Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 3-120 (Leadership Issues)

AHA! EXCURSIONS –

WHAT’S BEHIND PREACHING & TEACHING PREPARATION?

by Paul Grant

It’s not all done at the desk, is it? I know I’ve got a text and theme for preaching. Didn’t the Holy Spirit embed it into my brain and spirit like a copy electronically burned on to a disk? Yes! So where do I go from here? How do I make use of the ‘software’ God has given me in ‘heart and soul and strength’ to process these mini-revelations? How can I get better conditioned for preaching?

Can I propose the significance of epiphanies along the way? An epiphany is God showing up. He presents a self-disclosure. He has. He does. He will. At any time. Anywhere. He is the God who shows up along our ways. He shows up when I get a textual flash – a powerful seizure when I am ‘hit’ by a cerebral and intuitive grasp of truth. I know. I just know that I have to preach it or teach it. Can I suggest that a primary epiphany of this kind can be and must be followed by a succession of Aha! epiphanies that become part of my sermon or lecture presentation?

In World War 2 Navy days as radar operators, we had to be vigilantly alert to the tiniest ‘blip’ on those primitive screens. We developed skills that helped us translate a blip into an object. I submit that sermon preparation can be a series or string or sequence of surprising encounters with God in the everyday experiences of human life. It is an excursion into daily or even hourly doses of epiphanies. God ‘shows up’ on the screen of our spiritual understanding to move us forward along the track of preparation.

For example: I’ve received a primary ‘downloading’ or revelation or quickening by the Spirit. Aha! I have it! The theme and text for my sermon. I’ve been in my study, praying. Then … an hour or two later I’m out driving my car. I’m meditating on the theme (and watching the road!). Unexpectedly (?) I’m reminded of an incident in the past that fits the text. Or something else I’ve read. Or a current event. I have come into another ‘Aha!’ experience. I’m inspired. The electronics of God’s Spirit have activated the ‘wiring’ God has given me for preaching.

Before ever preaching a text the hours of my everyday life away from the desk can be star-studded with epiphanies or flashes of insights initiated by God. Sermon preparation becomes earthed in human habitation. Experience becomes a radiance. God earths heaven’s voltage. Epiphanies become God’s ‘epi-mail’ system.

What kinds of experiences can lead to epiphanies?

May I suggest the situations in which we can discover the revealings of God in the themes we are inspired to preach? When I am: news-watching; people-watching; supermarket and shopping mall activity; gardening; exercising; reading; listening to discussions; bird watching; bush walking; resting and napping, etc. Epiphanies inhabit these experiences and others. They bring further disclosures on the themes we are moved to preach. Epiphanies can be serendipities and pleasantries.

When do epiphanies occur?

* Unexpectedly and predictably (Joseph, Gen 49f) * Curiously and strangely (Peter, Acts 10) * Formally and informally (Nathanael, John 1) * In adversity and ecstasy (John, Rev. 1) * When struggling and alone (Jacob, Gen 28 and 32) * When restricted and opposed (Paul, Eph. 1-2) * In commonplace routine (Disciples, Matt. 4) * While seeking God’s way (Paul, Acts 16:6-10)

So . I have tried to follow the dictum: Expect God to turn up with surprising light and revelation at any time, in any place, under any circumstances. He will have a coded message for you. He will give you eyes to see and ears to hear. Epiphanies give added value to your preaching.

How can I capture and make use of epiphanies?

Firstly, by ‘logging on’ to God’s presence in all situations. By being alert, receptive, expectant. By perception (senses) and discernment (Spirit given). By seeing the invisible. By asking – what does God mean by this experience? Remember the woman of Sychar? (John 4). Jesus was quite evidently led by the Spirit. (Yes, He also delighted in what the Father intended. He relished His epiphanies).

In sermon preparation we should ‘note-storm’ our note pads, paper and electronic. We can seek to put truth into new forms; become imaginative; allow cerebral and intuitive thought to merge; access the unlimited resources of Holy Spirit ‘software.’

To change the metaphor, away-from-the-desk sermon preparation pushes me into becoming a laboratory in which I allow the Holy Spirit to conduct His operations. The littleness of my mind and whole consciousness becomes a ‘hard disk’ for the downloading of gigabytes of divine insights.

Jesus’ incarnation becomes the paradigm for preaching preparation. We are to become what we are going to preach. That ‘becoming’ is achieved in the ordinary and commonplace settings of everyday life. John, in prison, was ‘in the Spirit’ (Rev.1). Ezekiel ‘saw visions of God’ when he was ‘among the exiles’ (Ezek. 1).

Have happy theophany experiences this week! Log on to God’s ‘epi- mail’.

Theophanies lead to new discoveries and inspiring homilies.

When did you have your last Aha! experience?

Many happy returns of the ‘Aha!’ experience!

Mini revelations lead to anointed presentations.

– Paul Grant <>