Exodus Preaching: Crafting Sermons about Justice and Hope

by Kenyatta R. Gilbert

Overview

Exodus Preaching is the first of its kind. It is an exploration of the African American prophetic rhetorical traditions in a manner that makes features of these traditions relevant to a broad audience beyond the African American traditions. It provides readers a composite picture of the nature, meaning, and relevance of prophetic preaching as spoken Word of justice and hope in a society of growing pluralism and the world-shaping phenomenon of racial, economic and cultural diversity.

African American preachers have distinctively invested great symbolic significance in the Exodus story, the messianic witness of Jesus, and the prophetic literature for developing and shaping prophetic sermons. Kenyatta Gilbert demonstrates how four distinctive features of discourse can shape sermon preparation, for effective preaching in a period of intense social change, racial unrest, and violence.

Gilbert includes dozens of practical suggestions and five practical exercises to equip the reader for preaching in new ways and in new environments. He offers an holistic approach, fully equipping the reader with the theological and practical resources needed to preach prophetically.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501832581
Publisher:	Abingdon Press
Publication date:	03/20/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	549 KB

About the Author

Dr. Kenyatta R. Gilbert is Associate Professor of Homiletics at the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. He is author of The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching and A Pursued Justice: Black Preaching from the Great Migration to Civil Rights. Dr. Gilbert is an ordained Baptist minister and founder of The Preaching Project: Restoring Communities through Spoken Word. See more at www.thepreachingproject.org.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

EXODUS IMAGERY AND SERMONIC PERFORMANCE

In every crisis God raises up a Moses ... especially where the destiny of [God's] people is concerned.

— C. L. Franklin

Exodus preaching (African American prophetic preaching) is concrete and daring discourse that names God and offers a vision of divine purpose. Preaching of this kind serves an emancipatory agenda. Through criticism and symbols of hope about what God intends and expects of God's human creation, Exodus preaching lands on the ear of the despairing and is dedicated to help them interpret their situation in light of God's justice and the quest for human freedom. As long as people desire to be free, Martin King's insightful query will never ring hollow.

King once asked, "Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings of people more than the preacher?" Such a question hoists a burden upon every minister who hopes to do something of consequence in partnership with God. To shun the beckoning task of preparing listeners to stand and be counted as co- participants with a promise-bearing God at work in the world is to tighten Egypt's grip and undermine a several-centuries-old quest for freedom. The Exodus saga's correspondence with today's victims of history has added legitimacy to the preacher's speech about God's will toward justice. Likewise, the Hebrew prophet's evocative cries for moral accountability to God and community beckons preachers toward high standards of moral and ethical responsibility, just as the salvific agenda and incarnational witness of Jesus remind preachers that the vocation of prophetic truth-telling often co-occurs with personal suffering. Such orienting biblical touchstones invite today's preacher-prophets to stand against the forces of death and evil in both the public square and the church. This is why the enduring pursuit for human dignity and overcoming spiritual and social forces that work against the collective good and welfare of all persons remain so important. In today's culture of trauma and numbness, if the preacher is silent potential pathways to human flourishing will be blocked.

But what might these pathways resemble? I have argued elsewhere that prophetic proclamation is not self-generated discourse but summoned Word taking its beginning and ending in God. Yet because preaching is both a divine and human activity, which calls upon a preacher's gifts and faculties, I believe that strategies to push a preacher to stretch her theological imagination can aid the preacher's growth, especially as it relates to developing a prophetic consciousness, given the current state of the world.

— CRAFTING STRATEGY: PREACHING THE EXODUS NARRATIVE (OR PREACHING FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT) —

Preaching from the Old Testament is just as important as preaching from the New Testament. In fact, if one bypasses or gives surface treatment to the Hebrew scriptures, taken on their own terms, one cannot obtain an appropriate picture of Jesus Christ. That which binds the two testaments together are the promises of God made in the Old Testament (or the Hebrew Bible for the canonically persnickety), which find fulfillment in God's Son in the New Testament witness. Nevertheless, preaching from the Old Testament poses great challenges and openings for the preacher in sermon creation.

Passage selection, understanding of the genre and history of the text, plot sequence and movement, assessment of the rhetorical situation, contemporary relevance, correspondence with the New Testament, pairing exegesis with imagination, and addressing theological problems the selected passage or book present are all of great consequence for sermon creation. Lone-ranger approaches to managing these components ensure that the preacher, no matter how earnest, will do violence to the integrity of the chosen passage's claim(s) and discernible intent.

CST1: ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM.

Consider this phrasing as a sermon opening:

We often cherry-pick or conveniently jump over biblical passages that rub us the wrong way. To do this is only natural because we need things to line up, don't we? To make rational sense. But what if they don't? What if they offend our Christian sensibilities and refuse to be bullied into what we want them to say? Do we just gather our marbles and run away from them? Do we throw them into our theological waste bins without discussion? I should hope not. I hope we would wrestle a bit with the Whys? and How comes? You do realize that God respects and remains unintimidated by whatever manner of question we can bring to God.

Why would God decree an invasion tactic that endorses the indiscriminate killing of men, women, and children and hold Israel accountable if she does not sign onto the death warrant's dotted line? Perhaps we should chalk this up to the mysterious intentions of God. Or might we make peace with the fact that seeing this as God's act on Israel's behalf and to not see this as Israel's heroism or expression of her military prowess is the way to size up things? What can be said with reasonable certainty is that these weary nomads are extremely vulnerable and sin prone. Ask Moses. Who's to say they'd not simply enter a new place and fall prey to the temptation to run to the Canaanite gods without a way being made clear? I can think of better ways to do this. I know you could.

But as much as I want to impose my modern diplomacy and peacemaking strategies onto the ancients, I can't. You can't. We must embrace our discomfort. But that isn't all the Christian can do. The Christian can hold this and other troublesome accounts up to the light of the gospel and see if things line up. This gospel bids me to follow after the love of Jesus, and not Joshua's sword.

CST2: FIND THE MAJOR THEMES.

One effective way to enrich sermon preparation is to focus on key doctrinal themes seen in the passage. Ask yourself, "Is this passage about

-covenant and disobedience,

-promise and fulfillment,

-sin and mercy,

-bondage and deliverance,

-patience and faithfulness, or

-divine sovereignty and commitment?"

Coupling and organizing the sermon around these big themes can be an effective strategy for unearthing the intentions of the text.

CST3: PREPARE A REASONED RESPONSE.

After dealing with the text with critical eyes on the merit of what it speaks literally, ascend from history a bit and try interpreting the passage symbolically. Jeffrey Rogers helpfully suggests two possible responses a preacher might use:

-Relate the battle imagery to the struggle and terrors that every person, believers no exception, may face. These battles might entail enduring bouts with mental suffering or resisting addictive and spiritually crippling behaviors. Moses's words to Joshua, "Be strong and courageous ... for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Josh 1:9) may find resonance in the life of a listener fearing a future that must be faced with steadfast faith.

-Value the fact that "not every citation of scripture was met with Jesus's approval." One might also wager an appeal based on Matthew 5:21-22, 33-34, accounts that read: "You have heard that it was said to those in ancient times. ... But I say to you ..." One should also take note of John 20:30-31, which attests to the fact that Jesus did many things that weren't recorded in the holy scriptures. As the Gospel of John declares "Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name." So ask yourself this question: If the Bible could have more to say to us then why must I insist on shoving the text into my hermeneutical straitjacket?

CST4: TRUST THE POSTMODERN LISTENER.

Contemporary listeners value the preacher's honest wrestling. The preacher gives voice to God's vision and announces what is seen and heard. But the honest preacher will acknowledge interpretive blind spots. The preacher does well to remember that all "see through a mirror dimly" knowing only in part, and this should not diminish hope because believers are assured that because of God's loving concern for us, all things cloudy in the end become clear (1 Cor 13:12).

SERMONIC EXAMPLE

Raquel St. Clair Lettsome "Hidden Hope"; Exodus 2:10 Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference Drake Hotel Chicago, IL 2012

New Testament scholar Reverend Dr. Raquel Lettsome, the first woman to serve as the executive minister at the historic St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, is author of Call and Consequences: A Womanist Reading of Mark's Gospel. According to Lettsome, "God not only calls preachers to have a prepared Word, God calls for prepared preachers." The best sermons she has preached, says Lettsome, are those conceived and nurtured out of life's "overflow." Namely, she gathers those sermons that emanate from time spent in prayer and regular, consistent, daily Bible reading, time in fellowship with others, and, equally important, time spent when the physical self is rested. This requires an inverted view of preaching and its preparation, says Lettsome. She contends that the preparation of the preacher can be summarized in one word: discipline.

Her sermon "Hidden Hope" launches from Exodus 2:10, tracking the daring women (Hebrew midwives, mother Jochebed, sister Miriam, and Pharaoh's daughter) who rose up at pivotal moments to secure the future of an endangered man-child, the prophet Moses. Lettsome sets the sermonic stage for drama and suspense, asking the question: Can hope be destroyed? Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months (Exod 2:1-2).

She assumes her listeners are well-acquainted with the storyline and cast of characters. The sermon unfolds with an artfully sophisticated blending of sociolinguistic biblical criticism, theo-symbolic coding, and pastoral care. The sermon's alliterated title and first segment signal to listeners that the preaching moment will be an exercise in aesthetical creativity.

We are not paranoid. There really is a plot to destroy us, a plot that requires us to reckon with powers and principalities, rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12) ... Truth is, just about all of us have already gone through, know about, and/or survived some assassination attempts in which people or circumstances seem to have conspired against us to kill our joy, peace, sanity, self-esteem, educational aspirations ... character. Because ultimately the thing on the hit list is our hope. Hope ... the expectation of a favorable future under God's direction; the expectation that God will fulfill God's promises.

Because of its inductive movement and narrative outline, Lettsome leaves no useful detail unmanaged in order to set the stage. One might see this sermon distilled in three simple propositions: Hope is important. Faith is futile without it. Hope must be protected.

Lettsome calls persons and principalities that plot our demise "hope assassins." They "destroy dreams and vanquish hopes ... [and] can fire at point blank range — a word of doubt here, some discouragement there, a roll of the eyes, a carefully placed sigh, or just be close enough to stab us in the back. ... They fear us even though we have done nothing to them." She continues, "The way we make it through these plots is God hides us. This was the case of Moses."

From this opening hook, Lettsome eases into the text and tells us that Moses was born in the middle of an assassination attempt. She says, "Pharaoh was trying to annihilate all the Hebrew boys so the assassination attempt was not directed against him specifically. It was directed against what he and the other baby boys represented." She shifts into didactic mode, playing up the significance of a "man-child." The man-child, she says, is a generation's hope, the continuation of a people ... in them, "was housed every unfulfilled dream, every unmet desire."

Pharaoh's strategic plan to annihilate the oppressed Hebrews' hope, she outlines, was to box them, limit their employment prospects, and conscript them into forced labor; confine them to slave status with no rank or respect; and if plan one and two failed, then assassinate them. The sermon's message is unmistakably working on multiple levels, biblically and contextually. Lettsome follows the biblical narrative, but the beauty of her composition is in the sermon's relation to the occasioned event. The theme of the 2012 Proctor Conference was The New Jim Crow Summit, after the release of civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander's New York Times bestseller on the subject. Alexander highlights the plight of African American men, arguing that America's political and criminal justice system functions as a redesign of the "Jim Crow" system. Black mass incarceration, she maintains, has forged a racial caste system that permanently bars Black males from any political participation in society upon re-entry. This crisis is problematic because it ensures the further splintering of Black families, as Black ex-convicts re-enter society with few prospects for improving their economic or social station.

But the sermon's thrust does not settle with subversive critique alone. Lettsome pairs criticism with hope. And this hope comes in the form of God typified as mother.

Jochebed, Moses's mother, gives birth to hope in the midst of the dreadful, hopeless situation. ... Jochebed gives birth to hope and the midwives let hope live. ... So Jochebed hides her hope in a basket. In Hebrew, the word for "basket" is literally an "ark." She dares to protect her hope until this flood of trouble is abated. And then Pharaoh's daughter sees her hope, takes pity on her hope, and protects her hope in the palace. ... And I know we often call God "Father," but sometimes, God is a mother to us like Jochebed. God looks at us and sees brand-new creations, born again by blood and the Holy Spirit but we are still babies in so many ways.

Having named the tragic reality of communal despair and a pathway toward hopeful resolution, she negotiates a christocentric correspondence in sermonic summary — the celebration of the good news that hope can be built on nothing less than Jesus's blood and righteousness. Ending in celebratory fashion, she proclaims:

In a court of law, prosecution and defense can call witnesses and submit evidence to support their respective cases. While you were hidden, God used you as a witness. God let people watch you to see how God kept you, never left you, no matter what Pharaoh did.

But one day, God is going to call you out of hiding and present you as evidence. God will use you as Exhibit A to showcase God's anointing. You will be Exhibit B to demonstrate what a breakthrough looks like ... Exhibit C ... Exhibit D to show how you enter a new season ... Ultimately, you will be Exhibit H, a Hidden Hope! And if your hope is in God, you will never be alone. For you have a hidden Savior for every hidden situation. He was hidden:

In four hundred years of silence when there was no canonical word from the Lord

In forty-two generations until he was born a babe in Bethlehem

In Egypt until Herod died

In a borrowed tomb for three days until he rose to stoop no more

In the heavens until he shall reveal himself in all glory, majesty, beauty, and power and we shall behold him for we shall see him as he is. ... That's why, "our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus's blood and righteousness."

"Hidden Hope" plays well in liturgical settings both congregational and conference-formatted, but religio-cultural sermonic lyricism is restricted neither to traditional modes of homiletic proclamation nor to ecclesial settings where religious speech-acts are typically performed. Creative sermonic discourse arises in response to rhetorical situations that need and invite it, and often amphitheaters, concert halls, and café lounges become the sacred space for the spoken and embodied Word.

— CRAFTING STRATEGY: SETTING UP THE DELAYED HOOK —

This rhetorical strategy cautions the preacher not to say too much too soon. Listeners can read the text for themselves. But it is the preacher's task to speak to shape consciousness and bring the gospel forward as gift and challenge. In fact, from prologue to epilogue, the Exodus story itself unfolds sequentially.

Picking up where the book of Genesis ends, Joseph dies in Egypt along with his generation, the Israelites multiply and grow strong as a people, a new king ascends to the throne but knows not Joseph's legend, and finally, in fear and intimidation the new king sets out to oppress the Israelites and diminish their population. To follow the mind of the narrative is to see that it virtually preaches itself.

As with many good movies, the plot unfolds inductively, hinting all along the way why each character is important to the storyline, noting the obstacles to be overcome, and revealing why God's involvement is necessary. Biblical narratives have plots, twists, and turns, moving from problem to resolution, that make for the stuff of drama. To shape messages that capture today's listener, sermon setup is critical.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Exodus Preaching"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Kenyatta R. Gilbert.
Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction,
Chapter One: Exodus Imagery and Sermonic Performance,
Chapter Two: Unmasking Evil and Dethroning Idols,
Chapter Three: Confronting Human Tragedy and Communal Despair,
Chapter Four: Naming Reality in a Tone-Deaf Culture,
Chapter Five: Inventive Speech and Poetic Perceptions,
Chapter Six: Preaching Jesus "of the Gospels",