll see, John did the lion’s share of the work. He is an excellent exegete and adept at starting the move from exegetical ideas to theological ideas that get closer to serving the church.

Each pericope begins with one page that includes an exegetical idea, theological focus, preaching idea, and preaching pointers. Then the section proper begins with Literary Structure and Themes, technical Exposition that includes translation analysis and outline points, extensive Theological Focus, and Preaching and Teaching Strategies.

In the Preaching and Teaching Strategies is a section on Exegetical and Theological Synthesis, an attempt to tie together the exegesis and theology to form a solid foundation for preaching insights. The Preaching Idea is repeated and followed by Contemporary Connections: What does it mean? Is it true? and Now What? (you might remember these as Haddon Robinson’s three functional questions; he used to say you can only do three things to an idea: explain it, prove it, or apply it; this section of the commentary does all three to the degree the preaching portion calls for them).

Finally, I provide suggested preaching outline(s), Creativity in Presentation, and Discussion Questions for preachers and teachers to consider.

Anyway, there it is in a nutshell.

What a privilege for me to be invited to participate. I thank our Lord for insights and endurance to accomplish this in the middle of an extremely busy time in my life. May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) whenever Genesis is preached/taught.

Randal

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Is Your Preaching More Translation Than Interpretation?

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Your Preaching Reflects Your Understanding of Meaning

I am getting back into a more normal schedule after teaching two classes. The first was an eight week master’s level course at Lancaster Bible College, Hebrew Exegesis to Exposition. The second was a Doctor of Ministry cohort, From the Study to the Pulpit, at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Here’s a look at the D.Min. group under the lights:

One of my goals was to help my new friends answer this basic question:

What does this pericope mean?

It sounds elementary, but proves quite challenging whether I’m posing the question to Masters, DMins, or PhD students.

If I asked you, “What does this Scripture mean?” how would you answer?

Exodus 4:24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

What I’ve discovered is that we are better at providing meaning in the form of summary or translation. We’re heavy on word studies and translating all the interesting concepts in this brief, bizarre OT narrative. We use the best tools we can to get to the bottom of their respective meanings.

If we are trained in some variation of identifying the big idea, we might present meaning as one cumbersome sentence that captures the interrelationship between the ideas of the narrative:

The results of the Lord meeting Moses and seeking to put him to death was that Zipporah circumcises their son, insults her husband, and the Lord let Moses alone.

Notice that this is not interpretation, but a summary of the narrative.

As I continue to teach the intersection of hermeneutics and homiletics, I keep urging my friends to consider what it means to interpret the meaning of a text.

More on that later.

For now, analyze your own method. Can you identify the meaning of the narrative? Does your meaning statement(s) include interpretation? If so, what is interpretation and what does that mean for your preaching/teaching?

Randal

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Our Dual Role as Exegetes and Theologians

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Preachers function in the dual role as exegetes and theologians.

Recently, I gained the privilege of teaching a Ph.D. class this fall for Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School. The course is BIB 909 Old Testament Hermeneutics and Theology.

One of the many stages of preparing to teach includes selecting major textbooks. One of my choices is Bruce Waltke’s, An Old Testament Theology: an exegetical, canonical, and thematic approach.

[If you plan on preaching from the OT, then this is an excellent resource to have on your shelf. I can’t say enough about the quality of Waltke’s scholarship. Despite being only 100 pages into the book, I am glad I purchased it!]

Near the end of chapter 3, The Method of Biblical Theology (Part 1), section 3 is, “Abstract Themes, Ideas, and Messages.” The last paragraph reads,

“After the exegete has interpreted the text and mined its message, the theologian through critical reflection interprets that message from its old horizon to the new horizons of the canon and then of both to the contemporary church. In other words, the theologian builds his or her interpretation that unites the ancient message with the contemporary world after the exegete has done his or her interpretive work….In this way godly theologians inform the conscience of the church.” (p. 92)

Notice, pastors have a dual role as exegete and theologian for the faith-families they serve.

It is true, then, that interpretation doesn’t end with our exegesis. It extends to our ability to locate the message that functions for the church.

You’ve stopped short of that dual role if you cannot articulate what God intends for your preaching portion to do to the church, to your listeners (“the contemporary world”).

Remember, the meaning of your text for this coming Sunday should combine content (exegesis) + intent (theological interpretation). When meaning combines content and intent, you are functioning in your dual role as exegete and theologian.

And our Lord will continue to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. Waltke basis this understanding of our roles on the nature of the Bible. He writes, “The Bible is more than concepts about God….It is God’s address to his people and his encounter with them. His ‘ideas’ and ‘principles’ are true and call for a personal response to obey and participate in the truth, the divine reality.” (p. 91).

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At the Start of a New Homiletics Class I Am Reminded That…

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There’s nothing better than studying preaching together!

I am extremely fortunate for another opportunity to meet a class of preaching students at LBC|Capital. We are just completing week #2 and are headed into residency week. It will be great to see everyone face-to-face.

Gearing up for the course and evaluating the work being turned in provides a chance for me to review some of the more important aspects of preaching. So, at the beginning of this new Advanced Homiletics class I am reminded that…

  1. it’s extremely helpful to think about intention as a part of your exegesis. That way you don’t separate your exegesis from your application and application doesn’t have to come last in the process.
  2. the amount of verses you select for preaching can either help or hinder your ability to identify the theology of a preaching portion. Cutting the text too short or too long can create problems.
  3. your method of sermon preparation should include a way for you to distinguish between big and little ideas in your text. And, then, of course, you need to be able to show how all sized ideas interrelate to make meaning.
  4. finding the meaning of a passage begins, not by searching for what the meaning is, but how the meaning is made (how the structure of the particular genre of your preaching portion communicates).
  5. when Christ-centered preaching is done well, your listeners will never leave church as good moralists.

That’s probably enough for now, but I do love thinking about some of the key elements to developing a sermon that represents God well.

And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus as a result of the way in which you read and communicate the sacred Scriptures (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. If you’re free this coming Friday or Saturday, whether for the day, half-day, or even an hour or so, find PAS 513 Advanced Homiletics in LBC|Capital’s Lancaster campus (2nd floor of the academic building).

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The Connection Between Shallow Sermons and Too Much Content

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I saw this caption on what is supposed to be a funny t-shirt. I said, “supposed to be,” because it’s describing the practice of a surgeon. Yikes!

But according to Carrell’s analysis in, Preaching That Matters,

“the reluctance to eliminate content seems to be the primary preparation obstacle for most who preach wide sermons” (p. 109).

Evidently many of us struggle with cutting anything out of our sermon preparation notes. And it hurts us and our hearers.

Carrell records the different ways preachers rationale keeping everything in and delivering it all on Sundays:

“It’s such good material!”

“The more material the better!”

“The more material, the better chances there will be something for everyone!”

The problem: the more material, the greater the risk you will lose your listeners. Listeners simply get worn out trying to keep up with all that good stuff.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of sitting down with one of our Elders who was going to preach on a Sunday morning. We met to go over his sermon notes. We talked about the best way to accomplish his goals for the sermon–the preaching portion’s goal for the worshiper. Apart from rearranging a few key segments, we spent most of our time deciding on what to leave out. We did that because cutting some things out would allow him to stay focused on what the preaching portion intended to do to the church.

Before Sunday, begin to look for some of the good, biblical information that may keep true transformation from taking place. And God will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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We’ve Got To Quit Rambling While We Preach!

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I remember well my mentor, Haddon Robinson, saying many years ago that the most common complaint of our listeners is that our sermons contain too many ideas. Evidently the problem hasn’t gone away.

In, Preaching That Matters: Reflective Practices For Transforming Sermons, Carrell writes, “Organization emerged as the number one listener-identified characteristic of a poor sermon…” (p. 72). The most common one-word description for the organization issue was

“rambling.”

Virtually every preaching portion you select looks like the slide above. And certainly every sermon we preach sounds like it too. Each Scripture, like each biblical sermon on that Scripture contains many ideas. Evidently, we’re not doing a good job showing how the ideas fit together to make meaning.

So, what we’re aiming at looks something like this:

In order to avoid what sounds like rambling, we have to organize the results of our exegesis according to the logic or arrangement of the ideas in a preaching portion.

I regularly teach that tracing the argument or flow of thought and allowing it to drive the sermon is the telltale sign of an expositor. For me, tracing the argument or discovering how the various ideas interrelate is the first thing I do on a Monday morning (after praying, “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.”).

Rambling is not just continuing to talk once your point is made. It is the word listeners used to describe a sermon that contained too many disconnected ideas. And that’s the key word, disconnected.

Carrell writes, “Wrote one listener, ‘I wonder if he even knows his main idea.'” (p. 73) Yikes!

I am going to give you and me the benefit of the doubt and say, “We do know the main idea.” Then, all that’s left for us to do before Sunday is to make sure we know how all the other ideas interrelate with the main idea and allow our congregants to follow that logic during the sermon.

And God will continue to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

 

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When Exemplars and Christ-Centered Combine: Preaching Ruth (part 3)

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I know some pit Christ-centered preaching versus exemplar preaching (“go and do likewise” in the case of good examples or “go and do otherwise” in the case of bad examples). But it’s hard to deny that Ruth contains some narratives that provide good examples for Christians to follow (think, Boaz). But Ruth also functions for the Church by placing us in a narrative trajectory that leads to our Savior, the Source of God’s favor. It’s both/and, not either/or.

Boaz was the source of favor for Ruth and Naomi. Chapter 2 opens by drawing attention to him: “a worthy man…” He’s the kind of man God creates and is there for us to emulate. The narrative does more than provide an exemplar, but not less than.

Campbell suggests, “the Ruth story is basically about extraordinary caring and concern, kindness that is above and beyond the call of duty.” In the overall message of Ruth (discovering God as “the restorer of life”), what happens to Ruth and Naomi provide a picture of how God restores life by extending kindness.

The theme of the narrative is located in Ruth’s statement about her spiritual instincts: that she would “find favor” in someone’s field (cf. 2:2, 10). Often the statement of a main character contains the seeds of the big idea for a narrative scene or series of scenes.

To make sense of the chapter, focus on the concept of “favor.” You could outline it this way:

The source of favor (vv. 1, 4-5, 8-9, 14-16, 19-20) is Boaz and the laws God put in place to care for those in need.

The need for favor (vv. 2-3, 6-7, 13, 17-18, 21-23; these two main points could switch places, even though the source of favor occurs in v. 1) is a picture of every one of us spiritual unfortunates.

The reason for receiving favor (vv. 10-12; if you like theological challenges, you’ll love the reason provided in v. 12, “The Lord repay you for what you have done…”) is the faith Ruth had in the “system” God put in place.

As I said above, Ruth’s Gospel does more than provide Boaz as an example to follow. Naomi describes him in v. 20, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” It’s a great opportunity to remind everyone how God extended favor to us in the person of His Son, to restore life.

Preach well for the sake of His reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Preaching the Unique Circumstances Surrounding Samson’s Birth

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caregiver

One of the highlights of preaching through the book of Judges is reaching the Samson narrative.

[If you haven’t seen Sight & Sound’s production of Samson, you would enjoy it thoroughly. Their imaginative exposition is always insightful.]

Two things are unique about the Samson birth narrative:

(1) God’s people are incapacitated. Judges 13:2 says, “And his wife was barren and had no children.” There was no courageous judge on the horizon. God’s plan for redeeming His world often included couples who could not conceive children. Think of these famous names: Sarai, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and Elizabeth. In his excellent little commentary, Davis writes,

“hopelessness…where there is no human energy or ability to serve as a starter.”

Samson is going to be a miracle baby. God would miraculously place him on history’s stage and use him to deliver His people from the Philistines. Our situation is so dire that we can never achieve deliverance in our own strength and ability.

(2) God demanded a special (read, holy) judge. Verses 4-7, 12-14, and 24-25 record instructions delivered to Samson’s mother about what she was to eat and drink during her pregnancy. All because Samson would “be a Nazarite to God from the womb” (v. 5). Those instructions are restated three times in the chapter to signal their importance.

Added to the miracle is a strong dose of holiness. The savior of God’s people would be set apart to God throughout his life, “a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death” (v. 7).

This is the kind of savior God sent for His people; this is the kind of Savior, of course, that He ultimately provided in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s no surprise that when the angel arrives in another nativity scene such as Luke’s gospel, we have similar circumstances.

These prenatal instructions guide our worship. We don’t encourage, “Be like Samson,” or “Don’t be like Samson” in these early scenes. Maybe later in the chapter. For now it’s simply telling God how much we love Him for rescuing us from our tendency to leave Him for other loves.

Preach well for the sake of His reputation in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal