Painting pictures, telling stories, creating empathy and emotions

Writing a compelling and captivating novel is an art form which many aspire to but few achieve.  Crafting words in such a way that they paint pictures and create strong feelings and emotions in the minds of your readers is no easy task.  It is the same as we preach.

Preaching is not a clinical academic presentation of truth.  We've been studying Peter's Pentecost sermon over Easter and it is full of passion, challenge, and conviction, it creates emotional responses as you hear of Jesus death and resurrection, as he puts the crowd in the dock and us their with them.  Peter's words paint a picture of the suffering Messiah, drawing the crowd to look on him they pierced.  And it's not just Peter, each of the gospels paint pictures and stir your imagination as you read their retelling of events.  They evoke powerful emotional responses in us, creating empathy and anger in equal measure.

In our preaching we must not do any less.  Our job is to unchain scripture and allow it to do its Spirit crafted, Spirit filled work.  We must not present it as clinical truth, or as an rational academic paper.  Preachers we must preach to make people feel - not to manipulate them, not to whip up emotions so that a hyped up crowd respond in the moment - but we are to preach the passage so that people feel.

Work hard at crafting words that paint pictures, build paragraphs that capture the tension in a text, or the joy, or the gut wrenching sorrow.  Read the bible well - the bible itself does that as it is read, so read it well, quote it well in your preaching.  Help people feel the bible as they hear the bible and you proclaim its truth.

If we teach Easter, Christ's suffering, betrayal, isolation, rejection, trial, death and joyful universe transforming resurrection as a propositional truth devoid of feelings and emotion have we really preached it at all?

Preaching

"Dealing with the matters of the heart should be our default position - it should naturally arise from our sermons, not be found despite them. To the extent that our preaching has lost the affectionate relational aspect of the gospel, our lives let the vitality of true piety seep out, leaving behind a cold mechanistic life style. To put it bluntly - a sermon that does not stir up a deeper love for Jesus is not a Christian sermon. It may have many excellent features and could possibly be a good lecture, but it is nonetheless a failure as a sermon."
Pete Sanlon

Emotion - a right response

We were looking at Luke 7 again on Sunday and the incident where the woman weeps, wipes and anoints Jesus feet. It is striking passage, why? Because her response is so emotional - in fact Jesus draws attention to her response of great love and contrasts it unfavourably with Simon's failure to love but desire to discuss ideas.

It poses the question are we to respond to Jesus emotionally? This woman is aware of her sin and the great salvation that Jesus has given her hence her lavish love seen in action. A great sinner worships a great Saviour.

I found myself asking whether I know that response? Whether I keep on knowing that response and what does appropriate expression of that look like? Or am I like Simon engaging in the debate enjoying the cerebral challenge but not broken and worshipping because I love little because I think I have little to be forgiven for?