Concepts 9.19.2024

 

    What is on your mind? How does your brain work?  How does your thinker think? What frameworks do you use to address the world around you? When you read a text from scripture what is your analytical perspective? Beyond that, how do you assimilate, evaluate, and appreciate any kind of information that comes to you? In an information saturated age, we need to have predetermined categories and concepts that we use to manage the flow and organize it for the proclamation of the Gospel. 

    You may be wondering exactly what I’m getting at. Let me explain further. Whenever you read a text whether novel, email, or poem you approach the text from some conceptual perspective. This is true of scripture as well. Regardless of the form—narrative, parable, psalm, or saga we all come at the text from some cultural, intellectual, social, and personal perspective. Much of it is based on our personality, intellectual makeup, and education. 

    There are those among us who will always read and understand a text from the perspective of the characters addressed. They primarily see and hear from within the text. Others (I don’t know why) always examine a text forensically from the perspective of author or narrator. Still others, taking a “step or two back” ask the profound question “what’s going on here?”, considering the text from a neutral perspective. And of course, history buffs will always look through the lens of historical cause and effect. 

    We humans are meaning making machines and we don’t always make meaning in precisely the same way. As preachers, teachers, writers, and researchers it is important for us to consider and analyze these conceptual perspectives so that we might gain a well-rounded empathetic understanding of the text in its context, and our congregation in its context.  You may approach the text analytically, even scientifically. Your listeners are not you and your congregation will bring a variety of conceptual understandings to the preaching moment. ignoring other concepts, considerations, and voices which your listeners bring to the preaching event shows a kind of contempt, or at least disregard for how others think. Good communication does not begin in contempt. Communication ceases when you disregard the audience, or when they feel like you are speaking but not listening.

    As is so often the case our hermeneutical task is not to reinvent the wheel but to thoroughly understand how it works. We need to consider applying the text from several angles—and this after we have fully understood what the author intended to write based upon form, genre, vocabulary, syntax and rhetorical effect. We don’t ever want to collapse into a post-modern, deconstructed, reader-centered hermeneutic. We do, however want to be aware of what some in the past called the uses of the text. What the Great Tradition (at least the Protestant side) calls uses, we now commonly call applications. A central task of weekly hermeneutics is developing a conceptual approach to application that is sensitive to the culture of our congregation. To not do so is to risk turning the Word-focused part of worship into a mere academic exercise. 

    Having posed the question let me propose some answers, or better yet let’s call them approaches. To begin with you must know your congregation, their background, education, and interests. Many of us preach to a congregation that is bright, educated, and informed. Explain unfamiliar terns and make comparisons. Make connections between what people know and what they do not. Your people will grow accustomed to being challenged to think during the preaching event, and the result will be greater maturity. 

    Next, you need to understand the community in which your congregation is located. What makes this place different? How has this place determined the intellectual and social horizon for people who live here. An example. Our school district is Grayville Community School District 1. Which is to say, the first school district organized in the state of Illinois. People are rightly proud of that fact and that contributes to the self-image of our town. 

    A third step is a conceptual understanding of the broader social and cultural mindset of where you serve. Yes, this town has unique features, but it also shares similarities with surrounding communities embedded in our cultural matrix. 

    People come from somewhere. We are a product of places. Congregation, community, and culture will give your preaching cultural resonance. Now, this can be tricky. We don’t want to preach from our context but to it. But even to address the very congregation before you, you need to be a part of the broader community. 

    This requires paying attention! Particularly in the twenty-first century, when it can be difficult to even find truly local sources of information. Newspapers have died and because local radio stations are a part of syndicates, they tend to only barely local. There are sources of information available. Even social media when used rightly will give you an understanding of these people who come to hear God’s Word proclaimed every week. And when they come, if you’ve done your homework and lived authentically in your community, Your message will be able to bring them closer to God and more deeply informed about their faith. If all you do is skim the text and skim the community the only concepts you will master are boredom and irrelevance.