Escaping the Manuscript
Reflections on Preaching
During my last semester of seminary I sat in on a class on Augustine of Hippo (you know, for funsies!). In one of the sessions we talked about Augustine’s preaching. We looked at how Augustine understood the task of preaching, what he discussed in many of the sermons, and—to the shock and horror of us seminarians in the room—the fact that Augustine preached ex tempore. Ex tempore means extemporaneous or impromptu and the Latin translates to “from the time” or “out of the moment.” Meaning, Augustine had no manuscript when he preached. What we have now comes from notes scribes took during the sermon. I think I said something along the lines of “couldn’t be me.”
I have continued to study early Christian preaching during my PhD and learned that this ex tempore, out-of-the-moment style of preaching was normal. These pastors crafted their sermons by bringing together the thoughts in their heads, some notes they might have jotted down, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Couldn’t be me. Or maybe it could.
The longer I study and learn from these early Christian theologians, the more I admired the depth of their knowledge of Scripture. Each time I read sermons from the early church (which right now is a daily occurrence) I am challenged as a preacher to learn how to immerse myself in the Scriptures in this way. When the words are not just on the page and make their way into your mind, heart, and life, preaching in the moment does not seem so daunting of a task.
I was on the schedule to preach this last Sunday and decided to give it a shot (seminary Alyssa is having a conniption). You can listen to the sermon here (or on the church website):
As I stood in the pulpit I felt a sense of freedom and confidence in my preaching I had not before. I did not deviate from the plan or structure I had written in the notebook I took up there with me, but I did not feel constrained. In fact, as I was preparing to talk about the end of Jonah, I had the thought that there were likely people in the audience who did not know who Jonah was or what on earth I was saying. On the spot I gave a quick summary of the events leading up to the final verses of this book and did not even bat an eye or disrupt the flow. If you are reading this and were there, I bet you didn’t even notice.
Escaping the manuscript did not make the task of preaching easier nor did it mean I did less work. The “spade work” of reading the texts and listening for what you and your congregation need to hear that week does not go away when you do not write a manuscript. In my case, I felt the need to sit with the texts longer, to think more, to pray more about what needed to be said on Sunday. It was a different experience than when I write out manuscripts for my sermons. It wasn’t terrifying like I had assumed it would be. In fact, I enjoyed it.
I do not think I will ever abandon writing manuscripts for my sermons. It is nice to have them as a reference for when I preach the same texts again or to share with others in need of inspiration or motivation for their own sermons. However, I think I’ll keep trying out this style of preaching out-of-the-moment. It challenges me to practice trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit and motivates me to spend more time immersed in Scripture. It’s a good and difficult spiritual discipline.
Bonus: Augustine’s Sermon 352 begins by him saying he had not planned to preach on the passage of Scripture that had been read. There was a mix up somewhere, either in his preparation or in coordinating with that week’s lector. Augustine said that it must be a command from God to talk about that topic instead, so he does. This sermon is an excellent example of how deeply Augustine was immersed in the words of Scripture. He crafts an entire sermon in the moment and it seems he did so without an issue because he knew what the text said and was attuned to hear what God wanted to say to the church through Scripture that day. You can read it here (it starts on page 137).