Jesus is the incarnation of God, right?
Brown flesh, red blood, white bones.
Hair that was brushed, a voice that was heard, feet that were sandaled.
Jesus was God who, honest-to-goodness, could be experienced with our five senses.
God was real, accessible, and concrete.
Jesus’s life and teaching showed us what the kingdom of God was like in actions and metaphors that used our five senses to apprehend:
bread broken and wine poured
a found coin
forgiveness of a friend for their betrayal, even before the betrayal occurred
enjoyment of the company of “undesirables”
breaking the rules in favor of compassion
Even though Jesus gave us these and many more concrete examples of what the reign of God is in real life, as preachers we often struggle to imagine God’s reign as concretely, today or in the future.
I want to raise up an exercise and offer an example to help us imagine the concrete manifestation of God’s hopes for us so we can easily preach God’s vision revealed in a text.
The exercise is slightly modified from A Sermon Workbook: Exercises in the Art and Craft of Preaching by Thomas Troeger and Leonora Tubbs Tisdale (Abindgon Press, 2013, p. 46).
By engaging this exercise you will you be able to preach a hopeful and sacred vision that could happen in real life that your listeners can see and take part in.
A Sacred Imagination Exercise: Overview of the 5 Steps
Copy the text into a word document
Create a table beneath the text. The column headings are the bullet points in #3.
Read the text and add just one word to each cell of the table under each column.
Adjectives for God
Nouns for God
Adjectives for self
Nouns for self
Verb: what we ask of God
prays
wants
asks
requests
seeks
hopes
yearns
desires
hungers
Noun: the thing we’re requesting
Connect the words to make a complete sentence describing the vision.
Give examples of the vision.
Step One: copy the text
Here’s the text for the RCL gospel for Easter 5B, John 15:9-17.
15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Steps 2 and 3: Create the table and add one word to each cell
I find it easiest to read the text with each category in mind.
For example, the first time, read the text looking for adjectives about God.
The second time, read the text looking for nouns about God, etc.
I added the Scripture text in italics to show where I derived some of the words.
Step 4: Connect the words to create the vision
This is the fun part!
Select a single word from each of the columns A-F and add filler words to make a complete sentence.
For example:
Steadfast Friend, your filled-to-the-brim joyous one prays to complete your joy in others.
Generous Teacher, your trustworthy friend yearns to share your courage to lay down my life as you have.
Clear Communicator, your loving chosen one prays to hear your will.
Anyone of these sentences provide not only a vision for a hopeful future, but the summary sentence of a sermon message or congregational prayer.
Just from this one text there are thousands of combinations, and hence, thousands of visions and sermon messages!
Choose one that you genuinely believe and that meet the needs of your community and preach it!
Step Five: Give examples of the vision
The vision has to be as flesh-and-blood real as Jesus.
We have to be able to see it, taste it, smell it, feel it, hear it—experience it!
The easiest way to do that is by giving examples.
These examples can come from scripture, your life, the congregation’s life, current events, history, pop culture (movies, books, music), etc.
You won’t necessarily preach all of the examples you come up with, but one or two might be exactly what’s needed to create the momentum to build the Promised Land today. (Or maybe, build one hill’s worth of it!)
EXAMPLE: Steadfast Friend, your filled-to-the-brim joyous one prays to complete your joy in others.
Think this through: How is Jesus’s joy completed in others?
When they abide in him and his word.
How does that happen? Especially in the gospel of John, it happens when Jesus is shown to others.
How is Jesus shown? Through love.
For example:
Jesus’s love is shown when we love another:
through acts of kindness
by forgiving someone
by giving of our whole selves
by choosing being in relationship over being right
by holding back words intended to wound
by welcoming those who have been unwelcome elsewhere
When we preach, we’d want to be more specific. What might an act of kindness be in your context? Who could be welcomed in your congregation who hasn’t been welcomed elsewhere?
Generous Teacher, your trustworthy friend yearns to share your courage to lay down my life as you have.
For example…
I lay down my life when I don’t exert my ego—even when it’s something I’m good at—and instead raise up another person to shine. It takes courage to let someone else receive the kudos!
I need courage to lay down my life to say what I truly believe (with kindness and respect) when my belief is unpopular.
Clear Communicator, your loving chosen one prays to hear your will.
For example…
Praying to hear God’s will when entering a discernment process means giving up nudging God for the outcome I want!
It means holding all possible outcomes lightly and with equal weight.
It means living with the discomfort of not knowing what’s ahead, of trudging through the desert of uncertainty and not rushing to get to the other side.
By using Troeger and Tisdale’s exercise you’ll always be able to show your listeners what the Promised Land looks like and the shalom God yearns for for us.
If you’d like to work more on your preaching craft like this,
there’s no better place that The Backstory Preaching Mentorship.