All the garden experts tell us every weekend that we must give close attention to our soil; dense, compact soil needs to be aerated, it needs oxygen to rejuvenate and to be productive.
Sermons are like soil, they can be dense and compact and need aeration.
Spurgeon called aeration, ‘the windows of the sermon’ and Clifford Warne used to remind us when I was at Moore College, that explanations are like feathers, they don’t stand up by themselves, they need support.
Illustrations, examples, are the servants of our explanations, they should not attract attention to themselves, their role is to make the explanation clear.
John Chapman used to teach: State the truth; explain the truth; illustrate the truth; apply the truth.
The illustration will lighten the density of the sermon and will serve both explanation and application by making each clearer.
There are dangers: a sermon can have too many illustrations; they may be inappropriate or have facts wrong; they can be too good by attracting attention to themselves away from the explanation.
But they bring great advantages: they show respect for the hearer by bringing relief for both speaker and hearer; they help understanding; they may reveal the human side of the preacher.
The Bible itself is full of illustrations. I recently heard a sermon on James 3 in which James speaks of bits in horses’ mouths, rudders on ships, sparks of flame, springs of water and fig trees.
Also, Church History provides the testimonies of those who have lived out the truth of the text, tell their story. Read biography and history.
Then there are incidents which you experience or observe, these are invaluable.
To AERATE our sermons we must be aware of the need of such aeration and be attentive to the experiences and conversations happening around us all the time.
Let’s take an example. Soon I am to preach on 1 Peter 1:1-12.
Peter writes to the church in Asia Minor which is going through trials that will last for a little while.
He reminds them that their salvation is based in God’s mercy, experienced as a new birth and brings them to an inheritance kept in heaven and a faith guarded by God’s power.
What is his pastoral method and goal?
He writes so that in the midst of trials they will keep perspective, that they will realise that their salvation is secure and they should keep their focus on the eternal, this will lead to glory and honour when Christ comes and inexpressible joy for them in the meantime.
The need to KEEP PERSPECTIVE is now on my mind and every conversation or article I read between now and writing the sermon is looking for examples of the importance of keeping perspective.
This morning in coffee group, one of our members, a prominent soccer coach, told how on the weekend, a 13 year old girl from his team was so upset at herself because she had made a mistake which led to the opposition scoring a goal. What did he do?
He reminded her of the 20 things she had done that were right, only one thing wrong, and, urged her to keep perspective.
I had heard that when Mark Taylor started cricket commentating he called Shane Warne’s dismissal for 99, one short of his maiden Test century, a tragedy.
The next morning he opened a note from Richie Benaud, ‘Mark, September 11th was a tragedy, a man missing a century is a disappointment’.
Keep perspective!
Keeping perspective is at the heart of pastoral practise and at the heart of the New Testament’s encouragement to us in the midst of suffering.
Aeration, the solution to density.
David Cook.