SERMON VIDEO:
(Can’t see the video? Click here.)
Ethan Linder is the College/Young Adults and Connections Pastor at College Wesleyan Church in Marion, IN– a church that desires to send more and better disciples of Jesus Christ into the world. Pastor Ethan delivers weighty truth with playful precision. This is a difficult balance that we are excited to explore with you. Here are a few of the categories of the mix we enjoyed in Ethan’s sermon:
Wordsmithing
“The rich can’t buy it with their riches any more than the poor can buy it with their poverty….”
Any of us can improve the way we craft phrases as we write our sermons. There are many standard suggestions to help preachers do this: examine the works of more seasoned authors, pore over our favorite narratives to discover how the story is told, practice regular writing even in journal form. The truth is some are more naturally gifted at this work. We all know good craftsmanship when we hear it. But word smithing is not as simple as writing phrases that sound smooth in our ears. Good word smithing cleans our glasses to increase our vision.
As you listen to the sermon, look for this quote and hear how it hits the ear, the mind, and the mind’s eye: “[I] wonder if the message of this text is that the kingdom of God is God’s gift to give to whom he chooses. The rich can’t buy it with their riches any more than the poor can buy it with their poverty. All that’s necessary is that you have hands that are free to receive it.” These few sentences employ imagery and action verbs to work against the gravity of our wealth and earthly concerns. It also works against a works righteousness created by glorifying poverty. In this moment, we are directed to lift our eyes to this sovereign Teacher who calls us to receive a gift infinitely superior to the bondage of hoarded wealth.
Pastor Ethan also believes that it is good to glean from other gifted wordsmiths. Barbara Brown Taylor’s quote, “Sometimes the opposite of rich isn’t ‘poor,’ it’s ‘free,’ is a well-crafted, one-two-punch. It instantaneously takes our preconceived notions about riches and our plans for them and replaces those notions with true wisdom about who God is and what God offers beyond this surrendered act. He could not say it much better, so he quoted someone who said it best.
Empathy
“It wasn’t obedience that was [the rich young ruler’s] problem. It was values.”
There are four core virtues to preaching celebrated across Christian history: humility, empathy, wisdom, and justice. These make up the way we love our neighbor through preaching. This particular sermon is a good example of the importance of empathy. It impacts not only how we say what we say, but it impacts our interpretation of Scripture, ourselves, and our world. Pastor Ethan lets empathy inform his knowledge of the rich young ruler and of his congregation. Instead of oversimplifying, Ethan takes us beyond the ‘buck up, buttercup’ gospel that we often tell. These sermons often sound something like, “The rich young ruler just needed to obey.” Instead, he offers, “Perhaps obedience isn’t his problem; perhaps the rich young ruler’s values are the problem.” Instead of remaining in the abstract, Pastor Ethan offers a parable that is well-suited for his context– the story of Robert, a young man born into a Midwestern farming family. In both of these things, Pastor Ethan moves from surface-level judgment to cause us to ask deeper, more personal questions. What motivates the rich young ruler and, consequently, Robert? What are their desires, hopes, fears?
Storytelling
The Parable of the Rich Young… Farmer.
Human pathos is propelled to action not by platitudes and principles but by characters and narrative. I think most of us would agree that our illustrations serve (hopefully) as so much more than a time-filler. They expand on principles and Scriptural truth in ways that our words might otherwise fail. Pictures are worth more than a thousand words. Character identification is one of the most powerful functions of the parable. Ethan matches parable with parable, ancient and contemporary, and helps us identify with the story in new ways.
Once you’ve found a story worth telling, how will you tell it? Sometimes, the creation of a parable can be a great way to work out the kinks in our own understanding of a text. And if it’s helpful for you, the preacher, then perhaps it could be helpful for your congregation as well. Pastor Ethan’s parable about Robert hits close to home for all of us as he uncovers Robert’s hopes, fears, desires. Robert wanted to do the right things. Robert wanted a good life. As we hear Robert’s story, we slowly ease into to the idea that we are very much like Robert. We empathize with him. We understand him. From there, it’s not a far cry to realize that though we wouldn’t have admitted it at first, we are also very much like this rich young ruler.
This playful precision that Pastor Ethan speaks with is a difficult balance to find, but there are always steps we can take to grow in this discipline.
- Sharpen your focus statement.
How can you deliver your focus statement so that, like a well-tended sword, it cuts to the very heart of that one truth you want people to hear? Take your focus statement (the one thing you want people to leave your sermon remembering) and spend no less than thirty minutes on just your focus statement.
Turn it over and over in your mind. Chew on it. Knead it. Bounce it off the walls or off your nearest friend. Employ action verbs. Try your hand at metaphors. Eliminate filler words. And be sure to keep it short. Less is usually more. This takes practice, but it pays off in clarity. Clear sermons create more life change.
- Engage with empathy.
Just as you cannot love God without obedience, you cannot increase your capacity for empathy without spending time with people. When you find yourself frustrated with a person, consider why she/he might act that way. Find motivations you can appreciate and understand even if the action is frustrating or unhealthy. We do not want to project or assume, but think about what’s happening in their life Has work been frustrating this week? Does home feel out of control? Is he/she simply having an off day? Or is it possible that I’m projecting my own insecurities onto this person in front of me. Empathy also requires that we do not trip over our own emotions on our way to understanding others? Sometimes you should keep the question to yourself, but always ask why.
- Learn from the best.
“I am no storyteller,” may be the words on your mind right now. Sure, you might not be C.S. Lewis or Madeleine L’Engle. Still the first words they ever penned were not the final drafts. Like any discipline, good storytelling takes practice. Do not count yourself out before you start.
Here is more fun way to grow in this avenue of preaching. Choose a movie or book that you have wanted to read/watch for a long time. That neglected story can be this week’s growth work. Watch your movie. Read your book. Enjoy it simply for what it is. When you are done, think back. What made this story compelling (or not)? Were the characters three-dimensional? What moved the plot forward? Humor? A relationship triangle? A villainous plan that needed stopped no matter the cost? Which details were helpful and why? What made the story really sing.
When you’ve studied your text for your next sermon, ask yourself: What story might I tell (whether it’s one you’ve created or someone else’s that you’ll cite) that will BEST illustrate this text? And based on my new storytelling knowledge ideas, how can I tell that story in such a way that it is both faithful to the text and compelling?
~ Dave Ward with Elyse Garverick