From B.C. to 11 A.M.
Steven D. Mathewson
October 1, 1997
It took a novel by John Steinbeck for me to admit my ineptness at preaching Old Testament narratives.
In a scene from East of Eden, the banter around a kitchen table turns to the Cain-and-Abel story. A pig-tailed Chinese cook says, "No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us."
I thought about the sermon I preached the previous Sunday from 1 Samuel 7, the first I had preached from a narrative book in the Old Testament. Did people leave with a sense that the story was about them?
I had to admit they probably didn't. A lady approached me after the service and asked for point number three. "Uh, point number three," I said, "was 'The Resulting Prosperity of God's People.' "
I had preached a sermon full of historical-cultural data in an analytical outline. But that did no justice to the purpose of Bible stories: to lure people into real-life dramas where they run smack into God's assessment of their lives.
Preaching from an Old Testament narrative is like playing the saxophone: it is easy to do poorly. Here are the insights I'm learning that help me do it better.
Studying for a narrative sermon
Stories communicate truth differently than letters or poems do, so I need to study them differently. The features of a story help me identify the author's intent.
Plot.
Most plots in Old Testament narratives build on a conflict
or a collision between two forces. By the end of the story, the conflict
is resolved. Generally, the plots unfold like this:
- Background
- Crisis
- Resolution
- Conclusion
Unfolding the plot frees me from having to find a theological principle behind every paragraph or detail. In the Book of Esther, for example, chapters 1 and 2 serve as background. They introduce ...
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