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| New For Me! | | Date Created: Aug 09, 2004, 10:41 PM |
| Yesterday I did something that I had never done before. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. It also appears to have been received better than I thought it might. What did I do? I preached without any notes. Nothing. Not even an outline. Needless to say, I was extremely anxious about it. I have always gone into the pulpit with a full set of notes, more often than not with a full manuscript. Of course, I've never stood up and simply read from the manuscript and I'm not normally bound to it. But I sure do feel more comfortable with it than without it. But yesterday I had nothing, just the text (Matt. 26:13-20). Interestingly, there were some people that noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps that's good. It means that my notes don't normally get in the way of "direct" speech. Why did I do this? For a number of reasons: 1) I've always wanted to do it, but until now haven't felt "ready." And just to be clear, I'm not planning that this will be my new m.o. for preaching. 2) Yesterday I also taught a class on the life Origen of Alexandria. Among the many fascinating things about Origen was his preaching style. He avoided Greek rhetoric altogether when he preached. Rather, he cultivated a simple style and structure in his sermons, talking through a passage verse by verse. This is pretty standard for early church pastors. Pastors in the ancient church did not take notes with them into the pulpit. For one thing, there was no cheap source of "paper." One didn't scribble things down and throw away the parchment afterwards. One learned to speak extemporary. One example from the life of Origen is startling. After the readings were finished in the Sunday service, Origen rose to preach. He looked over at his bishop (Origen was a presbyter) to find out which text he should expound. He says to the Bishop that four passages have been read and he cannot comment on them all. The bishop decides for him: he wants Origen to comment on 1 Samuel 28. Origen then immediately begins to expound the passage about Paul and the witch of Endor. (see Henri Crouzel, Origen, p. 30). |
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