Finding Application

Finding Application

February 13, 2018

Formal training for the preaching ministry is at the very least intimidating.  Many of us grow up in a church background, so the thought upon entering seminary can sometimes be, “All I need to know is more about the Bible.”  That’s data – information, cold, hard facts.  Information is but the beginning of sermon preparation.  Seminarians enter into study in the fields of philosophy, hermeneutics, ancient languages, oratory training, theology, doctrine, history and a mind-numbing collection of arts, sciences, and varied fields.

And that is but the beginning.

When I began, you bought, and read, books – may, many books.  Today, the investment is in computer programs and digital libraries.  My library numbers in the thousands.  A preacher is not worth his/her salt unless there is a vast library at hand.

That was until I was humbled by a preacher from a third world country whose library consisted of just four volumes.  Three if you did not count his Bible.

So, all of this is just introduction, backdrop, setting the stage.  After all these years, despite the great training by some of the greatest educators on the planet, for all the books, knowledge, data and ancient language translation, I am forced to tell you the hardest part of sermon preparation…

Are you ready?

Me.  

Yes, you did read that correctly.  I said me.  But, to be more specific, it is regarding an answer to a question with each passage, “How is this intended to change me?”  And of course, the question extends to the audience receiving the sermon.  I doubt that the original audiences to the Scripture were terminally weird.  In other words, it is doubtful audience members to Jesus’ parables were collectively backward, naïve buffoons whom we can laugh at today for their simplicity and stupidity.  Nor should we assume that audiences today are an evolved, morally superior version of humanity.  Why to believe that would be just plain…well, stupid.  So, if there was a lesson to learn and application to be made for an original audience in Scripture, then the same would be true today.

For example, the passage for this week’s sermon is Luke’s account of Jesus teaching the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  The occasion is prompted by an expert in the Old Testament trying to trap Jesus and asking Him what must be done to inherit eternal life.  Forever wiser than those seeking to trip Him up, Jesus quickly turns it around with a question.  The answer is one we hear sever times in the Gospels, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor.”  The lawyer did not stop there, so he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”  The parable is Jesus’ answer to the question, and it is profound in its application for the lawyer.

There are four main characters in the telling of the lesson; a victim of a brutal robbery, a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan.  The victim is no doubt the neighbor receiving love.  The priest, who should be a good guy, is portrayed as a bad guy withholding love to his neighbor.  The same is true for the Levite.  The surprising hero of the story is the Samaritan.  Samaritans were viewed by their Jewish neighbors as half-breed, apostate, filthy cousins tarnishing the proud history of the chosen people of God.  Yes, they worshipped the same God, but Samaritans did it so

.  They even held to the same two commands in question, to love God and to love their neighbor.  However, for the Jews, because the Samaritans had drifted so far from the traditions in Israel’s history, there was no way a Samaritan could get it right.  For Jesus to use the Samaritan as the hero in this lesson would have been insulting.  The lesson for the lawyer is shocking.  The neighbor can be any nameless, faceless stranger.  However, be careful of whom you judge capable of sharing God’s love.

So, back to my problem.  Where am I in the lesson?  As difficult as it can be to face, how am I like the lawyer, and how can I take this to heart?  Furthermore, what is the same application for the congregation I serve?

God sometimes gives a nudge in Bible study.  My story.

I serve on the board of a private Christian school.  We are seeking to raise funds and promote the school within our community.  I mentioned the name of a Christian recording artist/songwriter as possible entertainment for the planned event.  I was delighted that his name was familiar to others in the group.  He is somewhat famous, but in the realm of Christian music, not everyone is familiar with the same artists.  He and I attended the same college.  I graduated with his sister, a dear friend and we share many close friends.  In other words, there is a connection.  Not only was this other pastor friend a fan of my college classmate, he revealed his family was fans as well, particularly his teenage son, who happened to be in the building.  We excitedly went to inform the young man of our plans, and the conversation soon turned to the connection we shared.  Then something surprising happened.  Somewhat playfully, my pastor friend and his son mentioned that my artist friend had joined a different faith tradition.  Our two traditions can be said to be polar opposites.  This man had grown up in the home of one of our preachers.  He had graduated from one of our colleges, as had his sister.  The departure would be shocking.  It would be somewhat like a devout Jew being told the hero of a story about God’s love was not a Jew, but a Samaritan.  Like I said…shocking.  Until you know the rest of the story, my friend’s story.

His was a journey of faith.  He had entered into a crisis in life and was seeking the face of God.  He correctly judged that our tradition can sometimes, not always, lend itself to legalism.  In his woundedness, he was seeking the healing salve of God’s love.  He and his family found it not in our tradition, but in a specific congregation of another tradition.  They were practicing God’s love in the same way the Samaritan practiced God’s love.

I found my application.  Yes, I can very much be like the lawyer.  We sometimes need our filters ripped away to see the world, and other people, through God’s eyes.  How do I love God with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself?  Practice it.  On whom?  Anyone and everyone God brings as my divine appointment?  Who serves as my inspiration?  Anyone else doing the job.