Four Things I Learned About Preaching After I Graduated from Theological College

This is my presentation to be given on Feb. 26th.  A whole sneak pre-view for those of you who are not in the preaching class attending the Symposium.

 

2015 Aitkens Symposium AST:  (Feb. 26^th, 2015)   - presentation as panelist -   Rev. Dr. Kimberlynn McNabb

Four Things I Learned About Preaching After I Graduated from Theological College

            Before I share four things that I have learned, it would be beneficial for you to know that I am a Lutheran pastor and currently serve at Resurrection on Windsor St. in Halifax. This is my 17^th year of ordained ministry: 11 years here in Halifax and my previous call was in a rural two point parish in New Denmark, NB.  My first sermon was delivered when I was 16 in my home parish in Owen Sound, ON, as part of a regular Sunday morning worship lead by the youth.  It was hand printed on lengths of 10cm wide strips of box board from cereal boxes…colour coded in pencil crayon to mark specific ways to speak a section or phrase.  Throughout seminary preaching gigs included rural and urban congregations in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, and internship in Sault Ste. Marie, ON, where I preached a couple times a month.

Four things I have learned about preaching:

1)       In seminary it was made quite clear that pastors and particularly those that preach need to speak, as Reinhold Niebuhr said, “with the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” …although after coming out of seminary I found out that the words are also attributed to Karl Barth. Anyway, I knew, to be a good preacher who was attuned to the Gospel and the world, the Bible and the newspaper were necessities; what I didn’t know was how much more “reading” was required.

To be a good speaker of any kind, one needs to take in 10x the amount they output. Ten times!  I don’t remember where I read or heard that, but, it has dramatically affected my preaching ability. I incorporate in sermons my wrestling with texts, use illustrations from movies or plays, and reflect on novels from a theological perspective.  There is something else though, the more reading I do – that is -theological books, magazines, newspapers, historical fiction, and yes a good share of “trashy” or even “steamy” novels, the less time I spend staring at a blank screen when it comes time to prepare a sermon.  The writing of others, their combination of words, expressions, articulation of thoughts, choice of movement -  all contribute to patterns being created in the brain of the reader that facilitate the imagination and writing process for the same. A diversity of reading allows the reader a wealth of styles from which to re-create text, Gospel, and vision for preaching.

2)      I had the pleasure of having Eduard Riegert as my homiletics professor.  One of his books is here at the AST library – entitled “Imaginative Shock: Preaching and Metaphor.” Although fairly tiny in stature, Ed captivated an audience.  I heard many professors and now colleagues say that they could have listened to Ed preach all day. That was my impression too.  The reason for this, I believe, was the way in which he used his voice – words were specifically chosen and said with thought/feeling.  It was also his tone and cadence.  Ed, although if you hadn’t had him as a professor you would never know, had a significant hair lip as a child. He spent a lot of time in speech therapy learning to talk, to pronounce – through his life he had to think about every word he said before it was spoken.  Needless to say homiletics classes had a component of practicing speech exercises.  Blah! 

However, this many years later I have learned that no amount of speech therapy will help with some tics or stutters.  When I write sermons there are specific words that I avoid because I have continued difficulty with them; I think some of it comes from stumbling over the word once in a nervous situation and since has stuck in my head, or perhaps my tongue just doesn’t work right.

Every time Matthew 24: 38 comes up in the lectionary, I sweat… “For as in the day before the flood they were eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage.”  Can you tell which word I avoid in sermons? Marrying, which also means carrying, burying, et cetera are also no goes. And I also have trouble with words that end in “d” with “ed” after because often I stutter:  forwarded, rewarded.  You get the picture. Instead of kicking myself, being embarrassed or extra nervous, I simply find other constructs to say that which I wish to say.

3)      I have a colleague who is not 5’ tall. In Lutheran circles preaching can take place from various places, however, more often than not in the Canadian context you will find yourself at some point in a position where you pretty much have to use the pulpit. Many of our churches were built before 1974 when women entered into ordained ministry; pulpits are for tall men. My less than 5’ tall colleague carries with her an old fashioned wooden Coke-a-cola box to every preaching gig. She places it in the pulpit before the service, that way when she gets up to preach she can see not only over the lectern, but, also, above the often fixed podium light. People see her and not a disembodied voice.

I am fairly tall and could make most pulpits work, but, I have learned to be comfortable, confident, and to make it appear as if I am not reading (or even referring to my script) that I need to adjust the podium height.  Believe it or not most old pulpit podiums move 4-5 inches, sometimes it takes a little banging to get them to move; don’t be shy - just show up a little early for the service so people don’t think you are wrecking their furniture.  In my experience it is better to have the pulpit too low than too high. If it is too high it is in one’s face and you always look like you are reading from something, further away it is more conversational.  Always be ready for a surprise…once I arrived to preach in a place where the pulpit was ridiculously low… I fixed that by slipping off my high heeled shoes.

Generally I preach from the pulpit, sometimes from the aisle, or the steps of the nave. Since seminary I have learned that the pulpit has added benefits – more than people not seeing my knees shake and more than as the symbol of the importance and high standard given to the Word – parishioners who have hearing difficulties or have trouble with accents of preachers, have shared that they prefer pulpit preaching because they are guaranteed to see, and thus read, the lips of the speaker.  In my present congregation I have a number of people who sit in the first few rows under the pulpit for that very purpose.

4)      On the day of my ordination I had a lifelong pastor, who was close to retirement, tell me never worry about an ill-prepared sermon, so long as it is ill-prepared because you were busy loving your people. He wasn’t suggesting that that could be an excuse used often, he said that because he knew how hard I would be on myself that first experience of running out of time and energy. It was four months into my first call, I was called to the manor because a 64 year woman was dying after struggling for decades with MS and a bout of breast cancer; her family wanted me there to do vigil until she passed. Hers was the first death I witnessed and the first funeral over which I would preside. Less than a week after her death, and four days before Christmas Eve, I am called because parishioners, a husband and wife in their 70s, had been killed in a car crash where an infant died in the other vehicle. As small communities go, lots of people were related, lots of people grieved, lots of pastoral care was given; three funerals in seven days, one of them a double, with Christmas preparations in full swing.  I was 25 years old, prepared, but not. Sunday came, the same day the first funeral would be in the afternoon, I had a funeral sermon but nothing for Sunday morning.  I decided to read a story, someone else’s story, “Some of My Best Friends are Trees.” –even reading it as a teacher would to her class, showing the pictures. The theme is about hope in times of darkness and paired nicely with the reading from Isaiah about hope in the desert. What I found is that the words “hit the spot” so to speak and people welcomed the style and the story – and not one complained or commented that I had failed to do my job as a preacher – because I had loved my people first.

What I continue to find is that the Word will always surprise me!   The Spirit has a way of taking whatever I preach and between my mouth and the ear and heart of the hearer, the Word changes, speaking directly to that person.  I can’t count the number of times people have said, “Pastor I appreciated when you said…..”, when I know full well I said no such thing – and I have a manuscript to prove it.  I have also found that the Word is heard despite the giver of the Word; on my worst Sundays, the days I think and feel that the sermon has been dreadful, those days I receive some of the best feedback, especially from those who rarely comment.  For this I am grateful. It is grace to know the Word when proclaimed acts in mysterious and marvelous ways.  I also take comfort that, should the preaching fail, within standard Lutheran practice the Word can still be heard and experienced on any given Sunday through the Sacrament of Eucharist.

JONAH

Epiphany 3B, 2015

The Book of Jonah is a story presenting the reader with a poignant satirical look at world affairs – just as applicable today as in the 4^th Century BCE. 

The story comes at a time when the policies of Ezra and Nehemiah are fostering a narrow form of nationalism and exclusivism; added to the fact that there is a strong and hated enemy, the Assyrians, with Nineveh as the capital – a people who had cruelly oppressed Israel.

Sobering that Nineveh, on today’s map, lies across the river from Mosul, Iraq.

The story comes at a time when the policies of governments around the world are fostering narrow ideas of nationalism and exclusivism; added to this the fact that there is a strong and hated enemy – terror; here there and everywhere. The enemy – people whom people choose to hate, with cause and without cause. News outlets have us observing hatred that escalates to war and rumours of war: the Ukraine and Russia, North Korea, any number of African tribes, Israel and the Palestinians, Yemen, the fight against terror – Iraq, ISIS, homegrown terrorists; Jews and Muslims, Christians and Muslims, Muslims and Muslims.  The Chronicle Herald ran an article this week entitled,  “Clinton Urges Canada to Continue Fight Against Hate.” – to fight against hate.?

On to the scene arrives Jonah a soon to be reluctant prophet.  We have entered the story in Chpt.3; previously, Jonah  – regular person like you or me-  has been called by God to go to Nineveh to ask the people to repent and turn towards God. Jonah is an Israelite in a country that is rebuilding and inward focused, the biggest enemy are the Assyrians – hated, demonized, and good for nothing. Jonah hears God, but decides not to go. In fact, on second thought, he decides to go farther away – he gets on a ship going to Tarshish. A terrible storm comes about and the crew chooses lots to see who is causing the calamity; Jonah peacefully asleep underdeck, is rudely awoken when it is decided that he has made God angry.  Jonah is thrown into the sea, swallowed by a big fish, and three days later is spewed up on shore.  God calls to Jonah a second time, “Get up and go to Nineveh…”

Jonah becomes a reluctant prophet. He goes to the no-good Ninevites, only going a third of the way into the city he gives his message.  I picture him dragging his feet, doodling, and when he finally speaks it is a soft cry: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!”  and inside his heart is saying “yes let it be so”, Sodom and Gomorrah all over again, with hail, fire, and brimstone… but no, despite Jonah’s wishes the king and people of Nineveh immediately have a change of heart and believe in God. The people fast, put on sackcloth, sit in ashes – they repent, pray, follow. The Assyrians turn from violence and align themselves with God’s work in the world. In the end God has a change of heart, there will be no smiting the people of Nineveh.

Now those of us who have gone through Sunday School know how Jonah is supposed to feel.  Happy!  People have turned towards God, yippy! Amen. Alleluia!

Jonah is not happy.  God has chosen to show mercy and compassion to his most hated enemy. Jonah drags himself outside the city and pouts.

In our relatively safe place in the world, it might be easy for us to say that we hate no one, that we really don’t have any enemies, that we are not like Jonah and would be perfectly content for God’s mercy and compassion to be lavishly given to the whole world – all people.

Our actions as a people, government policy – by the leaders we have elected-  say that we are like Jonah, with a small part of us that wishes for hail, fire, and brimstone to befall others (often practiced in the form of keeping the enemy away from us, sheltering ourselves, not having to or wanting to address difficult issues and working out solutions). We have First Nation’s people relegated to reserves, many in dire need of food and water and shelter; mental health users are pushed to the street so they can be forgotten about and live shorter lives; policies allowing refugees and immigrants to enter Canada are ever more restricted; references to “those people” are growing every day – comments that everyone in Canada should “dress like us” whatever that means in a multicultural society.   If each of us is honest with ourselves, we will admit that we hold prejudices and to varying degrees are racist. Jonah was. I am.

The powerful part of the Jonah story for me are the words Jonah angrily spews at God, after Nineveh believes in God and God shows compassion.  Jonah says,

“That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah would rather die, than be considered a traitor – because I can only imagine what some of his country folk will say when they find out that because of him God came to the Assyrians.  Jonah would rather die, than see an enemy shown God’s compassion. Jonah would rather die, than be of no more importance than his neighbour. 

What really gets to my heart is that Jonah knew that God was gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.  If I were to ask you if you believe this statement to be true, most of you would likely agree.  Do you live like you believe this statement, or do you falter as Jonah into exclusive thinking and nationalist tendencies?

The book of Jonah was meant as an opinion piece to speak to the issues of the day, to illustrate the foolishness of demonizing a people, to show the ridiculous nature of holding on to hate, and to express the expansiveness of God’s compassion and mercy.

Reading the Jonah story (a good read if you have never read the book before – 4 short chapters) I would like to take Hillary Clinton to task.  Her rhetoric was wrong –the world should not in a fight against hate; Canadians –we- shouldn’t fight against hate.  Rather we are called to be compassionate.

On whom should God have mercy?

Abraham Heschel, a polish-born American Rabbi wrote:

God’s answer to Jonah, stressing the supremacy of compassion, upsets the possibility of looking for a rational coherence of God’s ways with the world. History would be more intelligible if God’s word were the last word, final and unambiguous like a dogma or an unconditional decree. It would be easier if God’s anger became effective automatically: once wickedness had reached its full measure, punishment would destroy it. Yet beyond justice and anger lies the mystery of compassion.

Therein is where I am at, left to contemplate the Mystery of Compassion –God- 

A God that has compassion on Jonah-s like me, despite my lack of compassion in what I deem complicated matters of race, privilege, identity, and prejudice.  The Mystery of Compassion has compassion despite my lack of prophetic utterance, my running away through complacency, and my pretending that all is good. A God that has compassion for the people whom I see as others- for the neighbour who wears a birka, the Hindu police officer who wears a turban, local shopkeepers who barely speak English, carpet bag people who spread bedbugs around housing developments, and the crazies I pass by on the street – tattooed and pierced.

Jonah’s story calls us to take a close look at our hearts, at our prejudices, at our racism – and invites us to see how ridiculous Jonah appears, how immature his actions are, and asks us to open our hearts to the heart of God – the Mystery of compassion.

Surely at some point in our lives the words of the Mosaic law have been made known to us as truth, because we have experienced it in some way, even in a small way that:  God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love; I would like to think that you have felt that through this community. Having experienced the Mystery of Compassion, go against your prejudice and shower mercy and compassion.

Life Lessons from Eli

Epiphany 2B-2015

The Book of Samuel introduces us to the character Eli; he is the next to last judge of the people of Israel and a High Priest at the holy shrine in Shiloh.  Eli appears in the first four chapters of Samuel and reading his story can teach us some valuable life lessons.  This morning I present to you four life lessons to take to heart.

Life lesson #1:  THERE IS HOPE BEHIND DIM EYES

            Eli is old. In chapter 4 he is said to be of 98 years.  His eyes have grown dim.  It is not only Eli’s eyes that have grown dim, so too is the vigour he must once have possessed.  He was of the priestly lineage, but, specifically chosen to be at Shiloh.  It is a time in the history of God’s people when the Philistines were on their borders, when the people were starting to complain that they wanted a king rather than judges – so they could be like the other peoples’ around them. It was a time when the word of the Lord was rare and visions were not widespread; God was silent – or the people had forgotten how to listen.  Eli was tired.  He had been devoted to the sacred shrine for most of his life. I can’t help but wonder if he felt like throwing in the towel; the same old, same old… fewer people, less devote, people turning away from organized religion (so to speak) to whatever suited their fancies.  Did he feel like quitting?  Did his faith or hope suffer?  Did he feel alone – as if he was the last of a very few who still believed in a God that was not seen or heard?

            Eli’s eyes were dim but, our reading today points to a hope that was still present.  Eli still believed that God might just appear. When Samuel is brought to the Shiloh by his mother Hannah and left to the glory of God in thanksgiving for his life, Eli takes him in and becomes Samuel’s father.  Eli gives Samuel a unique place to sleep; right in the Temple where the ark of the Lord was: the ark where upon God sat during the days of Moses and Aaron.  Eli couldn’t place Samuel any closer to the presence of God.  There was a chance that this child might just hear God … that hope was enough for Eli to carry on despite dim eyes.

Life Lesson # 2: TOUGH LOVE IS SOMETIMES REQUIRED

            Samuel does hear God and hears a message that is disturbing.  Reading the Book of Samuel readers would have discovered in the chapter before our reading today, that Eli has already been told by a man of the Lord what is to befall his family.  Eli’s sons, Phinehas and Hophni, are scoundrels and have no regard for the Lord or the duties of the priests of the people.  They were disrespectful and stole from the sacrifice offerings brought to the holy place, taking the good pieces for themselves before the offering was made to God. Those who had contempt for organized religion grew in their displeasure of all things God.

            Eli knew what his sons were doing, and although he questioned them about other acts of impropriety with temple goers… it was a weak attempt to curb their behaviour and disrespecting the Holy was not addressed.  What it means now is that Eli’s line will not continue serving God in the sacred place; both sons will die on the same day – which happens when the Philistines attack in the next chapter.  Eli’s line is disgraced.

            But what would have happened if Eli had a measure of tough love. Parents have the ability to train their children as best they can, teaching life lessons, manners, opening doors to customs, faith, and traditions.  Then at a certain age the child becomes an adult and makes their own choices.  God wasn’t displeased with Eli because his sons had gone down a rocky path; God was upset because they remained in the temple continuing to act in inappropriate ways.  It was Eli’s responsibility as high priest to ensure the temple was a house of prayer and offering … and in this case to act in a way that would have broken his heart, to let his sons go; send them away from the sacred place for by their actions they defiled the very core of who the people of Israel were to be.  Perhaps the people would have had visions, heard the Lord, been more faithful has the priest’s sons not been acting recklessly in a position of authority.

           

Life Lesson # 3: ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES

            Eli responds to what Samuel speaks, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.” Eli accepts the consequence of his failure to adequately address his sons and their behaviour. Eli has come to the end of his life, he knows his days are few. He is tired and worn. Now it is too late to go back and change what was; in days past he could have made other choices, been more concerned about the temple rituals and less about his sons being heirs in the family business; he could have spoken out on the responsibility to be upright, faithful; he could have taken his sons to task … now it is too late. Eli accepts the consequences. This doesn’t mean that what he did was meet, right, and salutary.  It is a realization that it is too late.

            This shows a lot of character on Eli’s part.  Others would rail against God, make excuses, and spread rumours and lies disregarding God even more.  People would talk about how unfair, it is my sons not I. Eli though has a relationship with God and is willing to be obedient to the heart of God – Eli trusts God even in a time of punishment – trusting in grace amidst a retribution of justice.  Eli trusts God by leaving what is left of his life in God’s hands.

           

Life Lesson #4:  HOLD TRUE TO FIRST LOVE

            According to the Law of Moses, ones’ first love is the Lord your God; whom you shall love with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  And Eli does right to the very end! Despite his sin – letting the offices of the temple be abused and in so doing dishonouring God - ; despite his choice to let  his sons be rather than confront them, to be weak  in action; despite the words of the Lord that destroy his lineage in temple service forever; Eli’s heart still resides with the Lord. In the story the Philistines come to war against the people of Israel.  As was the practice of the day the ark of the covenant – the seat of God- was brought out to the battlefield.  It was the most holy of holies. Sacred beyond sacred.

As the battle raged, Eli’s sons die.  As the battle continues, the Israelites run away – out numbered, out fought, and the Philistines take the ark.  Eli is told that his sons are gone. Eli is unmoved.  Pious Eli however, when he hears that the ark is gone … his heart is torn, he so distressed, he falls backwards from the rock in which he sat – hits his head and breaking his neck dies.  His last breath connected to the pain of losing God’s presence amidst the people. Eli holds true to first love –God. 

These four life lessons can be applied to our individual lives, yet, today it feels as if the words are spoken and directed to the mainline church.

I reflected with the Halifax area pastor’s sermon prep-group that it is increasingly easy to be an Eli.  As the cultural tendency turns from organized religion, as there are growing rumours and realities of war and terror, as darkness lurks waiting to bet loose or let in; one can become dim of sight; frustrated, feeling alone, wondering does this whole thing really matter; being tired of casting the vision; tired of holding hope and waiting for God to speak, to be seen – it has become so hard to hear over the noise, so hard to focus and listen.

The lessons we learn from Eli are for the church of today. They are given as encouragement and as guidance. Let us encourage each other and work together as a remnant… let us live and act applying life’s lessons:

There is hope behind dim eyes.  Tough love is sometimes necessary. Accept the consequences. Hold true to first love.

And in the end … all things shall be well.

There were plenty of Eli’s through the centuries, today the sermon ends with a prayer by one who would understand feeling like an Eli:  a prayer of Julian of Norwich:

In you, Father all-mighty, we have our preservation and our bliss. In you, Christ, we have our restoring and our saving. You are our mother, brother, and saviour.  In you, our Lord the Holy Spirit, is marvelous and plenteous grace. You are our clothing; for love you wrap us and embrace us.  You are our maker, our lover, our keeper.  Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.  Amen.