Author: Daron Lindemann
Last saved by: Barb Bartz
Company: Grace Lutheran Church

Study Guide #11 – The Sermon in Context

Pages 31-50

How is the experience of a person reading a printed copy of your sermon on Tuesday different than the experience of a person listening to your sermon on Sunday morning?

What makes writing a novel different than writing a sermon (p. 32)?

Historical Context

“All of us have significant persons, living and dead, who sit in our balconies and we hope they are pleased with our preaching” (p. 33). Name at least three preachers who influence your preaching.

“Most parishioners hear a sermon as it is filtered through many sermons and attend to a pulpit that is still partially occupied by its tenants … when we preach, listeners do not hear a sermon; they hear sermons, and the benefits of the phenomenon far outweigh the negative effects The memory of the church is a treasury, making us all the richer” (pp. 34,35). Identify a benefit of this history, and a negative effect.

Exercise: Try the suggestion Craddock gives on p. 34. Spend an evening with some parishioners and ask them where they got their ears. Which churches and preachers have affected the way they listen to sermons? “The next Sunday, the church will have one improved preacher and several improved listeners” (p. 34).

Another type of historical context exists outside of the preacher and listeners: the history (tradition) of preaching itself. Preachers who understand this history of preaching benefit in what three ways (pp. 36,37)? Which is most meaningful to you in your preaching right now?

Pastoral Context

“Are preaching and pastoring contradictory …? There are those who are persuaded that the same person cannot wield the two-edged sword of the Word of God and also tend the flock” (p. 38). What might persuade some to believe that a man cannot serve as both pastor (shepherding the flock) and preacher (proclaiming the Word of God)? In what ways does pastoring and shepherding make a man a better preacher (pp. 38-41)?

Share some practical methods that have given your sermons “life beyond the pulpit” (pp. 40-41).

Liturgical Context

“Because the liturgy is not full of surprises, novelties, and gimmicks, the sermon is set free by this order … (p. 42). When listeners find assurance in what is safe and familiar, they are more likely to participate in a new and reckless adventure into the divine through the sermon. How would you respond to someone who says that both the liturgy and the sermon should take the listeners to freedom and new adventure?

How is the sermon like the Scripture reading (pp. 43,44)? like prayer (pp. 44,45)?

Explain what Craddock means by, “It can be very shattering if what is often heard is finally heard” (p. 47).

Theological Context

How do theology and preaching need each other according to Craddock’s explanation on the top of p. 49?

Theology is but one of many voices bidding unimportant sermon subjects into the wastebasket (p. 49). On what basis? What are some other voices that help preachers filter their notes and ideas into a unified sermon?