I have just returned from a packed weekend of training in Latvia.
One highlight of the weekend was getting my hands on the first copies of the Latvian translation of my book on preaching God is in the House.
The organising principle for the book emerged almost by accident. I was teaching at a School of Preachers weekend on how to preach on Mark’s Gospel. I had been playing with the idea of seeing its five main sections like rooms in a house. Then I thought of entrance and exits, connecting doors, hall, stairs and landing. The final part of the idea was imagining how in the rooms there would be windows, pictures and mirrors.
The co-teacher on the course that weekend said that the concept was helpful and that it would be useful to introduce it earlier in the course. I did that and after teaching the concept a few times it turned into a book.
In the book I take the house image a step further by looking at a sermon on different passages in Mark’s Gospel and moving through them step by step as if experiencing the different parts of a house.
I guess that I am a visual thinker, which means that I have a mind that looks more like a portrait gallery than a reference library. My picture of a sermon as a house helps me to see how a sermon unfolds stage by stage and move by move from entering a biblical text, exploring the text and coming to a satisfactory conclusion.
I was thinking about this today when making this year’s Christmas pudding. I have been making Christmas pudding each year for four decades. This has the following stages:
Preparation. This involves making sure that I have enough of all the ingredients. I then put then all onto a tray so that I can use them as they are needed.
Mixing. There is an order to how the mixing takes place. I start with the dry ingredients, breadcrumbs, flour, sugars and suet, followed by spices, dry fruit candied peel, and chopped nuts. I then add some chopped apple and give it all a through mix.
Finally, I mix all the wet ingredients, lemon juice, brandy, stout, milk, eggs, and black treacle. After forming a big crater in the mix I pour in the liquid and give everything a good stir.
Waiting. I leave the mixture overnight so that dried fruit get plump and all the flavours spread through the whole mix. It usually smells great.
Cooking. This happens on the next morning. Then we are ready for Christmas!
The process of preparing a sermon is not so different.
Preparation. Thinking about a biblical text, reading everything I can lay my hands on to help me see what it means and how to communicate that in a fresh way.
Mixing. Assembling the sermon so that it is not a random selection of ingredients but a coherent whole.
Cooking. Turning all the preparation and mixing into a message that speaks clearly.
How do I know that I have accomplished this?
With the Christmas pudding, it is seeing an empty bowl and satisfied diners.
With the sermon it is people paying attention and being spiritually fed.