Skeletons in the Pulpit and Cadavers in the Pews

As I mentioned in an earlier post on poetry and preaching I am offering some reflections this weekend on the Eph 2:10 and about the poetry God works in and through us. The sermon doesn't break down easily into 3 points all beginning with P, (indeed very, very few of mine ever do, no matter how much i grew up with them and may wish to emualte them I just can't do it) ... they tend to work more in pictures that hope people will get a hold off, or more likely images that will get a hold of them. It seems to me that that is at the heart of Bruggemann's thing of poetic preaching.

I am not wishing to knocking good sermon outlines (Ii have been moved by many such sermons) but I was interested in this article with such a great title by Joe McKeever that came my way over the ether. I've put a big chunk of it here ( hope he doesn't mind) but the link for the full piece is www.sermoncentral.com/articlec.asp?article=Joe-McKeever-Skeletons-Pulpit-Cadavers-Pews&ac=true&csplit=9970

Have you ever read something that made all the bells go off inside you? You yell, "That's it! That's what I've been thinking!" because it seems the author has been reading your thoughts. It happened to me this weekend. Warren Wiersbe was the culprit, the reader of my mind. His book is titled Preaching and Teaching with Imagination. I notice that he autographed it to me, but I have no memory of the occasion when it happened. Mostly I wonder why I delayed reading this incredible book. Dr. Wiersbe put his insight in the form of a story. I suspect it's a parable, meaning he fictionalized it in order to make a point. (He has good precedent; our Lord did this.)

Briefly, the story he told was this:
Grandma Thatcher sits in church with a number of hurts and spiritual needs. Although she's lovingly known throughout the congregation as a saint, she gets nothing but harassment and trials at home for her faith. When she gets to church, she needs a word from God.

On this particular morning, the pastor stood at the pulpit and preached from Genesis chapter 9, the main thrust of which was his outline, with all the points beginning with the same letters. The outline was excellent, as those things go:
Creation Presented – Genesis 9:1-3

Capital Punishment – Genesis 9:4-7

Covenant Promised – Genesis 9:8-17

Carnality Practiced – Genesis 9:18-23

Consequences Prophesied – Genesis 9:24-29

As she departs the sanctuary, Grandma mutters to herself, "Last week it was all S's. Today it's all CP's." She walked out of the church that day with her hunger unabated and returned home to face a hostile husband and another week of trials.

Not long after, the pastor had to be out of town and invited a missionary to fill the pulpit. Oddly, the missionary preached from the same text, Genesis 9. But he took an entirely different approach. The speaker began his sermon by describing a rainstorm he'd experienced while on a missionary trip in the mountains. The congregation chuckled when he said, "I wish Noah had been with us. We could have used him!"

Then he started talking about the storms in human lives, and the compassion in his voice convinced the congregation that he'd been through more than one storm himself. "Storms are a part of life; God made it that way," he said. "But I've learned a secret that's helped me all these years, and it's still helping me: Always look for the rainbow. The world looks for the silver lining and sings 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,' but we Christians have something far better than that. Did you ever meet the three men in the Bible who saw rainbows?"

His outline and the message that morning centered on Noah, who saw the rainbow AFTER the storm (Genesis 9); Ezekiel, who saw the rainbow IN THE MIDST of the storm (Ezekiel 1); and John, who saw the rainbow BEFORE the storm (Revelation 4:1-3).

He closed his Bible, smiling at the listening congregation, and said, "Dear friends, you and I will experience storms until we are called to heaven, and then all storms will cease. Expect the storms and don't be afraid of them, because God is always faithful. Just remember God's message to us today: Always look for the rainbows. Depend on the faithfulness of God. Sometimes He'll show you the rainbow after the storm, sometimes during the storm, and sometimes before the storm. But He will never fail you."

Now there, Grandma Thatcher thought, was a word from the Lord that nourished her soul.

What was the difference in the two sermons? I mean, other than the fact that one fed the spiritual needs of the congregation and the other lay there as lifeless as a pile of bones. Here is how Dr. Wiersbe analyzes the difference:

"In his preaching ministry, (the pastor) took skeletons into the pulpit and ended with cadavers in the pews—undernourished saints who had nothing to chew on but outlines. The guest missionary speaker took both concepts and images into the pulpit and wove them together in such a way that his listeners' ears became eyes, and they saw the truth.

In seeing the truth, their imagination was cleansed and nourished, and they were spiritually satisfied and encouraged within."