Yesterday morning when I came out of my office, Rosemary asked me a very important question. Knowing that I was working on my sermon, she asked me, “Daddy, how do you write a sermon?”
It’s an important question, because I think a lot of people have a certain idea about sermon preparation that’s actually a good bit different from what happens. (At least for me.)
I’ll pull the curtain back a bit and fill you in on my process. First, I pray. Then I read the lectionary readings for the week. Then, I pray again. Then I stare out the window. I wait for the Holy Spirit to give me a faint starting idea. Then, I write and listen. So often, the place I’m taken by the end of the sermon is very different from what I’d have expected. So often, there’s something in the reading I hadn’t noticed before. More often than not, conversations and readings from the last several weeks come into focus and I realize that God was preparing my sermon for me weeks in advance.
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