Sermon as Art

I have long admired artists because they have a “way of seeing” that the rest of us don’t. I look out and see the world and it’s a mismash of things and colors. Artists look at that same scene and see patterns and textures and are able to translate those into a picture. Sometimes just a few lines are all it takes, and we look at the lines and say, “That’s it!”

I am coming to appreciate that in some small way I have that same “way of seeing” with the Biblical text. Not always, but often enough, I can explore a text and see the patterns and textures that translate into an organized sermon. Sometimes I just have three or four “points,” and that’s OK. But sometimes I really “see” the text — not in any magical or mystical sense — but I see the text almost unfolding before me, and I become the servant of the text rather than its manipulator.

A few weeks ago, I had been reading the text for my sermon on Isaiah 6. Friday night I thought about going over to the office to “get it out of my system,” but I didn’t want to leave my wife alone another evening. So I stayed home. But I didn’t want to forget what was going through my mind, so I stood by my dresser to jot down an outline and ended up drafting the whole sermon. I could hardly write fast enough to keep up with it!

Maybe once a year I have that experience … where a sermon just appears … full blown! It is a very humbling experience because you realize that you truly are a servant of the word. That doesn’t mean there’s no work — the “inspiration” usually comes after a lot of work. It’s more like a “birth” — hard work, but the real work has already been done for you.