A Labyrinthine Journey

Note: My lovely wife begins a new adventure this week. As a Supervised Certified Lay Speaker she begins serving a small church nearby as their quarter-time pastor. This means she preaches weekly, not her top choice of ways to serve the church, but she is trusting God to help her. She is also wanting help from me, which I am glad to give. Here are some thoughts on preaching prep I offer to her and to you. Can you offer more encouragement in comments?

In the Seminary I attended, the focus in preaching and preaching preparation was intellectual. We first did the full critical interpretation of the passage (exegesis), then we wrote the best paper in bringing that teaching to the congregation. The mind was foremost. Both the exegesis and the written sermon were examined as scholarly documents.

I had a couple problems with that approach. One I knew at the time, the other I figured out much later. The first thing I noticed when I tried to preach these (or remembered trying to listen to others preach their approach) was how unapproachable the Word became. Sure, the ideas and the interpretations were fascinating at one level, but when it came to actually seeing the Bible as a Word to be lived day by day, the intellectual approach did not connect. The anti-intellectual approach didn’t work either. There was no challenge to how my life was currently stuck, and my intellect was unengaged. If we were to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, then the message needed to be broadly balanced to connect with emotion, will, intention, motivation, intellect, and action.

The other problem I later discovered was that I am a highly intuitive person (Meyers-Briggs INFP, high on I and N). The sensing and thinking approach played to my weakness. So over the 20+ years of practicing preaching, I slipped into a more intuitive approach to both preaching and preparation. The preaching I call Jazz Preaching in contrast to what I call Classical Preaching. I never write a sermon, I come up with the preaching equivalent of chord changes and key melody lines, but then improvise the actual preaching moment.

My preparation is also highly intuitive. In trying to help my dear wife with this new venture in her life, I have had to think about my intuitive process.

Yeah, you get the challenge. Here are some thoughts to lay out my approach which is the best I can do in trying to help encourage her (and you?) in bringing the Living Word of God to the fullness of life. These ideas may not work for you, but people seem to respond favorably to the sermons that result from this process in my ministry.

I offer them as directions, in reality what follows lays out what I see myself doing on a weekly basis.

I won’t repeat it, but this whole process is bathed in prayer and trust that the Holy Spirit will work with and through your preparation and presentation of God’s living Word!

Preliminary Phase: Choosing the Scripture

I primarily use the lectionary. Read through the lessons a couple times, not much yet. Don’t think yet about what you might say about them. Be open to preaching any of them. I usually choose 2 of the 4. And yes, I will at times preach the Psalm. It is a shame to waste all those wonderful prayers and images of worship to simply be read.

Look at the lessons as in a school room. Note any passage jumping up and down with hands raised high, “Oo, oo, preach me, please preach me!” That might be one of the two. Does one of the others link up with that one even in an eclectic kind of connection? Those get to stand in front of the class for this week.

Sometimes, all the passages are being shy. With patience, one or two shyly begin to raise their hands to be called on. Usually, those are passages that will be a personal challenge to preach, but being preached they need to be.

After the passages are chosen, I usually choose a title which gives me a preliminary theme. Usually it is a turn or twist of a phrase or word from the passages themselves (or an odd pop culture reference that only a few will get). After that I make a worksheet with just those passages on paper with a lot of white space for notes and ideas.

Phase One: Soaking It In

For the first day, soak in the passages. Read and reread. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast. The focus in this phase is to Notice.

After choosing a title and initial idea, you need to set that aside. You also need to set aside your previous experience with the passage or the story. You want to hear the words in as fresh a way as possible. Be open to seeing new things.

Enter the story, imagine yourself as part of it. What would you expect to happen? How might you fill in the gaps of the story as you live it?

Look at the words and phrases. Underline, circle, highlight, write comments in the margin.

What is…

• interesting
• strange
• weird
• troubling
• … Wow!

At this point you have probably noticed tons of things and have many possible ways to go with the Word. Occasionally the passage remains wrapped in mystery. This is where that trust and prayer keeps you going.

Phase Two: Dig In

This phase is very much a lectio divina approach to preparation. You will not be digging into all the things you noticed. Look through the words and phrases that came out through your soaking phase. What “lights up” and “pops out” to you as you look at them. Your focus will be on what came out of the soaking phase, but be open to new treasure being unveiled as you seek the meaning of the words and passages.

This is where you can get out dictionaries (Bible and otherwise) and look at commentaries. This is the more mind-engaging part of the preparation, but the intuition is the guide.

Suspend for the time being your previous ideas of what this word means or the significance of that phrase. Even still you want to approach the passage with a fresh mind (don’t worry, the Spirit will guard your orthodoxy), because some of our old thoughts and ideas may not be God’s thoughts and ideas (remember humility and grace).

The operative word? “Hmmm….”

What does this word mean in this place? Why this phrase? What is the back story for the passage. What is the context? Why did the author put this here?

Phase Three: Let it Rise

This is where we allow the message to be preached to rise from the dough (or the dead depending on how the ministry week went).

Not everything you noticed or dug into can and should be preached … this week.

Wait and Receive.

This is the hardest part of the process for me to see and describe. Just like we can’t really understand how the lump of dough rises into a loaf of bread, I don’t really understand how the Holy Spirit can take all those ideas from the week’s work and preparation and make a Word for the people. But it happens on a regular basis. (Remember that prayer and trust thing?)

Out of the words and phrases and meanings and little stories what rises to the surface for loving attention this week. Look for that one idea that comes as God’s word for this week.

How does this passage live and work?

…in my life first! This is important. If you are not willing to let the word speak to you first it is harder to bring the word to others with authenticity and integrity. Sometimes the real personal work with a passage comes the week after I preach it. But that openness to hear the word is an important attitude.

Then, what images and connections can help connect this passage to the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday lives of the listeners to the Word?

This can’t be forced (successfully). This is the hard part, letting the message unfold as we listen to the Spirit. Wait and be surprised.

Hope this helps. Because it is based on intuition it leaves a lot of space for God to fill in the gaps. Yet, as we enter the process it helps to know and believe that God DOES want to speak through us words of challenge and comfort to God’s people.

My prayers are with you.

I confess, I love summer vacation. Not so much that I get a lot of time off (though we do get away a little) but that the season breathes freedom to play. Also the heat of the day leads me to much needed slowing down time. When it is almost 100 degrees (as it is when I write these words) you can’t do anything fast. You can’t push your life. Let these words about the desert mystics be a guide for us.

In the desert the most urgent thing is—to wait. The desert does not take kindly to those who tackle it at breakneck speed, subjecting it to their plans and deadlines. It soon takes its revenge and makes them pay dearly for their presumption. Instead, the desert welcomes those who shed their sandals of speed and walk slowly in their bare feet, letting them be caressed and burnt by the sand. If you have no ambition to conquer the desert, if you do not think you are in charge, if you can calmly wait for things to be done, then the desert will not consider you an intruder and will reveal its secrets to you. – By Alessandro Pronzato

We all need that time to slow down, sit a spell, and drink lots of water. God didn’t make us to be driven 24 hours a day as machines. God from the very beginning instilled in us and the universe the rhythms of day and night, work and rest, with a healthy dose of worship and sabbath. So this summer, take advantage of the invitation to slow down and be re-created.

However, don’t take a vacation from God.

We easily do that when we forget gratitude. Don’t just turn off your heart as you sit on the beach, look around and give thanks for the sun and sand and cooling water. Don’t close your spirit when you work and serve other people, offer your ideas and talents to others as gifts of God to you and through you. Don’t be selfish with your time, be sure to share your time with people in need as well as others who gather in worship. God is the source of all things, not because we deserve them, but because of Divine Love. Find ways to express, witness, and share your gratitude in the space this summer gives you.

I come to the last of 4 posts as an introduction to my thinking of the Enneagram through the images of the 4 elemental images of the Ancient Western World. Please heed the note at the bottom. I really do want feedback.

Element 4: Fire. This element offers a couple benefits: light and energy or heat, so the images will be broader than the last 2. You will also note, that while I begin with the more positive sides of the images, the impact of either too much or too little of the element are notes when we move Out of Essence (my phrase for living a perceived disconnection from the Divine Essence)

• Ones: Refiner’s Fire and pure light. Out of Essence the One is either blinded or is blinding to those around them. And woe to you if you are the slag in the refiner’s fire.
• Twos: Both images relate to the hospitality nature of the Two. First we have the baking oven, especially after a loaf of bread of tray of cookies is taken from it. The other is the light in the window offering a place in the darkness. Of course the Out of Essence images offer the cold shoulder of inhospitality.
• Threes: The kiln/forge and the projector. On the one hand we have the poles of industry and inactivity. On the other hand we have the power of illusion and image.
• Fours: I see the bonfire and the firework. Fire and light at its most dramatic. Too much? we have the burn zone of the wildfire.
• Fives: The search light and the incubator. These fire images provide the place to hold and then hatch wisdom and life as well as the one searching in the darkness for truth.
• Sixes: I see the hearth and campfire. They provide light and heat as a circle of security for the gathering of companions, yet the shadows lurk just beyond the reach of that circle.
• Sevens: At first I had the firework here, but instead I have the living flow the gas fueled flame, and the full spectrum of the rainbow. Rainbows are great, but it is hard to find definition with them. And the gas line can become over filtered and the flame is lost
• Eights: I kept returning to the living rock of magma and of our Sun. Lots of heat and needed at the core, but beware the eruption of the volcano. And while we need the light of the Sun to reveal life, it is not meant to be gazed upon or to come too close to.
• Nines: Without the fire of the Nine we have the darkness of sleep and the void before creation. I see the glowing light of the Golden Hour just before sunrise and just after sunset. I also see the simple and peaceful light of the candle flame.

I hope soon to take these ideas and approach them from each Enneatype as a way to provide a fuller picture of each type.

Note: I Welcome your help! These are ideas and possibilities for images in understanding and exploring the Enneagram. These are all Tentative, and might/will need further development. You can help by commenting on what you think works and what you think will work better. Thank you, David

Continuing with Part 3 of a 4 part introduction unfolding my thoughts on how the different Enneagram types might be connected with the 4 elements of the Ancient Western World. I do need to repeat that these are preliminary ideas with minimal explanation. I want to expand on these in the near future.

Element 3: Earth. Included are images related to gardens and growing. I think this would be a place to consider the 5th element of the East, Metal. (future possibilities).

• Ones: I can see here the path itself and a highway. The way to follow for righteousness. When the path is lost it is easy for a One to find themselves wandering aimlessly.
• Twos: The image that comes to my mind is the refuge. It can be a cave or just a sheltered place to be welcomed. Too much of this type can turn the refuge into the bondage of the dungeon.
• Threes: Building blocks and even steps. This is not only the idea of upward mobility and progress, but it is related to industry. However, when this type is Out of Essence, those blocks can become stumbling blocks and obstacles.
• Fours: I went to the creative side with this type: the potter’s clay and the sculptor’s marble. Great potential for expression of the Creative Essence. When this type fractures, we find piles of shards and rubble.
• Fives: As an Eight who has spent plenty of time in my Five stress point, I see this type as the deepness where roots can find foundation and nutrients. Wisdom is a deep earth image. The alternatives for the disconnected Five is either shallow hiding or so deep that one is disconnected from the seed and stem.
• Sixes: Here I see bedrock and foundation images. It can be a very strong place to base one’s life. However with fear, the images either crack apart along a fault-line or one’s life becomes anchorless and is blown around by the storms.
• Sevens: Here I see the fertile soil of a garden. Loose, fresh, and full of nutrition to grow a variety of food and beauty. However, when the seven is Out of Essence (disconnected from one’s inner process of the Divine) life becomes sterile.
• Eights: I image the spaciousness of the mountain and valley. Both images bring with them the idea of breadth and potential. However, they also become potential sites for avalanches.
• Nines: The basic soil and ground of being. Nines have an expansiveness to them, but also a commonness that doesn’t get in your face like the Eight. There is a dynamic to the basic ground, but left empty, we find life is stuck in stasis, ungrounded, and unplanted.

Next: Fire.

Note: I Welcome your help! These are ideas and possibilities for images in understanding and exploring the Enneagram. These are all Tentative, and might/will need further development. You can help by commenting on what you think works and what you think will work better. Thank you, David

Continuing the unfolding of images using the 4 Elements of the Ancient Western World and the Enneagram. Again, here are some initial ideas with minimal explanation. I want to expand on these in the near future

We continue with Water.

• Ones: I see pure and filtered water, well suited for cleansing purposes. When a One is Out of Essence, they either become very sensitive to pollution or they end up polluting with judgment.
• Twos: A couple images come to mind. One is the image of a lake. It is not too big to be overwhelming. A home for fish and a refuge for other wildlife. The other image is that of a Cup of Cold Water. It brings refreshment to others. When a lake becomes ingrown (like the self-focused Two) it becomes stagnant and is not healthy for life.
• Threes: One set of water images is that of a river or a canal. It is moving and ever changing. It makes canyons and can polish rocks. A related image is that of a dam or a levee as constructions that help to harness and direct the water. However, too much and the flow is blocked with excess control.
• Fours: I see a spring, an artesian well, or Jesus’ image of a well of living water. This links to the Holy Origin nature of the Four. The creative seeks to connect deep down with the source of creative life. Without this spring, we have wilderness, absence and longing.
• Fives: This one actually comes from Helen Palmer (and I lost the scrap of paper I wrote this on). The Five would be the undertow current in the sea. I would broaden that out to the deep ocean currents of which the undertow becomes a dangerous excess to those caught in its trap.
• Sixes: Rain. We need rain for life, just like we need faith, however too much of the fear/rain leads to dangerous storms and floods. Too little courage leads to drought.
• Sevens: The waterfall and the fountain. This is related to the spring of living water, but in a bubbly, effervescent way. You can’t help but be enlightened in the presence of a spraying fountain or a waterfall. However, too much can lead to an excess of chaos and life spins quickly out of control.
• Eights: If the Five is the undertow, the Eight is the Ocean Wave (again from Helen Palmer). I would expand this to the movement of the tides, powerful and broad movements in life. Too much? Tsunami.
• Nines: Here I imagined the mountain stream of the bubbling brook. Nothing over the top, but in the presence of the stream, I think peace and harmony. A brook without water is a dry creek bed. Nothing going on, but still holding potential. Waiting for the rain (the Six) and dreaming of being the river (the Three)

Next: Earth

Note: I Welcome your help! These are ideas and possibilities for images in understanding and exploring the Enneagram. These are all Tentative, and might/will need further development. You can help by commenting on what you think works and what you think will work better. Thank you, David

What might the Enneagram look like using the 4 elements of the Ancient Western World: Air, earth, water, and fire (Eastern world has 5 and adds Metal). For the last month or so, I have been playing with ideas. Here are some initial ideas with minimal explanation. I want to expand on these in the near future.

We begin with Air. In thinking of this set of images, I consider winds, and space and sounds and music.

• Ones: The north wind. The clarifying and cold air of winter. The clean lines from Scandinavia. Frozen anger. Music: the melody line. That line of notes that defines and divides the composition as it moves from beginning to end.
• Twos: The West Wind. A soft, gentle, warm breeze that moves from spring into summer. Music: harmonizing voices. voices joining the melody to bring richness and fullness to the music. When the Two is out of essence, disharmony and clashing chords result.
• Threes: Wind-filled sails. The prevailing winds that move and energize commerce and explorations of life. However, the winds can blow in any direction, so need a rudder. Also, the winds can leave us dead in the water. Music: the String section. To many, these are the orchestra leaders.
• Fours: Horizon-gazing. The gazing and longing is important, seeking something yet to be. Without the landmarks of the horizon it is easy to become disoriented and lost. Music: the mournful and longing sound of the Saxophone.
• Fives: The openness and distance of Deep Space. I image a vacuum waiting to be filled. The Five can exert a lot of energy trying to fill that space. Music: The Bass line. The deep bass line can provide the foundation that is needed. This can be either the melodic bass for the boom of the bass drum beat.
• Sixes: The south wind. These are the height of summer into fall storms. Great warmth and comfort, but also great storms that come out of nowhere. Music: Drums and percussion (aside from the bass drum above). In many cultures the drums can be either a call to gather, or a sound of warning.
• Sevens: The East Wind. This wind is mischievous and ever changing. It blows fresh. Without it the air can easily become stagnant and stale. Music: The flutes. These instruments lighten up the composition with bright, high tones.
• Eights: I see the Jet stream and other strong air currents. There is power there that is often hard to reach. They can move storm systems away, they can also bring them in. Music: trumpets and horns. I imagine fanfares that announce and proclaim. Yet, they also can blast away at life (in your face).
• Nines: Wide open sky and oxygen. The backdrop of life. I imagine lying on one’s back just looking up at the expanse of sky simply breathing. Music: the basic vibration of sound especially as they all work together to provide the harmonics that might even go beyond hearing. The purring of a cat, barely heard yet still felt.

Next: Water

Note: I Welcome your help! These are ideas and possibilities for images in understanding and exploring the Enneagram. These are all Tentative, and might/will need further development. You can help by commenting on what you think works and what you think will work better. Thank you, David