On Sermon Preparation

After the sermon has been fully sketched, there follows its preparation for delivery.  This should, ordinarily, consist not only in thinking through the contents of each part and mentally clothing the outline with flesh and blood, but in writing out, in extenso, the sermon in the form in which it is to be delivered.  There are, indeed, exceptional preachers who are ready for the pulpit after a season of meditation on a fully worked-out sketch, and still more exceptional ones who do not even find it necessary to work out a full sketch.  But, for the beginner, as well as for the majority of preachers, it should be an inflexible rule to write out a sermon, in full.  This is made necessary by the demand for orderly arrangement of thought and expression discussed above.

The writing of the sermon forms the best and most thorough preparation for its delivery.  In the process of writing, the preacher will often discover inconsistencies and obscurities of his interpretation or application of the text, and may find himself compelled to discard his outline and begin afresh.  The writing of sermons promotes logical order, not only in the main divisions but in every part.  It arms the preacher against the possible event of indisposition, mental or physical.  It makes possible a choice of language appropriate to the subject and the hearer and characterized by convincing clearness, pleasing elegance, and moving power.  It affords an opportunity to plan carefully, in advance, the whole process of delivery, making due allowance for the inspiration that may come in the pulpit, so that the sermon will not be merely reproduced but delivered as a fresh production.  It guards against the pitfalls of improvisation – unwarranted and far-fetched statements, cant phrases, incoherent ranting, a slovenly style, and a halting, uncertain delivery – as well as against the pitfalls of extemporaneous speaking: vagueness of thought, diffuseness of language, and a lack of continuity.  On the preacher of restless mind and wandering fancy, it exerts a restraining influence while, to the preacher of heavy tongue and slow-moving mind, it becomes a source of confidence and ease.

After the sermon is written, it should be fixed in the memory…

From: Homiletics: A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Preaching by Johann Michael Reu; translated from the German by Albert Steinhaeuser (Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House, 1922), pp. 508-509.

Johann Michael Reu (1869-1943) was Professor of Theology at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa, from 1899 to 1943.

 

On Preaching

A sense of the beautiful is the third requirement.  The ugly and the tasteless repel, the beautiful and the elegant attract.  And it is the duty of the preacher to attract.  How beautiful was Jesus’ speech, what words of grace proceeded from His mouth, especially in the parables, which form the poetic element of His message.  One scarcely knows whether to admire more the force or the beauty of His sayings.  There is no other subject that has so good a claim to be treated beautifully as that dealt with in the sermon.  No office or profession takes so great harm to itself by neglect or undervaluation of the beautiful as the office of preaching.  Hence, the preacher’s taste must be cultivated, his sense for the beautiful must be trained, and every native gift looking in this direction must be developed, ennobled, and hallowed.  The transfiguration of the aesthetic life by the Spirit of God and a constant and loving communion with the noblest works of art – these point the way to the cultivation of the sense of beauty.  The chief marks of beauty are simplicity and harmony.  Pomp is not beauty, nor display elegance.  We become masters of an art only when our art has, again, become nature.

From: Homiletics: A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Preaching by Johann Michael Reu; translated from the German by Albert Steinhaeuser; 3rd edition (Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House, 1927 [1st edition: 1922]), pp. 234-235.

 

On Preaching

Finally, the homilete must bear in mind that his text, though only a part, is yet an integral part of the sum total of the Scriptures and is to be interpreted from the viewpoint of its connection with the whole of God’s saving revelation.  Without, in any way, depriving the particular text of its characteristic features, this view of its larger relationship will indicate its comparative position in the organism of saving truth.  It will determine whether or not the text forms one of the cardinal truths of revelation and, if not, what is its relation to them, and it will indicate how it is to be treated, so that these truths may not be contradicted, but more firmly established.  Thus, the preacher will find that Habakkuk 2:4 contains a cardinal truth of the first order, pointing back to Genesis 15:6 and forward to Romans 1:17 and 3:28, absolutely fundamental to the whole relation between God and man and, therefore, of central importance, also, for the congregation of today.  He will present the importance of good works as the expression of faith, so strongly emphasized in James 2:14-26, but will always view them in their relation to justifying faith.  The several precepts concerning obedience to the secular authorities, the duty of intercession for all men, the practice of hospitality, he will reduce to their common denominator of fear and love of God and will, thus, emphasize the organic unity of the Christian life as against a mere external addition of good works.  At the same time, many an apparently difficult and unprofitable locution will take on flesh and blood and be found to possess definite practical value as he traces its varying usage in a good concordance or Bible dictionary.

From: Homiletics: A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Preaching by Prof. M. Reu; translated from the German by Albert Steinhaeuser (Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House, 1922), pp. 344-345.

Johann Michael Reu (1869-1943) was Professor of Theology at Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa (1899-1943).  He was a prolific author: 66 books and, reportedly, more than 3,000 published book reviews.