How
I prepare
SERIAL
5
by the Very Revd Dr Pete Wilcox
TUESDAY AFTERNOON
TUESDAY EVENING
TUESDAY TO SATURDAY
Step 1: What passage?
Step 2: The Bible commentaries
Step 3: Leaving it to stew
My preaching style is basically
expository, so the first step in
preparing the sermon I’m due to
preach (in this instance at Choral
Evensong at Liverpool Cathedral
on Sunday 12 October 2014) is to
choose a text. We usually follow the
lectionary, and there’s no reason for
me to depart from that pattern on
this occasion, so it’s Proverbs 3:1–18
or 1 John 3:1–15. I read both passages,
listening for the Word of the Lord.
I’m struck by the opening paragraph
in 1 John 3, where (in verse 3) there’s
a link between hope and holiness.
This stands out partly because the
previous night, while teaching on 2
Peter, I’d spotted a similar link there
in 3:11–13. On the basis that this has
snagged my attention, I decide to
preach on 1 John 3:1–3. This will be a
new thing: I’ve never preached on this
passage before.
I’m a Bible commentary junkie. So
the next step is to spend two hours
reading the background to the
passage. I have a big collection of
commentaries and for 1 John I shall
read Kruse, Marshall, Stott, Thompson,
Smalley, Brown and Burge. My aim is
to get behind the English translation
to a basic grasp of the Greek and to
familiarise myself with the shape of
the passage.
I don’t then do much more for a few
days. The sermon sits on the back
burner. The passage comes to mind
now and again, and I might see
something in a new light – but there’s
nothing intentional about it. When it
comes to mind, I pray, and one or two
insights come. Yet I discover that by
Saturday morning, my thinking has
moved on considerably.
LWPT8462 - Preach Magazine - Issue 2 v2.indd 5
THE BURDEN OF MY PRAYING IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS WAS
THAT GOD WOULD SPEAK HIS WORD TO HIS PEOPLE AND THAT
I WOULDN’T GET IN THE WAY.
09/01/2015 14:35:55