Reflections on a Theologically Interpreted Sermon

Yesterday I got to preach from the pulpit for the second time. It was the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist. I was thankful for vestments and a pulpit for whole new reasons - my leg was shaking hardcore from nervousness, but no one could even notice :) haha.

You can hear my sermon here: http://www.saint-peters.net/sermons (it's only about 8 minutes long)

It's been very fun to write these sermons. This one was particularly interesting for me to write, because I never would have written it before this last year at Duke, which is encouraging. Our education is actually accomplishing something. I just hope that it's a good thing. The reason I never would have preached this before this year, is that this is clearly a theological interpretation. My text was Luke 1:57-80, but my sermon is anything but an exposition of those verses. In fact, there's little chance that the point I'm trying to get across was in the mind of Luke as he penned this chapter. I think my sermon is true to the text, but what I mean by being "true to the text" has changed dramatically since my "Biblical Hermeneutics" class at Wheaton, which taught me that for your interpretation to be "true to the text" it had to be within the original intention of the text. I don't think that's what I believe anymore. It was the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist, which is why the reading is from Luke 1, which is about John the Baptist, but my sermon is about Jesus - who is never mentioned by name in the entire text. But preaching about Jesus from a text about John the Baptist is "true to the text" because the Gospel of Luke as a whole (or the biblical witness as a whole) is about Jesus. Hence, John the Baptist only finds meaning because of the Christ event, and it is therefore appropriate to talk about Jesus from a text about John the Baptist.

Anyway - those are some brief reflections on sermon writing. I'd love to hear your reflections on my reflection, or reflections on your own experience for those of you who have gotten the chance to write sermons as well. I'll post the full text of my sermon in the "comments" section, so as to save blog-o-space.

hope all is well with you all, would love to hear how things are going. Florida is getting old quickly.

And I'm still sweating.