Hermeneutical Journey of "Staying Awake"

This is a hermeneutical journey report for my sermonette "Staying Awake" preached at Princeton Theological Seminary on September 30, 2015.

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Week Prior to Wednesday, September 23^rd

As part of the required reading assignments for “Preaching Paul” on Wednesday, September 23, I read Ephesians in its entirety multiple times. While I did read it out loud several tines, I admit I should have read it more times in what I would call my preaching voice. Based on my readings of Ephesians, I knew for this upcoming sermon assignment I would want a passage from one of the follow sections: Ephesians 1:1-14, Ephesians 1:15-23, Ephesians 3, or Ephesians 4:1-16.

Wednesday, September 23^rd

As a class, we took turns reading a portion of Ephesians out loud. We did this twice, once towards the beginning of class and once towards the end of class. By practicing reading the text out loud, I did see certain passages in Ephesians in a different perspective. While I still wanted the selected texts listed above for the assignment, I was now at least more open to preaching a sermon from the other sections. I was among the last two to sign up for a text. Another student and I had the final two choices of text between Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6. Remembering this other student said one of his favorite passages from the epistles was found in Ephesians 6, I chose Ephesians 5. Either chapter would have been among more of the more difficult of the Ephesians texts to preach. I knew this would be a fun challenge in which I would deeply explore a text. After class, I explored Ephesians 5 by reading the entire chapter out loud in a preaching voice. I still did not have my specific passage selected.

Thursday, September 24^th

At Chapel the next day, as I was flipping through the Red Presbyterian Hymnal to find the next hymn we were about to sing, I saw a hymn titled, “‘Sleepers, Wake!’ A Voice Astounds Us.” This made me think the second half of Ephesians 5:14 where the author quotes, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” The note at the bottom of the hymn said the song is in reference to the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaid found in Matthew 25:1-13. I wanted to explore this passage in addition to Ephesians 5 to see if there was any connection. Because of this hymn and the exploring I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to include verse 14 as part of my selected passage. Because of the reference to “children” in verse 1 and verse 8, my passage I had initially selected was Ephesians 5:1-14. I now read began to read only these selected fourteen verses out loud rather than Ephesians 5 in its entirety. From this reading the passage out loud, I had these initial questions:

• How do I stay true to a text where judgment is a part of it? How do avoid a sermon that comes across as too judgmental?
• What does evangelism look like in this text? Is this an appropriate message for me to preach? (I understand it’s an appropriate form of ministry, but it is not one of my gifts in ministry.)
• What would be equivalent to Paganism in our modern world? What should we as “children of light” renounce?
• What is Paul (or the author) saying and doing in the passage?
• What is the good news in the passage?

Friday and Saturday, September 25^th – 26^th

I kept the sermon on the back of my mind, but it was not my main focus. Rather, if I had an idea for the sermon, I would enter it as a note in my phone. My final list of notes ended up looking like this:

• We are Children in the Light when we were once Children of the Darkness
• Having a childlike faith; Foolish and ignorant; you are invited here to be a child; to tell it like it is; to ask questions; we are here together in a community; to say the wrong things;
• “‘Sleepers, Wake!’ A Voice Astounds Us” – Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids
• Seeking Goodness, Righteousness, and Truth
• Asking questions; being vulnerable with one another; do we pretend that our life is fine?
•  “The Light Shines in the Darkness, and the Darkness shall not overcome it”
• Come as you are, lacking answers, needing love
• Resurrection and Transformation
• Light needing to make a shadow; “That Shadow, My Likeness” by Walt Whitman

Sunday, September 27^th

On Sunday evening, I approached my first set of commentaries. As I researched commentaries, I saw most preaching scholars (but not all) would have separated Ephesians 5:8-14 into its own section. Because of this, I reduced my selected passage from fourteen verses to these seven. I also looked into commentaries on Matthew 12:1-13 to see if there was any connection between these two passages. I could not find any connection between the two passages besides two similar phrases. But while exploring commentaries on Matthew 12:1-13, I had asked myself questions about this parable in relation to my text in Ephesians: “Does it matter if we are the wise or the fool? What if the fools stayed in the dark and cried out to the Lord rather than leaving and getting oil?” I figured the answers to these questions could be used in my sermon as an introductory story. As for the Ephesians commentaries, major influences came from the writings of (but not limited to) William Loader, Richard Carlson, Margaret Aymer, and Sarah Henrich.

Monday, September 28^th

I started my sermon writing. Based off my own ideas and the work of the commentaries, I approached my writing with this question as my main focus: “How shall we live as children of light?” Based on the passage, the answer was found in verses ten and eleven: “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” I wrote the last paragraph of my sermon first. This paragraph was my own answer to my question above and the main point that I wanted the hearers to take away from this sermon. I usually write the last paragraph first and at the end, I make it edits to it so it is cohesive with the rest of the sermon. Next, I wrote the introduction. This is where I can be creative and add a story to the sermon to grab the hearers’ attentions. I based my story on the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids. Finally, I wrote the first two paragraphs after the introduction to serve as an explicit descriptive connection of the story to the main point I wanted to make and as a transition into this main point.

Tuesday, September 29^th

            On Tuesday, I finished the sermon writing by diving deep into the text of Ephesians 5:8-14 one last time. I specifically wanted to focus on verses ten and eleven in relation to the surround passage. These two verses were the answer to my focus question. The explanation of verse ten was better explained in the previous verse in which the words “good and right and true” were used. Verse eleven did not have as clear of an explanation, so from personal experience of exposing darkness, I focused on “honesty, vulnerability, and asking questions.”  After writing these two central paragraphs, I made my final edits to my sermon. Most of this involved deleting sentences – including an entire small paragraph – that did add anything to the final message. After all, this was an eight-minute message. The sermon had to be clear and concise. Once the sermon was finished, I practiced preaching it out loud several times. Based on the message of my sermon and the initial inspiration, I decided to title it, “Staying Awake.”