Here’s an interesting irony to consider. Seminarians, and churchgoers in general, consider a sermon to be “good” when it has at least three solid points, and not more than five. Nonfiction books, especially the self-help or Christian kind, are considered good when they spell out a problem methodically and give you a certain number of formulaic steps to solve said problem.
But apparently God, who inspired what we know as the Bible, didn’t get the memo on presenting seven steps to success or five principles for getting to know Him.
If you look through the Scriptures, you’ll find a hodgepodge of poetry, songs, stories, historical records, and dialogue. The only real theological discussions are found in pockets of the New Testament epistles, and even they aren’t set up as neatly as our modern-day sermons are. Jesus Himself seemed to ramble from topic to topic in His sermons, and He preferred parables over five-point formulas.
If the Bible is God’s message to man—and I believe it is—then the method of delivery should be just as important as the message itself—just as how we say something can be every bit as impacting as what we say. There’s something creative, artistic, even romantic in the way God delivers His message in the Scriptures; yet over the years we’ve managed to reduce Christianity to more science than art, a creed-based philosophy rather than a relationship. In our three to five points, we have somehow squeezed out most of the beauty that makes God so amazing. No wonder we’re falling asleep in our pews on Sunday mornings.
I understand the reasons behind the whole four spiritual laws thing, and even the ideas behind systematic theology. But if our relationship with God is primarily based on a theological system of belief, we are missing a huge part of Who God is. I don’t think God intended for us to extract some ideas about Him out of these writings and analyze it down to try to figure God out, and let that be all there is to our faith. We need to remember that “all Scripture is inspired by God”–which means the Scriptures are inspired. When reduce these 66 books down to a mere belief system, I think we lose a huge part of the inspiration.
Here’s another way of describing what I’m saying. I’ve been married to my wife nearly 20 years. There are lots of facts I could rattle off about her–her age, her weight, her hair and eye color, her hobbies–that kind of thing. But there are other, more intangible things that are harder to describe about her–things that are more about the essence of who she is and what she means to me. Things like what her hair feels like, how her voice sounds, what it feels like when she looks at me, how my heart dances when she walks into the room. That’s the kind of stuff you can’t just rattle off on a list. I think that’s part of what I mean about reducing the Scriptures to a belief system; you might get some facts about God, what He’s done, what He likes and doesn’t like; but a lot of His essence will be lost in the process.
I think God’s essence is contained not just in what the Scriptures say, but in how they are written and delivered to us. Maybe that sounds a bit mystical, I don’t know. But it seems to me that if we are to have a relationship with God (and not just try to figure Him out), part of that relationship means relating to the Scriptures as revealing both the heart and essence of God. Don’t just extract the five points for your sermon; appreciate the art within the hodgepodge of Scripture.
Wayward Son
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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I think you have a very valid point. It has always seemed to me that there should be so much more to reading the Bible than just a fact finding mission.
I can read a book about Abraham Lincoln and come away know a lot more about him. I may know some of the things he thought. Some of the things he liked, and so on. But I in no way know the man or have a relationship with him.
So I would say that if you intend to develop a deeper relationship with God through your Bible reading then you have to look deeper than just the words themselves. Words in print don’t help us know anyone.
Wow. Well put. What you’re describing is, to me, a basic turning the Bible into a set of rules and then making a religion out of those rules. Which works about as well as it always has. 😉
Hmm… a quote from the Bible comes to mind…
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 (NKJV)
I think this is as true now as it was then. Ministering out of the ‘letter of the law’ kills the spirit…
Right-o. We have tended to think Christianity started in America, so we forget that we are approaching it through our own cultural grid which doesn’t always reflect the culture of heaven and the way God does things.
I think this 5 point sermon thing is quite mechanical (mondernist), and there is this allusion of control that comes with it: “Well, success is ensured if I follow the production pattern and manufacture the message utilizing this tried-and-true method.” But, we aren’t dealing in controllables. We’re dealing with the Holy Spirit, and His people – and all of that is quite social, quite organic, quite uncontrollable.
This approach to sermonizing strikes me as a prime example of two anti-kingdom of God cultural values: control and mastery. I use ‘control’ here to mean the desire to determine the outcome beforehand, and ensure that outcome. I use ‘mastery’ to describe a sense of dominating something by having mastered it intellectually. While I can see the benefit of systematic theology, there is a real risk of thinking we have God all figured out – mastery. (And then pride deludes us and we get confused about which one of us is God – Him or us, and which one is being conformed to the others’ image).
And I think a lot of your essence would be lost in the process if you described your wife’s age and weight! :o)
Excellent post, Jeff!
Mark,
Agreed. I am of the opinion that nothing is wasted in God’s economy, that how He presents something is every bit as important as what He presents.
Katherine,
Good Scripture to bring to the conversation. I can name numerous examples of getting hung up on the letter of the law, as I’m sure you can.
Sarah–
You got it. Control and mastery. To me, these are ultimately the objectives of making our faith into a religion. You can’t control the person of God, but you can at least FEEL like you’re in control when faith is reduced to the parameters of doctrine and rules. Trouble is…that control is a myth.
Jim,
You know, I was thinking pretty much the same thing when I wrote this…which is why my wife’s age and weight were not included in the post.
I like my essence, thankyouverymuch. 😀
I think that much of theology and pulpit ministry is targeted at a head level. The message of the bible is, in a sense, one of the heart.. one that needs to be understood at a heart level. Unfortunately fundamentalists reduce this message to a complex set of 5-point principles that appeal to the head. It is sad because, in doing this, they teach people to lean on their own understanding of the scriptures.. it works for a while.. until trials come.
“What you’re describing is, to me, a basic turning the Bible into a set of rules and then making a religion out of those rules.”
Well put Katherine.
I work on the three part sermon:
1) Introduce what you are going to talk about.
2) Talk about it.
3) Recap what you’ve talked about.
KB,
Good Point. Thanks.
DP,
In other words…
1. Say what you’re going to say.
2. Say it.
3. Say what you said.
I recently preached a 5 point sermon on this very thing 🙂