FOUR PAGES: GRAMMAR AND THE PREACHING SCENE

It makes a huge difference whether preachers and teachers of preaching believe God acts and that Jesus is alive. The gospel, as understood here, assumes these truths and from them offers four grammatical principles to undergird sermons. Grammatical rules are generally not seen; they operate beneath the surface and below the radar, and the same is true of these components that undergird biblical preaching. We will call them Pages: Page One is trouble as identified in the Bible and Page Two is that trouble in our world. Trouble is whatever leads to death or puts the burden on humans to do something. By contrast, with grace, God accepts that burden in Christ. Page Three is grace in the Bible and Page Four is grace in our world. All biblical preaching can be helpfully analyzed in relation to these four. They are of relatively equal weight (though in faith grace is stronger), hence we may think of them as constituting four quarters of a biblical sermon, though arrangement and distribution may vary. In the same way that good grammar allows a sentence to make sense, these four elements enable the gospel to be preached as good news. They generate movement: from bondage in Egypt to the promised land, crucifixion to resurrection, sin to redemption, brokenness to healing, and so forth. Grammar makes for effective communication. Gospel is needed to nurture the church.

From a theological point of view, it is hard to argue with these four. If there are other standard grammatical options in sermons, they are not of the same priority. For instance, a sermon may discuss world history, social customs, or world affairs, but in general, if the subject does not already fit one of our categories, it is theologically neutral and of less value. Of our four theological elements, can any be safely ignored? Trouble speaks to human need in the Bible and today — we cannot save ourselves. If we could we would not need a Savior. Grace speaks to God's help, in the Bible and today. All together they speak of change, renewal, salvation, and empowerment. None is dispensable and all four facilitate the gospel.

These Four Pages commonly appear without order in sermons throughout time, though sequentially they make sense. Trouble to grace represents a biblical redemptive pattern, moving from a state of sin or brokenness to salvation or liberation. Preachers who have never conceived of the gospel in these terms, nonetheless typically use our Pages, though they may drift onto them like cars on black ice, often without warning or control. Overall sermon excellence starts with recognizing them, examining how each functions, and how together they provide measurable standards for teaching, practice, and evaluation, something homiletics sadly lacks.

What follows in this volume is the story of each of our four elements, why homiletics students, teachers, and preachers should know about them, what is at stake in each, and best practices with them. The story begins in the preaching scene today, six decades after strong winds hit the homiletical highlands.

I. THE PREACHING SCENE: WHERE WE HAVE BEEN

Four key movements have shaped the preaching scene today: propositional preaching, the New Homiletic, African American preaching, and the internet and social media.

A. Expository and Propositional Preaching

Throughout history, expository sermons have been the bread-and-butter sermons of the church. They "expose" or exegete (= draw out) the biblical meaning. Such sermons probe a text, lift up key words or verses, and give a full sense of what the text says. Typically, they move from exposition to application, from what the text said to what it says or means today, in the manner that some of Jesus's parables move from text to explanation. The first biblically recorded example of this pattern is found in Nehemiah 8:7-8, "The Levites helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading."

Expository sermons traditionally are deductive, they state up front a single idea, proposition, or doctrine, and then prove or argue it. The best-known contemporary book on expository preaching is by Haddon W. Robinson, who sees so much variety in expository preaching he says it is "more a philosophy than a method." It is preaching that "communicates a biblical concept derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit applies first to the preacher, then through [to the] hearers."

Propositional preaching is a larger category that includes expository elements but is not restricted to a single biblical text and might develop a topic. It relies on discursive reasoning and usually makes its case with points. They provide the movement of the sermon as in steps to a destination. Typically, there are three that give three pieces of evidence, or three ways of looking at something, or three stages in a logical argument. Three-point sermons have been around at least since the 1200s when Robert of Basevorn observed, with humor, "Only three statements, or the equivalent of three, are used in the theme — either from respect for the Trinity, or because a threefold cord is not easily broken [Eccl 4:12], or because this method is mostly followed by Bernard [of Clairvaux], or, as I think more likely, because it is more convenient for the set time of the sermon." The form became stereotyped as three-points-anda-poem. Why the poem? There could be several reasons: (1) it provided a convenient signal that the sermon was ending; (2) it presented an aesthetic, emotional, or transcendent component for the sermon; (3) it added classical rhetorical flourish so the sermon could end on a high note; and (4) the origin may connect with the influence of John Wesley, who sometimes concluded his own sermons by reciting or singing verses from his prolific hymn-writing brother, Charles.

Propositional sermons generally assume that every text contains a subject or idea that can be extracted, explained, and applied to the life and work of a congregation. Typically, the points are either driven by the biblical text, or by a teaching (i.e., doctrine) of the church, or by some contemporary topic. The points may be clearly identified, "My first point is ... ,"...