The Big Things 2.27.2025

     The single fact to understand about the Big Things we deal with in preaching is that there are not many of them. If there were lots of big things, then we would need to reclassify or reorder our understanding. In philosophical (logical) terms this is a category mistake. These kinds of errors occur when we misalign priorities or misidentify the categories or “families” into which items should be placed for either complex analysis or simple understanding. A quick example. The phrase “when pigs fly” uses a category mistake to envision an error. The joke works…because everyone understands swine do not fit into the category of “animals which fly”. 

    In discussing focus and diligence earlier in the month we were considering how to maintain our attention during our work, the question we were really asking was “how”? In looking at the little things last week, and now, the big things, the question we are asking is “what”? 

    In short, human beings are prone to making mountains out of molehills. We exaggerate the utility or value of what we like, or what aligns with our intellectual disposition and minimize things we either dislike or don’t understand. Preachers are no less prone to this disposition than are other humans. It is for this reason that we must be ever vigilant about mastering the performative details and not confusing them for the major issues we are called to discuss in our preaching. 

    In proceeding let’s examine some basic Biblical guidelines.  This is not exhaustive, but it does give us a clear picture of how one of our apostolic predecessors conceived of the “big things” essential to Christian doctrine. Bold print is mine to demonstrate how Paul thinks, in this one instance about what is essential. 

“but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,” (1 Corinthians 1:23 ESV)

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,” (1 Corinthians 15:1 ESV)

“Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.” (1 Corinthians 15:11 ESV)

    These quotes help delineate that the biggest big thing of all is Christ and the events of His passion. Paul goes on to provide some specifics: 

“  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8 ESV)

    In his long ministry Paul addressed many issues. The Corinthian correspondence is a laundry-list of problem issues and problem behaviors in the Church. As focused as we become on distracting minutiae, we need to subscribe to Paul’s view that the biggest thing of all Is Jesus-His life, death, burial, and resurrection. 

    What Paul says provides a basic blueprint for how we should approach the central matters of the Christian faith. The nature and person of Jesus, His role in saving us and calling us together into his Church and calling to make disciples. In proper theological terms the Big Things will generally be concerned with Christology and Ecclesiology. And I know that some of you just threw a flag on that last statement, since it contradicts multiple decades of felt-needs topical preaching. I believe my contention is correct for a simple reason. If we are wrong about Jesus and the nature and purpose of His Church, all the other “-ologies” whatever importance we assign them will be equally wrong. The Christian faith is about Jesus. If we start, there and focus on Him and His Gospel we will be better equipped to consider the smaller doctrines. If we are wrong about Jesus…none of the rest matters. 

    What’s that? Some of you say, “There are no small doctrines if something is in the Bible!” Good luck with that. To defend everywhere is to defend nowhere. To protect everything is to protect nothing. Focusing on the decor or finishing of a structure is pointless (sometimes even immoral) when the foundation is crumbling. And friends, the foundation of the Christian faith is under attack. Not from without, but from within. Not by enemies, but by so-called friends who would undermine the faith to make it more attractive to some, and those who would radicalize it to make it more useful to others. This multifaceted attack on the Church, by reducing it to popularity or ideology are equally lethal to the cause of Christ. 

     We serve a crucified and risen Lord. He is a Lord who is well aware of our weaknesses-and our strengths. I see nothing in the New Testament that points to the Church focusing on “4 ways to improve our finances”, “Six weeks to a Happier Marriage.” Or “5 ways to Hate Your Neighbor.” The focus on practical, common-sense, “little thing” preaching has reduced many congregations to gatherings of self-help junkies who don’t understand the faith and think that the Christian life is a matter of doing many, many, many little things correctly. The word for that is legalism. 

    Others see the task of the Church as being a moral police force for a fallen world. The sins the Bible mentions are to be attacked and eliminated. Everyone must get in line, even those who have not been converted. The word for that? Also, legalism—but of a different kind. The Pharisees and Sadducees were both legalistic parties. They just had different conceptions of enforcement. The Pharisees wanted everyone in their tent, the Sadducees were happy with the rich and powerful. 

    The signal difference between sectarian Judaism and Christianity is the New Testament doctrine (derived from an understanding of Who Jesus is and what He came to do) of regeneration. The behaviors of the Christian life were not intended to be enforced on those who had not come to saving faith in Jesus and who were not immersed into the life of His Body. And we should not expect non-Christians be behave like they are. It is a credit to the faithfulness of the early Church that “Christian Ethics” transformed the ethics of the Roman and all successive Empires until the Enlightenment. This allowed far too many Christians to suffer under the delusion that the Christian faith consisted solely of right behavior. We are at a turning point in history. The Post-Modern world reflects the circumstances of the first century world. Reacting with anger toward unregenerate people doing unregenerate things will certainly prevent the Church from reaching the unrepentant world with the Gospel. Enforcing Christian behavior as a universal norm invalidates the Christian plea that we must become “New men in Christ.” 

What then is the solution?

“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4 ESV)

    The mythology Paul envisions is the fruitless pursuit of little things. Some of them are good. Obviously, some behaviors are better than others. We do need to have a correct understanding of all Biblical doctrine. And that means we must prioritize what Scripture prioritizes even if it’s not popular or sexy. We must be committed to putting First Things first and recognizing that the inspiration of Scripture was not designed to undermine its variety. If you aspire to be a Biblical preacher, you need to become accustomed to preparing and preaching weighty sermons that subsume the whole of Scripture beneath the single Big Thing, Jesus. 

    Until and unless we do that the Church will continue be handicapped in this age when cultural forces are capable of hijacking many if not all our little things, twisting them into cultural-driven hobbyhorses that set the faithful aflame but do little to bring any light to a fallen world. 

    Our job is not to make people religious. Our job is not to make people better. We can’t really fix people and our efforts to triage their spiritual pain eventually evaporate. The job is not simple to do but it is simply stated:

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (Colossians 1:28 ESV)

The Little Things 2.20.2025

     If we work according to a good plan, we will include time for review and adopt practices that insure we remain focused. These commitments lead the issues we shall discuss the next two weeks. First, we will consider what it means to do the little things. Next week we will look at some big things. Mrs. Beckman made potato salad today. We will enjoy it for supper. Making any dish, following a well-tested recipe is a good comparison for this process of looking at little things, and big things. 

    The little things might be thought of as the details of our sermon writing system. The big things are the broader concerns that give a completed sermon a good presentation, accurate theology, and satisfying texture, and “flavor.” Preaching requires both emphases and they must be kept somewhat separate during the preparation and preaching phases. Potato salad has many ingredients. Some of those ingredients are essential to flavor. They are the small details, which when omitted keep the final product from being at its very best. On the other hand, it’s not potato salad without potatoes. In this illustration they are a big thing, not a small. Preaching requires both kinds of work and we do the work within the constraints of weekly worship. 

    Before we move on let me say a word about the value of these seemingly insignificant distinctions. This is important when we consider the product we take into the pulpit each week. The dish my wife prepared is potato salad. It is not called: a salad of potatoes, with a tangy mustard-Miracle Whip dressing, further dressed with hard-boiled eggs, celery and onion. That’s not a name, it is simply a record of the ingredients, it’s the recipe. When everything works properly the ingredients (details) disappear into the final dish. We have all heard too many sermons which sounded like a rehearsal of the recipe, like the preacher took his or her research notes into the pulpit. Those kinds of sermons feel unfinished. Our congregations should not be burdened with the details. That is our job. If something rises in the process of preparation that seems like a small, piddling detail, taking on greater importance during the process of study that is proper. The process has correctly identified a big thing, isolated it from the focus on little things, and puts the exegete/preacher in a position to determine if it requires attention within the sermon. Sermons are not the proper place to teach people to cook. They come to Church to be fed. This distinction between the little and big things in sermon preparation is work for us to do, by ourselves, in the homiletical kitchen. 

    Let me start with a basic list of research areas in which a particular item (word, phrase, practice) can prove to be either a small thing or a big thing depending on context. 

• Basics of grammar and syntax. 

• Word meaning(s) in context.

• Text-critical matters. 

• Distinctions between author and speaker(s).

• Cultural background.

• Cross-cultural connections. 

• Characterization. 

• Post-biblical theological developments. 

• Anachronisms. 

• Plot-development. 

• History of interpretation. 

• Local, universal, or denominational tradition.

This is not exhaustive but provides some basic guidance about some of the questions we need to ask as we do exegesis and then transition from exegesis to sermon. In the throes of sermon writing, when we are immersed in a text it is tempting to read our enthusiasm for what we learn, into the text, mistaking that passion for the concern of the text. 

    We are particularly prone to read subtle, detailed distinctions of meaning into words or constructions that are absent from the intention of the author. When Matthew quotes Jesus saying, “I will build my Church” (ἐκκλησίαν) there is no secret, etymological, “coded”, message. It is a little thing, not a big one. The word meant assembly. Jesus talked about an assembly and Matthew chose the appropriate word. Building the edifice of a sermon about supposed meanings of a single word (which was practically universal, widely used, and well know when Matthew wrote it) is practically the archetypical example of transforming a little thing into a big one. 

    Why do we do such things? I have looked at past sermons and cringed at some of the errors I made. Upon reflection I commit the errors I am describing in this month’s essays myself. And the answer to the question why? It’s easy, fast, and undetectable by our people. That doesn’t make it right, but it does explain it. Our task is to not fall into the temptation to mistake the little things for the big things. That means doing the hard work in the study. That means following a recipe that does not mistake the preparing for the preaching. 

Let me provide a few recommendations. Regular readers will recognize some familiar themes. 

1. Follow a regular, weekly process that considers small and big matters in proper context with appropriate emphasis. 

2. Writing multiple drafts is the opportunity to strive for clarity. Summarize what you can, explain what is absolutely necessary, don’t dig pointless holes and spend an entire message filling them.

3. The details in the text serve the message of the text. Know the author’s intent or you risk reversing or completely negating this central premise. 

4. It is easier to kill hobby horses if you never ride them. 

5. Biblical preaching requires a translator to explain the message of the text for a contemporary audience. Where you preach you are that person. 

6. It is better to omit something you are sure of than to include something you are unsure of. 

7. Do your best and come back next week to do it all again. 

The devil may be in the details, but not all details are created equally. The structural integrity of a building is a big thing. How the building is decorated is a little thing. The primary ingredient in a dish—usually the one that provides the name—is a big thing. Some of the details are decoration, others are essential. Becoming a good architect is a process of deciding which little things are discretionary and which are crucial. Becoming a good cook is a process of deciding which little things add flavor and which are garnishes. In preaching, clarifying the relationship between the little things and the big things is often the difference between a word from God and a word from man. Be the messenger not the message. Do the work and master the craft. 

Due Diligence 2.13.2025

     I once served at a church where there were a couple of deacons that took maintaining the facilities seriously. They were cousins who grew up during the depression and there were few issues with any structure that they could not take care of. I had the opportunity (joy) to work with them on a couple of projects and one matter that I noticed was the amount of time they spent checking their own work. I had heard the old saying “measure twice, cut once” many times. Working with Ward and Wilbur was a clinic in the process. 

    They measured. They drew. They laid out lines in pencil and chalk. They re-measured while I held something in place, then after it was secured, they measured again. I learned a valuable lesson from them. It does not matter what you are doing, or how talented you are if you don’t take the time to do it right. I am not a capable handy man, but I did learn a valuable lesson about real productivity. If you have to do it twice, it might have been a good idea to pay better attention to details, and get it done right the first time. 

    In law or management this kind of practice is called due diligence. Loosely speaking, due diligence is the moral imperative to pay attention to details when you are signing a contract or making an “existential” decision. It is an interesting concept because it juxtaposes what is “legal” with what is “right.” Most of us are well aware of situations where a company or friend was exposed to jeopardy by a contract or agreement that was perfectly legal but flawed. Due diligence concerns itself with avoiding that kind of mistake. 

    Most of us who write sermons and listen to them preached have been present for a message that betrayed evidence of a breach of the preacher’s due diligence responsibility. This may come in the sermon itself when a point he was making was stated as fact when it was opinion or hearsay. It also occurs when a preacher insists on using language that is not clear, accurate, and on point. The goal of preaching is to be both clear and accurate. Due diligence for preaching requires a process of measuring, checking, studying, clarifying, re-measuring, and fitting. An accurate, poorly worded message does not help, nor does flowery heresy, or opaque evasion. People need led and fed. We work under a moral imperative to get things right. Let me give an example and then discuss some strategies for “measuring twice.”

    Last week I preached from Matthew 6.5-15. The sermon focused on prayer and discussed the Lord’s model prayer which ends with this verse

“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:13 ESV)

It should be common knowledge that the King James translation tradition contains the doxology…” for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever; Amen”.  It should also be common knowledge that this represents an early, broadly attested textual tradition, which was not a part of Matthew’s original text, most likely added during the transmission process. I have never preached from the KJV and do not regularly read from that translation. Most weeks I survey several English translations in addition to the original text. None of the translations I usually consult contain the doxology to the Lord’s Prayer. I didn’t mention it in the sermon, and no one asked why I did not read it or discuss it. But I was ready.  I had “measured twice” by going over the data (thought I’ve reviewed it dozens of times). In a common text, when there is a textual issue due diligence requires the preacher to go over the textual evidence and to be prepared to discuss it. In most cases a textual question should not make it into the sermon. Due diligence is as much about what is omitted as it is about what is written, but we do the work to be adequately prepared. 

    And the process goes beyond textual questions. There is theology, practical application, colloquial misunderstanding, and traditional misstatements about Biblical texts that need to be reviewed. This takes time. This takes patience. This takes craftsmanship. Measuring twice ensures that the cut, when it is made, is accurate. What can the working preacher do to ensure that all her due diligence is completed and that the final product—the message is accurate and clear?

1. Do the same thing every single time. 

2. Allow for enough time to think. 

3. Do thorough exegesis. 

4. Work through multiple drafts. 

5. Find a good proof-reader. 

6. Finish your work. Put it on a shelf or in a drawer. Come back to it for a final check later. 

Those are basic, elementary steps that in one way or another are followed in any intellectual task, particularly writing. I have mentioned this many times. If you are in a hurry or if you are constantly feeling like you are racing the clock, if you leave the work too late in the week and feel like you are running up against the looming Sunday deadline, you need to change how you are doing things. And it begins with point 1—do the same thing every week. If you start early and follow your plan you should have allotted the time you need to study the text and work through multiple drafts. If you don’t have the time you need--start canceling some other commitments because preaching is the most important thing you do. 

    You need a good proof-reader because when you spend a lot of time with something you start to overlook your own errors. It may be your wife or a friend; and you may not need a second set of eyes every week, but you need someone you can send drafts to. And there will be occasions when you need to have them check for more than grammar and spelling. You need someone who is willing to tell you that something sounds wrong. Sometimes you need someone to simply say “This doesn’t sound like you.” 

And the whole process requires air. My practice is to have my sermon done on Monday and to not look at it again until Friday. I set aside time to prepare for worship, check the songs, review announcements, and upload all our worship documents to Facebook on every normal Friday morning. My review habit is as ingrained as the process of preparation. Before that sermon manuscript goes up, I check it again. 

    Is this an ironclad guarantee that I will never misspeak, or allow an exegetical oversight or exaggeration to make it into the sermon? No. We are all human and we all make mistakes. The key is to do the work, to be diligent, and to catch as much as we can. The deadline is set in stone. Every week I must be ready to roll by 10.00 a.m. Sunday morning; earlier actually because I’m not staying up all Saturday night and we have Sunday School before worship. 

    This is the second draft of this essay. I have made at least 6 changes while completing this draft. Tomorrow I will go over it again before I post it. Generally, my Thursday edits are focused on grammar and spelling. Yet there are times when I need to fix something (I did). I don’t become discouraged or upset because my process includes and expects multiple drafts. The key to effective due diligence is this mental, procedural habit of measuring twice, cutting once. In preparing sermons, essays, lessons, and articles to instruct the Church this process takes different form than carpentry, but the intent is the same. Get it as right as possible. Not because we are “perfectionists” but because our people deserve, and our Master expects our best effort. Get out your “tools” and get to work, friends. 

Maintaining Focus 2.6.2025

     And just like that; February. The “New Year” isn’t, anymore. We can imagine the end of winter, and Easter is practically just over the horizon. Much of January flew past in a snow-blind haze. The very last of what remained did not fully melt until yesterday. Monday it was 62 degrees. It is raining now, but by this time next week it could be snowing again. 

    Many congregations missed a week of worship at the very beginning of the year due to impassible roads. We are basically a month in and as the excitement of a new year gives way to doldrums of winter, we must be especially careful to maintain our focus. 

    The big game is on the immediate horizon. The Super Bowl has become an organizing principle for much of contemporary society. Sports like Basketball or Baseball which have elongated “finals” do not lend themselves to a big finale. The NCAA tourney will come shortly but the Final Four takes a weekend and the championship is Monday night making it difficult to plan a party. 

    Snow-bound days and post-holiday malaise lend themselves to a lack of focus and inattention to details. The cancelation of a Sunday requires one to determine what to do with a finished sermon and how to reschedule the work and development of upcoming texts and sermons. One is tempted to rework, review, revise, and recast in haste. This tends to slipshod editing and an overall feeling of hurry that makes for bad sermon writing. 

    We might describe summer as having “Dog Days” surely this period from February to Easter should have some similar descriptive, reminding us of the danger of lost focus on the essential work of Biblical preaching. Perhaps we need an analogy to help us help us maintain our balance and direction during whatever we call this long, snowy, blustery, cloudy period leading up to Lent and the rest of Easter season. 

    Consider this period as comparable to driving your vehicle on icy or snowy roads. What are some of the skills or tactics you use to maintain focus. 

Turn it Down!

    We’ve all heard the old saw, about “turning down the music so that we can see better.” While this might be more commonly associated with older folks it pertains to everyone in circumstances of potentially compromised attention. You really don’t need to be tapping your foot or drumming the steering wheel when you are driving on bad roads. You may need the radio for information, or music to keep you company but during bad weather it is best to turn it down to minimize distractions. 

    How does this apply behind your desk? Perhaps you listen to music when you study. This might be a good time for a change to something you don’t normally listen to that does not distract you by inviting unnecessary aural participation. If you are a talk-radio or a pod-cast person, it might be a good idea during this time of year to change to a format or medium that requires less of your attention. Like bad roads long stretches of un-broken time wear on our attention, our eyes fall, and things get out of control. 

Terminate Distractions!

    None of us focus on our phones when we drive. (😯) Except for text messages. GPS. News. Facebook. Snowy roads are the perfect time to turn your phone off or down and keep it in your pocket. You don’t want to risk losing everything to respond lol to something only marginally funny. 

    And the same sort of thing happens in the Study. We keep Email, messaging, and Social Media open allowing notifications to come at us like sleet, ice, or snow. This is a very good time of year to make some decisions about all these distractions. As a rule, Email and Social media should not be allowed to push notifications to our attention. Task managers and calendars should be given more latitude because they help us to allocate our time (and thereby attention) for better focus. News, chit-chat, and the distractingly inessential should be eliminated. Keeping a vehicle on the road is better than a tow and repair. I can’t even recall the countless times I have had to get the tools back out to work on a sermon I thought was finished only to discover that distractions had prevented me from doing a good job. 

Technical Details!

    Most of the time, most of us do not drive with our hands in the technically correct “ten and two” position on the steering wheel. Experienced drivers work out a number of ways to be both comfortable and attentive behind the wheel. Modern vehicles have many more buttons, switches, dials, gauges, and read-outs to monitor. The physical apparatus itself can be adjusted to find a more comfortable position. Our own experience and the overall “user-friendliness” of modern vehicles mean that we can change our posture without really changing our attention. 

    That changes in bad weather. Ice, snow, and wind mean my hands are at 10 and 2 from the moment I back out of my carport until I take the key out of the ignition. I try and adjust heat, ventilation, music, navigation (if necessary), and anything else that can be assessed prior to putting the vehicle in motion. When I get out on the road, I want to have correct technical control of the vehicle with my hands in the right steering position and all necessary controls easy to access. Not because I have become a worse driver due to a weather change but because the conditions require greater attention, and responsible drivers get back to the basics when the roads deteriorate. 

    For preaching and teaching that means paying closer attention to the basic details of exegesis and theological synthesis. On the production side that means keeping the dictionary and thesaurus open. It means setting aside time for an extra edit—not because you become a worse preacher, or have become sloppy during the doldrums, but because the evolving environment requires greater attention to details. 

Terminus

    We still must go and do even when the weather is bad. A missed Sunday and one or two more days out and then we were back to work. This snowpocalypse lasted around a month. The snowy conditions hanging over our professional attention will last until we start ramping things up during the Easter season. From that time forward time both inside and outside the Church will be dictated by holidays and events that will provide structure and focus. February through April is like driving through a snowstorm with the safety of the vehicle dependent upon our attention. Let’s take the time to do the right things. Be deliberate. Keep both hands on the wheel. If you turn down the radio, you might not only see better but hear more clearly the musing of the Holy Spirit guiding you beyond boredom.