Long's and Clements' strategies
offer off-setting strengths and weaknesses. Long's homiletic adequately explores
and forcefully impresses the proverb's image into the mind of the audience but
leaves the hearer to discern for himself how to apply the proverb. Clements'
approach offers a clearer, more direct explanation of the proverb but loses
part of the image's impact in the explanation.10
I believe all of the preceding
strategies can be employed to communicate the proverbs effectively. A preacher
might use first one in this message and another in that, or he might combine
two or more strategies in any given sermon. Regardless of the route he travels,
he will face the constant tension of trying to preserve the impact of the proverb's
image and open-ended invitation for self-interpretation on the one hand and
offering explicit application on the other.
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Preaching
from Ecclesiastes
1. When preaching from
one of Solomon's many assessments of life that fill this book, account for both
the positive and the negative sides of the assessment in your message. To present
one side only will lead either to abject pessimism or blind optimism. For example,
you find a negative assessment of work in 2:18-23, followed by a positive assessment
in 2:24-26. Preach only the negative, and you promote laziness. Preach only
the positive, and you promote workaholism.
2. Preach Ecclesiastes
as a way of showing your people that faith need not blind us to life's inequities,
nor do life's inequities need to destroy our faith. We can acknowledge the bad
in life while still thanking God for and enjoying the good.
3. Assign a philosophical
title (e.g., materialism, hedonism, fatalism) to those avenues of life "under
the sun" down which Solomon walked looking for meaning. Compare what he said
about the outcomes of those philosophies to what both their proponents and opponents
have stated elsewhere. Bring in contemporary quotes and illustrations from television
and movies where your people have unwittingly encountered these philosophies.
4. Use Solomon's denunciation
of certain vain philosophies (i.e., "worldly wisdom") as a springboard into
discussing other philosophies he failed to mention but stand at odds with the
Scriptures (e.g., pluralism, modernism, postmodernism).
Preaching
from James
James speaks to many of
the same themes found in the Old Testament wisdom texts but does so in the light
of Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. His letter presents a sketch of
faith with its workclothes on. Without such garb, faith stands naked before
a gawking world. To James' eyes a naked faith is pornographic. While the same
exegetical and homiletical tools one uses on Paul's epistles can be used on
this epistle, the preacher needs to exercise special caution because of the
letter's emphasis on works and use of Old Testament imagery.