Notice how a theological principle takes shape when applied to the grid of people who make up a congregation listening to a Sunday morning sermon. Suppose the sermon is from Genesis 13. We've already expressed the theological idea as, God's people preserve God's blessing when they face conflict by taking the initiative to resolve it. Where would this principle crop up in different people's lives? How might they apply it in their particular situation?

A single mom with two children might be embroiled in a dispute over when the children's father may visit them. He's clamoring for more time on weekends. That's the only time she can spend with her children since she works Monday through Friday. Who's going to give? To honor God, she might take the initiative by calling her children's father and offering him Saturdays from 1:00-8:00 P.M.

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The young father who works a teaching job during the day and a sawmill job at night may be at odds with a couple who disagree with how he is handling their son, Andrew. The parents think Andrew might suffer from attention deficit disorder. The young teacher thinks Andrew's problem is his insistence on getting his own way. Andrew's parents want the teacher to meet with them and their family physician; they want the teacher to lighten up on their son. The teacher wants Andrew's parents to butt out and let him handle his classroom as he sees fit. He is willing to discuss the issue, but he wants to wait until the parent-teacher conferences scheduled six weeks down the road. To honor God, the young teacher might write a note to the parents explaining his busy schedule but also indicating his willingness to find an hour some afternoon when he can visit with them and Andrew's physician.

A seventy-year-old couple is at odds with their unmarried son, Rick, for leaving the family accounting firm and taking a job with D. A. Davidson and Company selling investment securities. Rick is annoyed at his parents' unwillingness to let him run his life as he sees fit. The parents think that Rick has left them in the lurch. The parents have made some snide remarks, and Rick unleashed a torrent of angry words. Both sides have cooled off, but a tension remains. Although they live only twenty minutes apart, they rarely speak, let alone see each other. To honor God, the parents decide to take the initiative to resolve the conflict. Although Rick's angry words still sting, they decide to invite him over to eat grilled burgers and watch a World Series game.

Thinking about those in your congregation who are different from you in sex, race, generation, socioeconomic status, marital status, and career will help you identify realistic ways of bringing the truth to bear on people's lives.

Excerpted from The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative by Steven D. Mathewson. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. Copyright 2002. Used with permission.

1 Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air (New York: Villard, 1997), 181.