Reread 7.13.2023

    There are books I like to read on an annual basis. The contents never change. It will always be the same story. My context changes. It is 2023. I may have read this book last year, but the circumstances were different. Our context (horizon) to use the formal hermeneutical term is always shifting. The horizon of the text does not. 

    So, when we reread our own work, we are trying to evaluate how we merged the spiral from the Biblical horizon to the contemporary horizon. When we last preached that text we were immersed in the present. There was likely no other way for us to process the immediate circumstances around us. When time passes, when we have perspective, we are better able to assess the full hermeneutical process from exegesis, to exposition, to proclamation. 

    When re-reading fiction, we typically look for emotional reinforcement or the sheer literary joy of noticing nuance. When we read our own professional output, regardless of the amount of time that has passed since we preached a sermon or taught a lesson we are, by the nature of the endeavor, seeking to critically evaluate our past performance. It’s business, not personal, and we should be constantly striving for improvement. Consequently, there are a few perennial concepts that will take precedence. 

Vocabulary 

    Preaching is a word business. We study the Word of God to frame a message in contemporary language for our congregation. It is a word business. Preachers need to be critical readers of the words of others so that we may be better speakers of our words written to illuminate the words of God to others. And we must critically read our words written to ensure accuracy and quality. 

    For all of us, one of our first, formative educational experiences was learning vocabulary. In the beginning, they were called “spelling words”, but in learning to spell them we generally learned how to pronounce them and what they meant. If the form, sound, and meaning of words seems far too simple for you, an adult who speaks for a living, then you have a lot to learn. Language and how it is deployed is always changing and we must adapt to those changes. A workman who does not keep her tools sharp and her attention on available innovations will soon become obsolete. Painters know pigment. Carpenters know lumber. Preachers know words.

     Now I am not recommending that you find one or two new words every week and use them “in a sentence” as a part of your sermon. If you are reading as much as you should, across a broad spectrum of literature you will be improving your vocabulary and comprehension all the time. As we learn unfamiliar words or find new nuances and contexts for the ones, we already know we broaden our ability to communicate in our native language. 

    When we read our old work, when we sit in the study and read aloud from past sermons and lessons it should be a little bit like a high schooler looking back at those initial spelling words from 1st grade. We would expect growth, maturity, flexibility, and depth as a child moves through their education. The High Schooler should be able to plot their growth from cat to feline. The preacher who is not making similar progress over years of ministry will grow stale. It costs nothing to re-read our old material for the direct purpose of improving our current work. 

Editing

    It is amazing and a little bit disappointing how often we miss errors of both commission and omission in our own writing.  When we return to our own work either for review or revision the chronological space allows us to improve what we have written. I do not think that there is any written work that does not benefit from lying fallow for many months. The issue is deadlines. We can’t really wait for our writing to marinate before it is preached, taught, or submitted. Don’t forget your past work! Reviewing old work can provide a resource for new work. 

    The process of editing old work for new circumstances is an opportunity to extend, improve, and deepen the work that we have previously used. In this age of computerized word processing, there is no excuse for just printing out and preaching from a fresh, unrevised copy of an old sermon. Make a duplicate of the file, give it a new date and a revised title, and then go after that sucker with a “red pencil.”

     Because we are preachers the first thing that will catch our eye is the form. We will consider the outline and compare it with the underlying exegetical work. Don’t stop here! Beyond the form of the sermon consider the words you have chosen to bridge the gap from the Biblical context to the contemporary context. Did you use the right word(s) or did you hurry through, selecting good words but not the best words to convey your ideas? You have the material back before you. This is the time to improve it. 

Writing for the Ear

A final thought or two. The only person who is going to read your work from the page or the screen is you. We write for the ear. Until the advent of smartphones, most people did not have the ability to look up unfamiliar words during a sermon. The congregation is dependent on the preacher to explain anything unclear in a sermon.  A part of the preacher’s task is to choose her written words in such a way that they are easy to speak and easy to hear. Technical terms need to be explained. When obscure terms are/were necessary for understanding a truth grounded in the Biblical text, it should be defined and clarified. Explanations of difficult concepts needed to be framed in such a way that the congregation understood that we were giving them more information, important information for understanding Scripture. Now is the time to fix things. Now is the time to improve and freshen things up.

This is hard work, and we are under the constraints of a call from God. Passers-by may think you are crazy, but you need to read your work out loud. If you are going to preach it, teach it, or speechify it you need to say the words aloud. Listen for rhyme, assonance, juxtaposition of key terms, unnecessary adverbs (all or most of them), and imprudent modifiers. 

     You and I made the journey from “c-a-t” to feline, or from “d-o-g” to canine, a long time ago. It is time for us to make the journey from improvising to improving our preaching. That begins with rereading our work with a critical eye to improving our language. That will make you a better preacher.