Thursday-Application: Conclusion
You have reached an important moment in the preparation of your lesson or sermon. If you have completed the five tasks described in the previous articles, you will not only have concluded the careful interpretation of the passage for your listeners, but you will also have finished everything that has to do with the purely academic aspects of your preparation. What remains now is to structure and write up all that you have discovered and concluded. Yes, there is important work ahead, but it is of a different nature. It can also be difficult work at times, but if we have done the exegetical and hermeneutical parts well – and especially if we have intentionally gathered the fruit of that work as we have gone along – the homiletical part will be much more manageable.
At this point you have fulfilled the main objective of Thursday and achieved its goal.
- Objective: To understand the validity of the original message for today, and to specify the main idea.
- Goal (Mile-Marker 4): To have written an interpretation and application for each main point of the exegetical outline (with possible illustrations), along with a memorable expression of the «definitive» homiletical idea that you will use in the sermon.
Depending on the time you have available, you can also incorporate some other activities to help listeners better understand the relevance of the passage to their personal situation. Here are some ideas.
Additional Ideas
- Incorporate a theological «expansion» in the sermon. Sometimes a passage touches on a theme of great theological importance without going into detail. It may be useful to your listeners for you to take a «pause» in the exposition of the passage itself in order to delve briefly into that theological issue. Obviously, this is not something that you should always do, but if having a clearer idea of a theological issue of transcendence can be helpful in understanding what the passage itself is about, this kind of «expansion» could be helpful. Even many commentaries do this as they progress in their reflection. In fact, if your best commentaries include a special feature of this type, it may be a good indication that this is an issue that may require additional clarification for many of your listeners.
- Add a «mini-exposition» on a relevant cultural aspect. Similarly, there may be allusions to socio-cultural realities in the text that require further explanation in order to place them appropriately as a backdrop for the passage you are expounding on. If you encounter such an issue, it may also be helpful to explain it in some detail to the congregation.
- Help the listener discover the application meaning on his or her own. It is not always necessary for the preacher to offer «ready-made» conclusions. From time to time it may be helpful to develop a point in such a way as to encourage the listener to come to his own conclusions. By this I do not mean that he arrives at his own ideas detached from the truth and the biblical text. Rather, the speaker should help the listener to reach the biblical conclusion using his own reasoning. It is a matter of helping him or her in some way to walk the same path that the teacher or preacher has walked in his preparation to arrive at the contemporary meaning of the passage. This would kill two birds with one stone. You would help your hearers understand the application of the passage, and at the same time you would help them interpret it better on his own.