00:00:16.160 - 00:00:27.520

Good morning. Thank you so much for being here. We are so excited to have our first workshop for the Faithful Preaching Project.

00:00:28.000 - 00:00:43.440

Today's speaker is the doctor, Jacqueline Williams, who comes to us from Fuller Seminary. But she teaches at their satellite campus in Houston, so she's just basically a stone's throw away.

00:00:43.440 - 00:00:55.600

She didn't have to come too far, and we're so glad that she did. This is such a treat. We're going to really have a great, great workshop today. Just by way of a few announcements.

00:00:56.160 - 00:01:13.700

If you're looking for a restroom, we are. We have some restrooms here on this floor out that door to the left. It's a unisex bathroom where you enter and every stall has its own door. So don't don't be worried if there are lots of folks in there who are different

00:01:13.700 - 00:01:31.570

than the restroom, maybe then you're used to. And also if you need water, things like that, there's a water fountain here in that area as well as on the 1st floor. There's a a coffee maker also on the 1st floor if you need some some more

00:01:31.570 - 00:01:46.630

beverages. Around 12 will break for lunch and our food will be over in Stotts, which is our dining hall. Jason's Deli will be offering us some boxed lunches and if you asked for a

00:01:46.630 - 00:02:07.200

particular dietary needs, vegetarian or gluten free, those will be available marked on the table as well. A little bit about some information about the faithful Preaching Project. This is a program that's funded through the Lily Endowment.

00:02:07.440 - 00:02:28.780

They offered a compelling preaching initiative and invited people to write grants for this initiative. The Faithful Preaching Project is what was awarded to Austin Seminary, in which we're trying to help preachers and their listeners create more faithful

00:02:28.780 - 00:02:49.460

preaching experiences in which people are hearing sermons and are growing in faith. We're doing this by offering clergy cohorts and lay preacher cohorts, as well as workshops once a semester. So this is the first of eight workshops that we'll be offering over the next four

00:02:49.460 - 00:03:02.000

years. So we hope you'll stay posted and look for next upcoming workshops. We actually have our next workshop advertised on the back of your program in April.

00:03:02.000 - 00:03:23.400

We'll be welcoming the Reverend Doctor Lisa Cressman and you can find out more about that workshop on the back of your program. We also want to continue to remind you that there's lots of opportunities here at Austin Seminary throughout the year through our Lifelong Learning program.

00:03:23.600 - 00:03:38.600

So if you check out online the offerings that are there, you'll find other workshops and online kinds of experiences that you can participate in at the seminary. We also offer our Midwinter lectures, which are free of charge for folks to

00:03:38.600 - 00:03:54.250

come in and in this room or in the Chapel here, a bunch of great speakers and I'm blanking on the speaker for this upcoming January, but I know they're going to be great. So make sure you mark your calendars for the end of January when we have our

00:03:54.250 - 00:04:09.310

Midwinter lectures. A little bit more about the faithful Preaching project. When we started almost a year ago in January at Midwinter Lectures, we conducted a number of interviews of the attendees there, asking them,

00:04:09.310 - 00:04:22.880

tell us about a sermon that has helped you to grow in faith. Well, what kinds of preaching help you feel inspired to grow in your faith? And they gave us a number of different adjectives and descriptions.

00:04:23.120 - 00:04:36.180

And we collated all of that data. And we came up with a series of of descriptions for what makes for faithful preaching. And one of those descriptors was embodied preaching,

00:04:36.180 - 00:04:52.840

in which people felt like the actual sermon was embodied by the preacher. So you can see how we came across the work of Doctor Jacqueline Williams and thought this is a perfect fit. So we're so, so excited for her to join us today.

00:04:54.200 - 00:05:10.840

Doctor Jacqueline Williams comes to us from Fuller Seminary, as I mentioned, and getting to know her has been such a treat. One of the things that she has done in her past life before coming to teach was work as a chaplain, and she shared that her experience as a

00:05:10.840 - 00:05:25.880

chaplain also reminded her of the importance of embodied preaching. So you've read a little bit about her as having had some experience in acting, but I think her experience as a chaplain is also an interesting part about this work.

00:05:26.280 - 00:05:43.470

She says that when she would be visiting patients in the hospital, she would meet people who had received a sermon on Sunday. And now we're in the midst of an embodied crisis. And she thought, how has this sermon that they've heard

00:05:43.470 - 00:05:57.600

spoken to this embodied crisis? And so meeting with patients in the hospital has reminded her of the importance of embodied preaching, preaching that speaks to the embodied experiences of the listeners.

00:05:58.320 - 00:06:17.720

So I want to invite you to join me in welcoming our workshop leader today, Doctor Jacqueline Williams. Thank you, thank you, thank you Carolyn and everybody who's here.

00:06:17.960 - 00:06:30.370

Y'all, you did what most of you and yes, I said y'all, I'm from Texas. So what most people do is you sort of spread out. We're going to be getting together in groups. You can stay in the seat that you're in right now,

00:06:30.370 - 00:06:45.760

but we're going to breakthrough those cones of solitude and some of our work today. But it is so exciting and such a joy for me to be here today. I, I embody preaching is not something that

00:06:45.760 - 00:07:00.880

just came to my mind on one day. I just woke up and embody preaching was there. It really was a very selfish process of me trying to integrate all the things that I had done in my life once I had been called to ordain ministry.

00:07:01.240 - 00:07:14.760

So a little bit of my background. I was a performing artist really almost from the time that I was born. I started dancing when I was three years old and became really serious about it at a very young age.

00:07:15.200 - 00:07:30.000

And up until my senior in high school, I thought that's what I was going to do. I was a classically trained ballet dancer. I was in my senior year auditioning for companies and getting interest from companies to be a performing artist, which is that's the goal, right?

00:07:30.000 - 00:07:44.240

I've worked my whole life. But then I had this moment that I now in hindsight, realize was the Holy Spirit. At the time, I did not have that clarity, but I just felt really strongly like there's something else.

00:07:44.920 - 00:07:55.720

It's not this path of being a professional dancer, which was really scary. And so my fall back was going to college. I came with my parents and I said, I don't think I want to be a professional

00:07:55.720 - 00:08:01.480

dancer. I don't know what I want to do. And so they were like, OK, go to college. So I went to college.

00:08:01.480 - 00:08:16.580

I was a performance major. They're like, you know, I was a performance major, actually voice vocal training. And from that I started, I had to take an acting class and fell in

00:08:16.580 - 00:08:26.480

love with acting. And so then I was a theater actor. I finished my undergrad, I went and got my masters of Fine Arts and I was a professional actor.

00:08:26.480 - 00:08:35.480

I was rooted in Chicago because I love New York, but that city is way too expensive to live in. And I was performing at regional theaters all over the country. I was a working actor.

00:08:35.480 - 00:08:51.890

I was never going to be rich and famous because theater was my my venue, but I was a working actor and I thought, this is great. I decided as a Christian, I wanted to know more about my own faith background, so I said, oh, I'm going to take one class at this local

00:08:51.890 - 00:09:07.910

seminary on spiritual formation. That led me down a whole other path. So Fast forward to when I received this call to ordinary ministry and I started preaching and people were like, oh, it makes sense that you kind of took to

00:09:07.910 - 00:09:22.240

this because you're an aggregator. So they were making a connection to me being comfortable being in front of people and having an ease because of my acting background. So they were making a connection to the delivery of the sermons.

00:09:22.760 - 00:09:39.280

What I realized was it was my formation as a performing artist that helped me come into the pulpit in an embodied way. Yes, some of that manifestation was based on vocal training and being comfortable in my body in a different kind of way.

00:09:39.280 - 00:10:04.330

But really it was about how I had been formed as an artist to believe that we are not just cognitive beings, that we are holistic beings. So then when I was led to pursue my PHDI really wanted to study, well, what is out there to help preachers really understand and come to the pulpit

00:10:04.330 - 00:10:22.000

from a process of being prepared in an embodied way. And I realized there wasn't a whole lot out there. There were some great books that talked about sort of theory or theology of it, but the actual, the enactment of it, there was a chasm.

00:10:22.440 - 00:10:40.240

So I said, well, what if we took some of this performing arts training that I have and we taught preaching as an art form. And part of teaching as an art form is at least as a performing artist is you get in your body 1st and then you talk about theory.

00:10:40.880 - 00:10:53.640

You kind of trust the process that your body, your embodied experience, has some revelation to share with you before you get to the place of like, oh, my brain understands theory. So we're going to do a little bit of that today.

00:10:53.640 - 00:11:06.750

I promise. The goal is not to make you feel uncomfortable, but you might feel uncomfortable at times. But that's because many of us are in spaces and places on a daily basis where

00:11:06.750 - 00:11:23.990

we are disconnected from our embodied experience. So then when we are trying to integrate, we're like, wait, this doesn't feel familiar. But that's how we were created by the hand of God to be integrated holistic

00:11:23.990 - 00:11:45.320

beings. And God has called each of you in whatever way, in this embodied vessel that, yes, we are jars of clay, but we are not empty. And emptying ourselves does not meaning divorcing ourselves from our embodied

00:11:45.320 - 00:11:57.640

experience. So we're going to dive into some theology and theory of what that might mean, but also some practices that I hope will help you engage in your sermon preparation time.

00:11:58.080 - 00:12:08.400

So a little bit of logistics. I had asked that you come and some comfortable closing ready to move again. I'm not we're not going to be doing cartwheels unless the Holy Spirit moves and you do cartwheels.

00:12:08.640 - 00:12:19.090

And I am a Baptist preacher. So I do believe in the movement of the Holy Spirit. So it's not my job to, you know, squash that. I also asked you to come prepared with a text,

00:12:19.090 - 00:12:32.160

sermon text that you either or that you're going to preach at some point upcoming or that you hope to preach at some point upcoming. And I have one for myself. And so that's the main text that we're going to be working with today.

00:12:32.280 - 00:12:46.450

So in some of our exercises, we'll be coming back to that. There are sections where we'll have question and answer. There is a process where there'll be AQR code. So you can put those questions in and we can kind of have a little bit of order as

00:12:46.450 - 00:12:57.600

we go through those questions. And when we, when I say questions, I also mean comments because sometimes this is after we do exercises and you're processing and and some people it really helps them to externally process.

00:12:57.600 - 00:13:20.040

So it doesn't always have to be a question, but even if it's a comment. But outside of that, my invitation is for you to be present to yourself, to the others in this room, and to the fact that God is present here as a preacher.

00:13:23.440 - 00:13:48.590

Sometimes it shocks me how much I can be so in my head that I forget reaching is about encountering God. And that's my confession point that sometimes I'm so much about the the cognitive parts of the process that I don't invite myself to just experience

00:13:48.590 - 00:14:09.440

the presence of God and trust that that presence is working a word in me to be offered. So as we dive in, I would like to read some words to us to remind us of this call.

00:14:10.120 - 00:14:25.210

Whether you are AI preach, I'm pastoring a church and I preach every Sunday or you're like, actually, I don't even preach that much, but there's something about this embodiment that I want to learn about. Wherever you are on that spectrum, these are words that God has spoken into

00:14:25.210 - 00:14:50.400

your life. Isaiah 61 starting with verse one. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord anointed me to bring good news to the humble.

00:14:52.280 - 00:15:13.830

He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim release to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who more to grant those who mourn in Zion,

00:15:13.830 - 00:15:43.720

giving them a Garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the cloak of praise instead of disheartened spirit. So they will be called oops of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

00:15:48.120 - 00:16:12.510

That is US, the word of the Lord for the people of creation. So it on your feet, please. I always say please, but it really is, I'm going to say command,

00:16:12.510 - 00:16:26.240

but an invitation as long as you're comfortable. If you have some sort of physical ailments or condition where at times we're on our feet and you're like, I really need to be seated on my seat in my seat.

00:16:26.240 - 00:16:38.480

That's, that's perfectly fine. But I'm going to ask you, and this is also for those of you who are on Zoom, do this in your home. I'll never know if you actually are doing it, but I'm asking you to engage it.

00:16:39.960 - 00:16:58.240

Stand on your feet, as you all are, and I want you to feel your feet on the floor. So even within your shoes, wiggle your toes and feel yourself rooted to the floor.

00:16:59.280 - 00:17:35.790

Now this doesn't mean that your knees are locked and you're like a statue, but you feel rooted in your hands or exercise comfortably and just start to feel how just that this pretty neutral position can feel however it feels to you. If you have aches in your body this morning or if you're wondering what am I

00:17:35.790 - 00:17:52.820

supposed to be doing with my hands, how long is she going to have us standing here? And I invite you to gently close your eyes. And if you're not comfortable closing your eyes,

00:17:52.820 - 00:18:21.440

just have a soft gaze down toward the ground. And the invitation is to breathe deeply. And the exhale. And take another deep breath and exhale.

00:18:25.160 - 00:19:18.970

Keep breathing and remember that each breath we take is connected to the first breath. Breathe into Adam, the breath of life, enlivening our very souls. Listen to the sound of communal breath and take note of what other sounds are in

00:19:18.970 - 00:20:04.280

this space, in this place. Take note of what you're hearing from your own being that is of God. Now open your eyes gently and I'm going to ask you to take a walk around this space, continuing to breathe.

00:20:05.680 - 00:20:23.680

When you pass someone, you might look them. In the eye, but you don't have to say anything and just walk and breathe. Go whatever pace feels natural.

00:20:59.400 - 00:21:59.670

And start to think about your text. You might not have it memorized, but just start to think about it. And find your way back to your seat. Keep breathing and take note of one thing that you experience that you can

00:21:59.670 - 00:22:18.320

encapsulating one word from this exercise that we just did. Try not to judge it. Whatever that word is, just let it rise up in your beam and hold on to it.

00:22:19.240 - 00:22:36.350

We will come back to it. You may be seated. Thank you, thank you. So we're not going to dive into too deeply question and answer right now,

00:22:36.350 - 00:23:01.360

but just by a show of hands, how many of you just in that exercise felt some level of comfort with it isn't too bad? How many of you felt some level of some kind of discomfort or angst about what was going on?

00:23:02.000 - 00:23:16.960

Thank you, Thank you. Some of you. How many of you were kind of in your head trying to anticipate what's the next thing she's going to ask us to do so I can be ready?

00:23:19.800 - 00:23:35.020

Good, good. So there is a history of of the body and the church. It's a complicated history. We all come from different traditions and backgrounds,

00:23:35.020 - 00:23:44.960

and that's part of who we are. Our culture has been imprinted upon our being. And you might not have ever really considered what does my, what is my theology of the body?

00:23:45.280 - 00:24:02.560

But you have one, whether you know it or not. And so sometimes in my work, when I start talking about the body, there's something that rises up within people that's like, but wait a minute, because Paul said flesh is bad, spirit is good.

00:24:03.800 - 00:24:19.120

So I don't need to spend time thinking about my body because flesh is bad, Spirit is good. Yet God gave us a body and whatever he's called us to do, this is the body that's getting us around physically to do that thing.

00:24:20.520 - 00:24:43.740

In my relationship with God, I found God is not a trickster, right? God's goal was not to set me up for failure. So if God gave us a body and to use this body in whatever capacity we can to do the things that we want to do and that we are called to do,

00:24:43.740 - 00:25:04.440

is it a binary that body is bad and spirit is good? Now Paul was influenced by his culture, his time, by lots of philosophy that that was not based on Jesus, that was just philosophical pursuit that said body bad, spirit good, right?

00:25:05.680 - 00:25:33.400

So he was also impacted by the culture of the times. So now here we are in 2024 and we have a, a deep need, I think, to continue the process of trying to integrate and trying to experience what Paul was saying as he was inspired by God in not a binary way, but an expansive way.

00:25:34.800 - 00:25:51.490

So when we talk about embodiments, these are some images that for me come up for for you, there might be other images, right? I think of this, OK, I'm embodied, which means I have, you know, a freedom. I feel the freedom to use my body in whatever way God is calling me to use it

00:25:51.490 - 00:26:03.000

and my capacity to do it. But also maybe as this picture on the bottom, I'm also sort of cognitively engaging and realizing that I embody many things, right?

00:26:03.000 - 00:26:18.680

There are many specs of my personhood that are kind of the filter right of my life, right I am. This tree may be rooted to things I know and things I don't know, and yet they're a part of my rooting.

00:26:18.680 - 00:26:32.920

So to be embodied means to recognize that there are things I know about myself and things that are still unknown about myself. Ask my spiritual director and my therapist, because that is definitely true.

00:26:34.120 - 00:26:49.440

Also, certain rituals and things that we bring into our space allow us to make meaning and find meaning, right? So when we talk about embodiment, we're talking about a lot of different things.

00:26:49.760 - 00:27:04.480

But I do want to set some parameters for for our time together today. So this is a straightforward definition. You might agree, disagree with aspects of it, but we're just kind of setting a foundation embodied.

00:27:04.480 - 00:27:23.480

When we talk about embodied, we're talking about a tangible or visible form of an idea, quality, or feeling. So not just a theoretical understanding of something, but what do I embody when I come into the space to preach?

00:27:23.640 - 00:27:44.200

What do I embody when I'm studying, doing my sermon preparation, am IA disconnected sort of brain head that runs to the commentaries and the word studies and all of those really good things that yes, you still need to do. But then it's like right before I get into the pulpit where I say, Oh yes,

00:27:44.200 - 00:28:03.130

also my body is a part of this, I guess. And then we step into the pulpit, right? And the representation or expression of something in a tangible or visible form. And we're going to talk later about what is that something that we are trying to

00:28:03.130 - 00:28:12.970

represent or express, right? So sometimes I work with my students and I say, what's the central focus of your sermon? And they have this big long paragraph of, like,

00:28:12.970 - 00:28:28.920

so many different dynamics and things that has formed in all of their study. And my question to them is, how could you possibly embody that? How can you possibly embody all of that that you're trying to pack into your central focus?

00:28:29.400 - 00:28:50.600

Can we make it simpler also because this is oral to oral communication, right when we are preaching, I am opening my mouth. The Holy Spirit comes along, delivers it to your ears, filters it through your experience and through what God is speaking to you.

00:28:51.280 - 00:29:06.120

That's not about a beautiful, long, beautifully crafted paragraph, right? That's about something else. So there's some defining principle, principles, unification and integration of mind, body, and spirit.

00:29:06.120 - 00:29:22.640

Each of these elements are sustained by mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual awareness and engagement. So how are we asking in our sermon? How are we inviting ourselves and others to experience the Word of God mentally,

00:29:22.640 - 00:29:48.340

emotionally, physically, and spiritually? Increase capacity and ability to be formed and informed holistically? Skill with embodied processing and proclaiming. Now, some of you might say, OK, I agree with all of these things,

00:29:48.340 - 00:30:03.480

but what are how am I building that skill set? How am I building that muscle? And that's what we're really going to do today. And the main part we are going to focus on today is engagement with the text.

00:30:04.440 - 00:30:24.560

And this is really something that I invite myself and students and other preachers that I work with to do before you dive into the commentaries and the words that you start this process and then you continue it all the way through. You're inviting yourself to say there is something that the embodied engagement is

00:30:24.560 - 00:30:39.320

going to invite into this process that my cognitive engagement does not have access to. Now, one of my filters is that's important for you to understand is I do believe that preaching is the word of God.

00:30:40.680 - 00:30:56.120

I don't believe that it's the word of Jacqueline. I don't believe it's the word of my denominational doctrine. I don't believe that it is those things all impacted. But I literally believe that God is speaking into creation and he is using

00:30:56.120 - 00:31:12.120

these frail, humble, confused and wonderful and beautiful and innovative human beings to do that work. I believe that God is seeking to encounter with us and with creation through the preached word.

00:31:13.000 - 00:31:24.530

And I say that and it might be like, well, yeah, Jack on. That's what we all believe. But again, this is a reminder for myself because sometimes I, I engage my sermon preparation and I

00:31:24.530 - 00:31:38.520

forget that aspect of it, right. So this is our these are parameters for what we mean. What I mean when I'm saying embodied, and so as we dive in, we're going to start with Jesus.

00:31:38.520 - 00:31:51.160

That's a good place to start, right? Because as I did my work, I said, well, who's our who's our for Christians, who is our model, our main model? It's Jesus.

00:31:51.440 - 00:32:01.320

Now did Jesus say, hey, for all of you who I'm going to call to preach, here's my method of embodied preaching. No, Jesus was just doing it. He was just doing the thing.

00:32:02.080 - 00:32:16.520

And it's up to us to look at that model and that example and please reveal to us, right? Please reveal to us Jesus. John, one, one through 5.

00:32:16.520 - 00:32:31.360

This is the voice. I love the voice translation because it was written in a way to be true to the biblical language, but also spoken and proclaimed before time itself was measured.

00:32:31.360 - 00:32:42.720

The voice was speaking. The voice was and is God. This celestial word remained ever present with the Creator. His speech shaped the entire cosmos.

00:32:42.720 - 00:33:08.920

Immersed in the practice of creating, all things that exist were birthed in Him. His breath filled all things with a living, breathing light. A light that thrives in the depths of darkness, blazes through murky bottoms. It cannot and will not be quenched.

00:33:10.000 - 00:33:32.800

So Jesus Incarnate Word was literally embodiment. Embodiment right? Now I'm going to say something that it's, it's very important that we understand or that you understand where I'm coming from when I say we preachers,

00:33:32.800 - 00:33:47.750

whether you preach one time or you preach 52 weeks a year, are preaching Incarnate Word. We are not Jesus. I am not the Incarnate Word, but the Word of God is being placed in

00:33:47.750 - 00:34:04.850

this vessel that is an in fleshed embodied experience. It is incarnational. So what can I learn? So if I'm an embodied person, how do I look at Jesus of Nazareth who

00:34:04.850 - 00:34:23.180

was and is embodied? But when he was human on earth, fully God, fully man, who was it? Well, he was Jewish, he was male, He was a son, He was a brother. Some of you might have a theology of like, what was he literally a biological

00:34:23.180 - 00:34:33.370

brother or was he cousin? But word says brother. So that's what we're doing or whatever our interpretation of that average. And by that I mean, like he did not come out and you know,

00:34:33.370 - 00:34:46.480

and speak, people were Speaking of him as like, oh, there's something special now. People close to him, his mother and father, certainly, right. But kind of an average, average guy, right?

00:34:46.720 - 00:35:03.790

What else would you add to that list of just things that if people just knew they just grew up in town in Nazareth with Jesus. Oh yeah, Jesus, that kid down, down the road, what would they have said about right as he stepped into his public ministry,

00:35:03.790 - 00:35:20.840

right? Who was Jesus of Nazareth like teacher, healer, preacher, prophet, and priest in God's plan of engagement with creation and salvation for creation? Who was he?

00:35:21.320 - 00:35:37.510

Who is he, Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah Incarnate, Word, vision, fulfillment. So how do these aspects of his personhood impact Jesus's embodied preaching? Well, in some ways, they're the filter that he is coming from,

00:35:37.510 - 00:35:54.040

and they're also the filter of how people are engaging him. So now the hard question for ourselves is, what are those things about us as preachers? So if someone says, who is Jacqueline of Houston, right.

00:35:55.320 - 00:36:02.800

Well, she's black. She's female. I am a native Houstonian, but I've lived lots of different places. I am a daughter.

00:36:03.920 - 00:36:15.880

I am a friend. I'm a, you know, fiance. I am things that you could just say, oh, yeah, this kind of describes my social location in some ways, right?

00:36:16.160 - 00:36:27.360

And we all have that in our lives that are part of our filter and part of how people are filtering us. And it's really, really important that we recognize those things.

00:36:27.360 - 00:36:39.840

We acknowledge them. And in some ways, sometimes we have to reconcile ourselves to them. So my personhood, being a black woman in America,

00:36:39.840 - 00:36:53.520

just showing up in some spaces, that's revolutionary, right? Like I am a revolution to people, not because I come in saying I want to be a revolutionary, but people just see me coming. And that's they have they are placing that on.

00:36:53.840 - 00:37:05.960

Now I don't pick that up. I don't say, OK, let me be whatever it is that you, but I need to recognize that that is part of the world that I'm living in. What does that mean for me as a preacher?

00:37:06.160 - 00:37:26.460

It's not that I'm filming myself to that, but I'm also not going to walk around and pretend that that's not a part of the picture that is impacting how I bring the word of God. Now, when it comes to this middle row, it's an interesting question because how

00:37:26.460 - 00:37:40.520

many of these things do we name ourselves and how many are the things that people name us, right? Jesus asked a lot like, well, who do they say I am? Who do you think I am?

00:37:40.520 - 00:37:54.790

Who isn't? You know, even though he came out the gate referencing Isaiah and pretty much saying this is who I am, he didn't just kind of set up an office and say Jesus teacher, healer, preacher,

00:37:54.790 - 00:38:03.960

prophet, priest, right? He engaged in the world and then people were saying, wait a minute, he's a teacher. He's exasperating like a teacher, like the rabbis we know.

00:38:03.960 - 00:38:11.680

Wait, he's a healer because he literally is healing people, right? He's a preacher because he's speaking the word of God, right? He's a prophet because he is saying prophetic.

00:38:11.680 - 00:38:26.040

He is speaking prophetically, right? He's a priest because he's helping us understand this integration of ritual and meaning making and engaging with God. Now, Son of God, Son of man, Messiah Incarnate Word vision film.

00:38:26.360 - 00:38:40.580

That is the road that most of us are probably like, well, that has nothing to do with me, right? Like I am not, but we are preaching Jesus and we are preaching those as those who are convicted and in relationship with Jesus,

00:38:40.580 - 00:38:53.240

right? So sometimes I think of Mary Magdalene as she came to the tomb looking for Jesus and mourning and she he wasn't there. And she saw who she thought was a gardener and said,

00:38:53.240 - 00:39:05.800

please tell me where he is, Where have you put him? And then he says her name, the power of Jesus saying your name. And she recognized it is you. And she had this encounter.

00:39:05.800 - 00:39:26.760

And then she ran back and proclaimed that he is risen, preaching a word I think of she is not Jesus. But in that encounter with Jesus, she consumed that word. She didn't just intellectually go, got it.

00:39:26.760 - 00:39:36.560

You've risen from the dead. You're really are the Messiah and the way that we all will believe in your Messiah, risen from the dead, you're going to return to the Father. Got it, got it, got it going, going to tell everybody about it.

00:39:36.560 - 00:39:50.520

This intellectual understanding, right? She consumed that encounter with Christ. It moved in her body, and when she went forth to preach it, that's what she was offering into the world.

00:39:50.760 - 00:40:06.680

So we look at the fact that Jesus was a person in his human time here on earth, and we are people. So all of these columns are at play, the identifier. So how do we reconcile them?

00:40:06.720 - 00:40:15.460

How do we acknowledge them? Now this is deep work. This is not a one and done formula where I'm, I'm not about to give you the secret of the formula of how to reconcile all these

00:40:15.460 - 00:40:27.080

things within your personhood. But I want to offer them up as invitations for you to say, OK, God, here are some things about me. Some of them I can't control.

00:40:27.240 - 00:40:48.320

A lot of them are just a part of how you have created me, how you have knit me. Psalm 139, right? You created my innermost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb.

00:40:48.320 - 00:41:13.000

Really think about the intimacy of being created by God in a particular way. You're the only one of you got ever created and then God had the audacity to call you to the work that you have been called to do. But the intimacy of your created being, the manifestation that that is,

00:41:13.000 - 00:41:26.920

is part of your knitting. It's part of your rooting. So sometimes the work is having some critical distance from those things that the world will say you are to return to you.

00:41:26.920 - 00:41:50.800

But who does God say I am? Who is God knit me as Psalm 139 for you shaped me inside and out and let's just stop there. Or you shaped me inside and out.

00:41:50.960 - 00:42:12.340

Do you believe that? Do you believe that God meant everything that was knit into you? He meant it to be. Now it has been impacted by living in this world and all of those kinds of

00:42:12.340 - 00:42:31.440

things. But the core knitted me together in my mother's womb long before I took my first breath on purpose. I did this work, so this is a part of self reflection and

00:42:31.440 - 00:42:49.000

self-awareness that it's so important we ask God to help us with because once we get in that pulpit, it is way too easy for it to become about external expectations. Who do people need me and want me to be?

00:42:51.520 - 00:43:13.500

So if we do not spend time continually re engaging the most important important part of my being is who God created me to be, we're in danger of falling into some of the traps of trying to meet external expectations, even external expectations that are come

00:43:13.500 - 00:43:30.520

from a place of love, right? People who love me very dearly have very clear ideas sometimes, but what they think I should be doing and, and feeling and being and, and sometimes I just know because of my relationship with God, that's not it.

00:43:31.880 - 00:43:41.760

And I need to know that because sometimes in my life when I've been like, oh, OK, well then I need to, Well then I need to and then I need to do that. And then I need to do and then I'm confused.

00:43:41.760 - 00:44:08.440

And that's not a great place to preach from, right? So some of the questions we will continue to ask ourselves about how we can look to the model of Jesus is Jesus of Nazareth is the and I put of Nazareth because I really want us to look at that human aspect of of Jesus is the tangible and

00:44:08.440 - 00:44:27.080

visible form of what idea, quality or feeling God's love, God's grace, God's mercy, God's peace. Jesus of Nazareth unifies and integrates through his embodied person. In what way through his embodied person.

00:44:27.080 - 00:44:46.230

Not because he's going to say the perfect argument, perfect words. Many of the words Jesus said people do not understand, but his embodied presence is what drew them and held them right. And it wasn't until somewhere else along the path of discipleship that the words

00:44:46.230 - 00:44:59.450

started to make sense. So these are some questions, and this PowerPoint will be made available to all of you. But these are some questions about that we can ask when we are in our sermon

00:44:59.450 - 00:45:10.360

preparation process, tied to what we are seeing about Jesus as an embodied preacher. So what is holistic engagement between the preacher and the listener? And the listeners, right?

00:45:10.520 - 00:45:18.000

Like Jesus sitting on the side of the mountain. What does that look like? What's that scene? What prompts the homiletical moment?

00:45:18.960 - 00:45:29.280

What, what reason do people come here? Because they go to church on Sunday. And that's what we say we do as a culture, right? But what else is is behind that?

00:45:29.280 - 00:45:37.680

What is the holistic foundation of the message? What are some illustrative tools utilized by the preacher? Right? What?

00:45:37.760 - 00:45:48.480

What is it? Jesus news to speak to the mind, body and spirit. And what are the unsaid elements that we don't try to tie up in a neat and tidy bow?

00:45:50.720 - 00:46:11.810

So Jesus embodied preacher. So as you can see, when I'm setting forth again, it's not a neat and tidy sort of formula or a definition. It's much more about an invitation to engage that model of preaching by Jesus

00:46:11.810 - 00:46:28.080

to say what? How was Jesus embodied? And what does that matter for the kind of preacher that he was and is? And it's too easy, I think, to just be like, well, that was Jesus.

00:46:28.880 - 00:46:37.440

This is perfect. So I'm not asking. There's no point in me like meditating on that because I'm never going to be that. No, you're not going to be Jesus.

00:46:39.040 - 00:47:04.280

That's not the goal. But He is our teacher in our homiletical method. So I'm going to pause here and ask us to think about questions, comments that might come up.

00:47:05.040 - 00:47:15.560

And so you can scan processes. We are scanning, we're going to get those questions. We're going to have the microphone passed around, but we're not going to have the microphone.

00:47:15.560 - 00:47:26.360

We're going to have them spoken into the microphone. So you don't even have to like say that was my question unless you want to necessarily. So do we have any questions yet?

00:47:27.360 - 00:47:35.760

I'll give you, I can give you a moment. We're doing good on time, which is a miracle because I'm a Baptist preacher. So it is a miracle you're doing good on time.

00:47:36.080 - 00:47:49.800

Let's pray that we will continue to that. I will continue to be able to do that throughout this day. And just so you know, we're going to start the day heavily with me talking at you and kind of end the day.

00:47:50.000 - 00:48:04.080

But all that time in the middle, we're going to be doing much more dialogical engagement. So don't worry, thank you all ready for your engagement and thank you, Jacqueline for this gift.

00:48:04.080 - 00:48:20.760

Already I'm feeling my own faith enliven through this experience. One of our first questions we have. I loved your ideas. How does the Incarnational Word preach even in our scars, man?

00:48:21.840 - 00:48:35.600

Well, and I'm to start here and I'm going to recognize that it's like, OK, yes, that's the answer, but that's not what it. What does that mean? OK, the scars that Jesus said, my, my scars are here.

00:48:35.600 - 00:48:45.280

I am the Incarnate Word. I am risen from the dead, and here are my scars. Right, Thomas? You can reach into them now.

00:48:45.280 - 00:48:54.440

That is a level of awareness of scars. So that's the first step, not trying to manner I don't have any stars. I don't have any stars.

00:48:54.440 - 00:49:07.280

I have been called, I have been consecrated, I have been anointed and therefore none of that matters. I don't need to even spend any time thinking about my scars, actually asking God.

00:49:07.280 - 00:49:24.330

God, search me again further down in Psalm 130. Search me so that I can know this creature that you have created and the scars so that I can allow you to heal them. So that I don't get in the pulpit and spew all my stuff all over everybody,

00:49:24.330 - 00:49:37.120

not even recognizing that that's what I'm doing because I haven't engaged those scars. The wounds are a part of our story. They are a part of our Incarnate being.

00:49:37.520 - 00:49:55.960

Now that self-awareness, that acknowledgement is Part 1. The processing is a much more complex well, it's complex to get to the acknowledgement, but the processing. So what do I need Lord, I need yes, I need you, but what are the resources?

00:49:55.960 - 00:50:16.560

So I believe that preachers need to be engaged in holistic self-care and well-being activities that include we're going to talk about spiritual disciplines and spiritual practices in a moment, but but that include our own spiritual practices that life that we have that is engaging our faith.

00:50:16.600 - 00:50:23.800

But also who else? When I said a few minutes ago, my therapist and my spiritual, that is that was true. I was not being perfect, right?

00:50:24.800 - 00:50:44.730

I have to engage with God through my own relationship with God, but also through my relationship in these other therapeutic, holistic relationships that are helping me see, OK, here's my knitting, but here has here, how has my knitting been frayed by living

00:50:44.730 - 00:50:57.720

on this side of eternity in the world That is so important. And especially if you're like the senior pastor at a church, it can be really easy to let that fall off because you've got 50 million other things to do.

00:50:57.960 - 00:51:12.680

Or even if you're not a senior pastor, but but you preach occasionally, whatever that engagement is, you've got all these other things in your life, right? It is a part of our Incarnate embodiedness, just like it was for Jesus.

00:51:12.680 - 00:51:25.600

The scars did not disappear. The wounds did not disappear. But sometimes I like to think of it as when we have these scars and we think of them and once we've acknowledged them, it's like the the boogeyman in the closet.

00:51:26.480 - 00:51:36.530

That's terrifying because we hear it, we know it's there, but I'm not going to go in the closet. It's dark and it's scary. Once we allow God to walk us through a path of restoration and healing,

00:51:36.530 - 00:51:47.630

the blessing is it can become like Casper the Friendly Ghost. I'm dating myself a little bit because I remember Casper the Friendly Ghost is right. It's Casper, still a ghost, Casper still haunting,

00:51:47.630 - 00:51:54.360

but they were friendly. It's like, Yep, I know what that is. I recognize that scar. I I know I remember how it got there.

00:51:54.440 - 00:52:09.270

But it's no longer a prison that I'm living in. It's a part of my story that I can say glory be to God because, yeah, it's still here, but it's not imprisoning me. And that way we can preach from that place,

00:52:09.270 - 00:52:19.280

that fertile ground that glorifies God. But it's a process. Thank you for that question. This one, I think, builds on that last question.

00:52:19.280 - 00:52:37.480

But how do we embody our preaching when experiencing burnout? You take a sabbatical. I'm going to say that jokingly, but it actually is a prayer that I have for all people that we really are able to name that because that's powerful.

00:52:37.480 - 00:52:52.050

And if it's up to just really recognize like I'm burnt out. So hopefully we have a structure that can help us take take some time away. But I know that realistically, that's not always it. It builds off of that last question, like how are we engaging with the

00:52:52.050 - 00:53:11.890

resources present for us to be in a process of healing? But I think sometimes it really is whether or not we can actually literally step away from the activities of of preaching. It really is a process of humility and vulnerability and knowing that those are

00:53:11.890 - 00:53:21.680

not your enemies in that process. Like I'm burnt out. So you may not say into the microphone on Sunday morning, y'all, I'm burnt out and I'm preaching from a place of being burnt out.

00:53:23.000 - 00:53:30.520

I mean, if you have that kind of transparent, honest community, that is a blessing because that's very real. And as preachers, we are, we are disciples of Christ just like

00:53:30.520 - 00:53:40.760

everybody else who's sitting in the pews. And we don't have to hide that. But I understand that not every framework supports us being that vulnerable. I, I mourn it, but I, I realize it's also a reality.

00:53:41.040 - 00:53:50.480

But for you to know, I'm burnt out. So what is that? What is this season of preaching look like? What are the resources I need to engage?

00:53:50.960 - 00:54:02.960

And God, please open the door for me to be restored and to rest. And some of those things may, may, there might go some tension because then if you say, OK, you know what y'all, I'm going to,

00:54:02.960 - 00:54:12.920

I'm going to invite some guest preachers to preach once a month, one Sunday, a month or whatever that is. And your congregation is like, we didn't come for our guest. But again, I'm Baptist, right?

00:54:12.920 - 00:54:25.000

So many people come to church to hear the pastor preach and literally they can be in the car on the way to church and if somebody texts them and says pastor's not pretty smart, they turn that car around and they're going out.

00:54:25.400 - 00:54:40.080

But as a, as a person on the staff, you help build the community to do we believe that the word of God is present even when it's not present in this person. They may not like it, but that's, that's part of the pastoral activity, right?

00:54:40.200 - 00:54:50.920

Of, of forming. How can we be healthy? But you have to acknowledge that burnout and, and, and prayerfully seek out Lord. What are the resources to help me?

00:54:51.040 - 00:55:14.160

And sometimes for some people, that might be a season of I need to step away from this because what I'm going through is too big, It's too much. How do you embody preaching when you're a brand new pastor and not confident in your preaching skills?

00:55:15.640 - 00:55:25.160

Yes, beautiful thing that is so hard to walk out that I tell my students, I don't care what you're preaching looks like. I don't care what it sounds like.

00:55:25.160 - 00:55:37.080

I don't care how much you stutter. I don't care how awkward you are. It's the word of God being brought through you because some of the practice of preaching is just the more you do it, the better you're going to learn yourself

00:55:37.080 - 00:55:52.800

as a preacher, the more confident you're going to feel. There's no way of manufacturing that and just kind of placing it on yourself at the beginning of your preaching career. But if you can find a way to holistically engage the fact that that God really,

00:55:52.800 - 00:56:14.810

truly and honestly, the product isn't the point right now. It's the process, my engagement, my relationship with you as this new preacher in this in this new position, right? And it's even in ways to help your congregation understand I'm new at this,

00:56:14.810 - 00:56:27.320

but I am a servant of the Lord. So by that, me. Again, you might not literally say that into the microphone, but what are you trying to put on Saul's

00:56:27.320 - 00:56:45.880

armor when you just need to be David with your rocks and your sling? That's going to look different from everyone for everyone. But there's no point in like trying to be like, I'm going to put on the, the, the, the clothing of someone who's been doing this for 20 years.

00:56:46.440 - 00:57:01.080

You're going to be like that little kid who used to like me. Like I just dress up in my mom's clothes and be like, I'm an adult now, right? It's with cute, but it's nobody was going to take me seriously as an adult, as a person who really 'cause I was a kid.

00:57:01.560 - 00:57:13.010

So embrace the season that you're in. There are things to learn in that season that you need. You can only learn in that season. So having that self talk relationship between you and God and then asking how

00:57:13.010 - 00:57:24.000

do I manifest this? At the same time, asking the congregation to accept me as the pastor because it's a beautiful model to say, yeah, I'm new at this, but thank God this isn't about me.

00:57:25.720 - 00:57:34.040

This is the Kingdom of God. I'm a servant to this. So if, if, if you are uncomfortable with my newness, that's an ongoing conversation we need to have.

00:57:34.040 - 00:57:47.640

But what I can't do is pretend that I'm not new with this. Right. However, that makes sense in community for you. You've talked about Jesus's embodied points of identity and the preachers.

00:57:48.000 - 00:58:04.830

What about the embodied points of identity of the community itself? Yes. So we're going to talk about this a little bit later too, but I'll start by just saying that is a part of the model of embodied preaching

00:58:04.830 - 00:58:26.630

that you explicitly and intentionally say this is a communal process, this is a mutual dialogue, right? And so you all are embodied right now, and I am embodied right now. And there's something that's happening in all of us as individuals,

00:58:26.630 - 00:58:39.640

but the real power comes from all of us being in this place together as a community. So we speak to the power of community not in just the content of our sermon, but how we engage.

00:58:39.800 - 00:58:50.320

Again, I'm a Baptist preacher, so in my tradition I expect people to talk back to me. And if people don't talk back to me, I'm like, what is going? What is happening, right?

00:58:50.600 - 00:59:04.460

But I remember right after seminary, I was blessed to this fellowship and I was in London, England, and I was preaching at different churches and a lot of those congregations were not congregations that. So I felt like the first 3-4 months of my fellowship being like,

00:59:04.460 - 00:59:15.440

I am the most ineffective preacher because I was like, they are so silent. They are so silent. But then they would come up to me in the coffee hour after and they were like, oh, this.

00:59:15.800 - 00:59:34.350

And I was like, OK, Lord, so, so I need to, I need to not listen with that part of myself that all that has that expectation of my, my home church, right? I need to listen to your spirit to to see if the community is is with me and if I'm

00:59:34.350 - 00:59:45.560

with them. Part of that communal engagement also for the preacher is to exegete your congregation continually. Do not operate on assumptions that oh, yeah, yeah, I know who they are.

00:59:46.080 - 01:00:00.080

How do you know who they are? How do you engage with your congregation to know them and to let them see you as a part of the community, not just Pastor, Reverend, Dr. all of those things.

01:00:01.040 - 01:00:18.800

So we preach it literally in the content of our sermon, the communal aspect, but we also live it out in a way that people see, OK, and this will be the last one and let you keep going, but could you talk a little bit more about the connection between embodied

01:00:18.800 - 01:00:27.420

preaching and spiritual awareness? Yes, we're going to dive into that. So actually. To pause on that question because we're going to,

01:00:27.420 - 01:00:39.840

we're going to dive into it for the, for the preacher during the preparation process and the proclamation process. But also then how do we introduce it into our sermons to help our congregation do that work as well?

01:00:40.480 - 01:00:55.520

Because part again, as, as I'm talking about embodiment, we're so compartmentalized, especially in Western culture that it's like this is my brain, this is my heart. I don't know where my spirit is like everything's disconnected, right?

01:00:55.760 - 01:01:12.580

And so part of the work of embodied preaching is the integration point and bringing that in explicitly into my process, my preparation process, but also into the content that I preach. We're constantly reminding myself and others that we were created,

01:01:12.580 - 01:01:25.610

we were knit to be integrated. That in and of itself is kind of cultural to our much of our cultural ways of being and understanding. And we might work in other jobs if you're not a full time pastor,

01:01:25.610 - 01:01:37.120

but even if you are a full time pastor, we might work and move in other spaces where that's actually they're like, I'm not really interested in your embodied presence. Like that's not what were you I I just need your cognitive ability.

01:01:37.120 - 01:01:47.400

So you have to know in yourself. Now this is tied. The physical is tied to the spiritual. They are speaking to each other constantly.

01:01:47.840 - 01:02:00.760

So we're going to dive a little bit more into that. Thank you so much for your for your questions and and keep even if we didn't get to them, keep them in mind and hopefully throughout the day we'll get to engage them.

01:02:01.040 - 01:02:14.800

So we're going to move on a bit. But before we do that, please stand on your feet again. Thank you, thank you everybody. That's exactly you.

01:02:14.800 - 01:02:32.100

Are you are you knew you're prophetic. Take a stretch right, knowing that this is this is a physical thing that we're doing, but it's also allowing our spirits to like process and be like, OK, a lot of information is just coming up so

01:02:32.100 - 01:02:40.990

stretch it out good. Hopefully that feels really, really good. And it's almost like standing up. It's like I, I like to picture because I'm a visual

01:02:40.990 - 01:02:48.000

person. Like, OK, Lord, I've just gotten all this stuff in my brain. If I stand up and you're going to work it out through my entire body, right?

01:02:48.000 - 01:03:03.040

You're going to help it, help me consume it. Jesus talked about consuming so much, right? And whatever your theology of the Lord's Supper is and what that really means, this is my body, this is my blood.

01:03:03.320 - 01:03:13.480

Like, I think I just had a conversation with yesterday with somebody, like, what was it about young Jacqueline? But never was like, excuse me, I don't talk to you. I just took it.

01:03:13.480 - 01:03:17.840

I just accepted it. Like, Oh yeah, that's fighting blood. Got it, got it. We consume it, right.

01:03:17.840 - 01:03:27.800

It wasn't until I got to be older than adult and I was like, oh, what's the theology and which doctrine am I supposed to believe about this, right? That we that in and of itself is an integration, a lived out integrated theology.

01:03:28.240 - 01:03:40.080

We're not just saying, I understand that with our minds, we're saying there's something happening here, whatever our theology is, like if it's actual consubstantiation or transubstantiation or all or all of that, right?

01:03:40.480 - 01:03:52.140

So good. Thank you for stretching and we have a seat again. We're going to get back up in a second because we're going to dive into an exercise in a moment, but we're going to talk a little bit more

01:03:52.140 - 01:04:05.790

about this holistic, the spiritual, the integrated aspect, right? So holistic. When I use the word holistic, it's acknowledging that we have these parts of ourselves, the intellectual, the physical, the spiritual,

01:04:05.790 - 01:04:20.400

the emotional, and that the goal is integration. We want to be these fully integrated, embody fully realized human beings that really we're not going to get to be until the other side of eternity. We're in the work of it on this side of eternity, right?

01:04:21.040 - 01:04:34.800

And for preachers from the whole of God to the whole of the person, to the whole of the people in creation. So again, I believe that proclamation is the word of the Lord.

01:04:35.120 - 01:04:52.480

And who is the first receiver of that message that you were working on? You are, you are the first receiver of this word and God places it in you and it starts to gestate and, and, and become formed. And then the moment of proclamation, you are birthing into a world.

01:04:52.480 - 01:05:03.330

There's a beautiful book called Birthing the sermon. Janet Childers is the editor and it's it's on the resource side at the end of my PowerPoint. But she really talks about and other, other women,

01:05:03.330 - 01:05:20.570

female preachers in the book talk about this process of birthing the sermon, right? But we're the first receivers of this word to us as a person, and God is expecting us to offer that word in our proclamation to the people

01:05:20.570 - 01:05:33.760

that He has sent to hear it, right? And hopefully they take it and it lives in them, and then they offer it into the world, whether that they verbally say it or not. But they're living it out, right?

01:05:34.080 - 01:05:45.230

This is inspiration, revelation, and edification for the mind, body, and spirit. It's not just an intellectual exercise. Thus, the mind, body and spirit are a part of the

01:05:45.230 - 01:06:03.060

preparation and proclamation. Meaning we as preachers in our preparation time are spending just as much time in the spiritual disciplines and spiritual relationship of, of consuming this word as we are in the intellectual process of commentaries and

01:06:03.060 - 01:06:22.990

word studies and all of those things that we do need to do, right? We are also spending time physically walking with this sermon, right? Allowing it to, to live in US. And we are also saying emotionally, what are the the aspects of this sermon

01:06:22.990 - 01:06:41.680

that that I that need to be brought out in the content. So we're engaging the whole in the holistic entirety of the experience of the text and the sermon, engaging mind, body and spirit intimately interconnected that word, intimacy, preaching is an intimate act.

01:06:42.480 - 01:06:53.840

It's intimate between you and God when you are the receiver of that word and it's intimate when you proclaim it. Now when I say the word intimate, lots of things may come up in your mind like wait a minute, Jacqueline, what do you mean by intimate?

01:06:53.960 - 01:07:11.540

But what I'm saying is we are, we hopefully we are open to like this is this is like a miraculous thing that is happening, right? It's not an everyday thing. Even if you feel like your style is more laid back or conversational as a preacher,

01:07:11.540 - 01:07:26.490

what this is intimate interconnected work and it's referencing the whole. So again, that that question about community, it's not just individual to individual, which is something we have to combat. Again, in Western culture, especially in the United States of

01:07:26.490 - 01:07:45.880

America, we are so contextualized on individual rugged individualism right in the States that this message, but even the wording that we use in our sermons, if we can use we instead of you, That in and of itself can be a huge shift in the paradigm for people to think about.

01:07:45.880 - 01:07:57.400

This is a communal word, so spiritual discipline and spiritual practice. So as you are in your SO, so just sit and think about where your process is right now as a preacher.

01:07:58.360 - 01:08:14.880

What do you do in your preparation time, whether that is days, weeks, months, working on a particular sermon? What spiritual disciplines do you practice specifically tied to the work of this sermon?

01:08:15.440 - 01:08:34.310

So you you have spiritual practices that you practice hopefully and your for your relationship, nurturing your relationship with God. But how do you engage spiritual practice specifically tied to God? I'm receiving this word from you and I want to nurture that through my spiritual

01:08:34.310 - 01:08:47.960

practices. So opening the self to revelation and inspiration. So these are some some broad stroke ideas, thoughts, words tied to spiritual discipline and practice.

01:08:47.960 - 01:09:02.000

And I always just tell people when I was very young and was introduced to Richard Foster's celebration of discipline as I think I was in middle school, I was like, because I was like anything with the word discipline in it, I was like, I don't want to do that, right?

01:09:03.000 - 01:09:11.950

And it was a very specific list of things. These are the spiritual practices. And I, I thought, okay, well, but you know, again, I was in junior high. So I really didn't come back to that so late,

01:09:11.950 - 01:09:25.910

much later in life as an adult saying what are my spiritual practices, spiritual disciplines, and then in another point in my life saying they can be whatever I want them to be, whatever I need them to be. Yes, there's this list of suggestions for

01:09:25.910 - 01:09:35.480

spiritual gaming or engagement, prayer, meditation, study, contemplative reading of the text, walking with the text. We're going to do that today. Serving the message.

01:09:35.840 - 01:09:51.190

What else you might add? And all of these things have to do with these broad stroke frameworks of surrender and solitude and community and humility and courage. And some of these things, again, we know from our own experience,

01:09:51.190 - 01:10:06.160

from our ecclesial environment, what they are right there. Meditation, study these things. But also the gift is it can be whatever you want it to be. I am very, very connected to dance and music.

01:10:06.160 - 01:10:19.860

I have been, like I said, since I was born. So when I made the connection to my knitting, OK, God, you created me as a dancer. I can't point to, you know, the verse in the Bible that guarantees

01:10:19.860 - 01:10:37.960

that I just know that it is true, right? And so when I get to certain points in my spiritual process as I'm working on sermons, it's turning on music. And the secret is it's not always worship music or or Christian music, right?

01:10:38.840 - 01:10:52.840

Sometimes it's John Betsy's freedom, right? Because that's what's going to Get Me Out of my head and get me moving with the text. Just feeling the freedom of what it is to be in this place of receiving right in

01:10:52.840 - 01:11:03.960

and of itself, in and of itself. So what are the disciplines and practices that you already practice that you kind of want to practice, but you're waiting for permission? I'm giving you permission.

01:11:03.960 - 01:11:14.120

It is a spiritual discipline. It is a spiritual practice that are tied specifically. So with my students, I on a weekly basis ask them to do like one weekly focus on gratitude.

01:11:14.120 - 01:11:22.880

What is your practice of gratitude tied to this sermon? And I make them look at the text and say, what are you grateful for about this sermon? What is your community?

01:11:23.000 - 01:11:35.690

What could possibly your community, your congregation could be grateful for? Some of that might be broad strokes and you might say the love of God. Some of it might be depending on the tax, you know, provision in the midst of lack or whatever it might be,

01:11:35.690 - 01:11:45.960

but specific things that you're grateful for another week. I'm not only asking them to pray, but I'm asking them to write a prayer for some people. They're like I come from a denomination liturgical.

01:11:46.160 - 01:11:58.440

You know that that we don't we read our we don't we are and I said that this is just for you and God. So didn't have to be good. Whatever you feel that means, right, Write a prayer, right.

01:11:59.120 - 01:12:11.780

And maybe it does end up in your sermon, right? And so the gratitude, the sermon, I'm asking them to do spiritual practices, but that very, very well may end up in the actual content of your sermon that are engaged that in and of themselves are going to

01:12:11.780 - 01:12:28.850

invite the congregation to engage those spiritual practices as well. So first exercise embodied engagement with the text. So again, I said in my coursework that I've developed for this, we go through lots of different things,

01:12:28.850 - 01:12:41.760

but it's way too much to do in an actual workshop where I'm actually hoping and praying that you process. So today we're going to be focusing on some of the things that we can do with the text, right?

01:12:41.760 - 01:12:58.890

And again, before you start with the commentary and the the word study and all of those good things, and then also all along the way as it's being born, right? And so if you have ever been a part of any process of a child coming into the

01:12:58.890 - 01:13:13.040

world, whether that was your own child. I'm about to become a first time aunt and I'm so excited and my sister-in-law and my brother are probably very sick of my texts because like every day I'm like, any new information like how big is the baby now is like a blueberry?

01:13:13.040 - 01:13:23.480

Is it a because I'm so excited? But it's the child is growing, right? And so you can't just go from the first ultrasound and be like, OK, well, that's what we're expecting.

01:13:23.480 - 01:13:31.440

We're the size of a blueberry. And that's what's going to, you know, when on the day of Labor, you're going to be real shocked if you're expecting a blueberry. And it's a fully realized human being, right?

01:13:31.720 - 01:13:42.900

So we start with the process and then all throughout the preparation process, we're coming back. We're coming back to the text. That is one of the, I think especially when we're in seminary,

01:13:42.900 - 01:13:53.920

it's one of the beautiful things that we give you these assignments and we make you write these exegetical papers. But sometimes then it becomes frozen in your mind. But it's like, OK, I've this is my focus statement, right?

01:13:54.520 - 01:14:05.360

And you don't give yourself permission in the room to say. And it's, this is an organic process that's still flowing, right? And so even though we are the horrible, you know,

01:14:05.360 - 01:14:19.390

professors who are asking you to do this work and put it on paper, hopefully you also engage the freedom to say somewhere along the way there was a shift, right? So what we're going to do is you're going to take your text that you brought today

01:14:19.390 - 01:14:28.760

for the sermon that you are going to be preparing or you've already started preparing. And I just want you to ask these questions. What are you seeing and sensing in the text?

01:14:28.760 - 01:14:50.640

And I'm talking literally, right? So my text that I brought with me today is from John 1135 and it's Jesus Wept. And it's actually the voice translation which says as they walked, Jesus wept. So for me, I'm thinking about, OK, they're walking to the tomb of Lazarus.

01:14:50.840 - 01:14:57.240

What is that? What was that like? It's a huge group of people who have come to the house and Mary and Martha to mourn with them, right?

01:14:57.240 - 01:15:05.200

In Jewish traditions, everybody comes and they are there and they provide. So it's a whole community of people and they're all walking in Jesus. And they just said, well, Jesus, why weren't you here?

01:15:05.200 - 01:15:14.690

And you, if you have been here? And, and so there's a lot going on, but Jesus was walking and he started to weep. So I just want you to think about the physical,

01:15:14.690 - 01:15:24.160

what is going on physically with the people and the text and the setting of the text. Don't go to interpretation yet. Resist, resist, resist, jump into.

01:15:24.400 - 01:15:31.540

And what's the interpretation? What's going to be in my sermon, right? Who are the characters, right? So in my text, there's Jesus, there's Mary and Martha,

01:15:31.540 - 01:15:43.210

there's this community and I don't know all the names of all those people, but how can I imagine how big was this crowd? How small was this crowd? How you know what is there is some is he the only one weeping or other people

01:15:43.210 - 01:15:51.620

weeping? Right. The movements meaning in my particular text, we started Mary and Martha's close to Mary Martha's house and we're we're

01:15:51.620 - 01:16:01.040

walking. I don't literally know how long that walk was, but there's a movement from the house toward the two right? We're walking and the senses.

01:16:02.760 - 01:16:13.490

Where are the smells in the air? Possibly, I don't know definitively. I'm not an expert on on OK at this time in this area. This is what you know, this is the time of year it was,

01:16:13.490 - 01:16:22.440

but what is what? Where am I smelling? What am I feeling from the air? It's day in the sun, right?

01:16:23.080 - 01:16:39.520

What, what is where am I feeling from the thongs of people walking next to me, right? What are the emotional sensing aspects? So if I put myself in the place of one of the other characters in the text and

01:16:39.520 - 01:16:53.880

Jesus starts weeping, what am I feeling about his tears? What am I feeling about my own tears? If I'm Jesus, if I'm imagining and trying to, to, to engage the picture, where are those tears now?

01:16:53.880 - 01:17:04.760

Again, resist, resist, resist all the commentaries that you might have read of people saying, well, This is why Jesus was crying or This is why Jesus was crying or This is why Jesus is crying. Who is Jesus to me?

01:17:04.760 - 01:17:14.030

If I'm one of these crowns? Am I the people who one of the disciples of Christ or am IA neighbor of Mary Martha who came over to the report? And then I'm like, oh, here's this guy that I've heard people

01:17:14.030 - 01:17:20.120

talking about. Oh, and now he's crying and wait, why are we walking to the two? What are we expecting this guy to do? Like what?

01:17:20.400 - 01:17:34.100

Right. So pick some characters and just kind of walk with that. So for 10 minutes on your own, you're going to go through these four questions and I'll leave this up and we can break away and you can kind of find

01:17:34.100 - 01:17:42.000

the space to just talk about, write some notes for yourself. What's the scene? What are the characters? What are the movements, what are the senses?

01:17:42.520 - 01:18:00.140

And then we're going to come back, we're going to break into group. So actually before you leave on your own, I'm going to ask you to get and I think we can get in groups of three in the space online. I feel like you guys are going to get in groups of five, but whatever it is,

01:18:00.140 - 01:18:09.970

however many people online, we're just to make sure that someone's not in the group of their own in this room. Let's get in groups of three. So after 10 minutes, you're going to come back together as a

01:18:09.970 - 01:18:23.000

group and you're just going to talk about some of these things. We're resisting, resisting, resisting, resisting, going to interpretation and just talking about, well, OK, this is my text now, the text that you brought, I asked you to bring like one verse.

01:18:23.000 - 01:18:39.560

Now you might actually be preparing for to use larger, more than one verse, but we start on a smaller scale because again, the, the more broad we get, the more we, it's like, OK, what are we talking about here? And so for me, I just chose, you know, as they walked, Jesus wept.

01:18:39.560 - 01:18:49.080

And yes, that was a verse that I chose to memorize when I was a child because it was the easiest verse. So Jesus wept done Sunday school, I got my points right and I got my sticker.

01:18:51.320 - 01:19:08.390

But so even if you brought like a longer try to to focus in on one, one verse, one movement. So 10 minutes on your own will come back in groups of 330 minutes. Each of you will share just these and then we'll regather before we break for

01:19:08.390 - 01:19:30.760

lunch. All right. Any questions about the actual exercise? For for you and what you might imagine some of the characters in the text are

01:19:30.760 - 01:19:40.560

feeling. So this is tied to my after training and that this is comes from how we interpret the script. And when I say this is my part, these are my lines,

01:19:40.560 - 01:19:52.520

but what what is going on, right? So this is the part where I'm connecting to that after training and how we analyze the text, because we analyze the text in a way that's going to actually be lived out.

01:19:52.760 - 01:20:02.240

We are not just theoretically analyzing the text to say, oh, isn't that interesting. It's because I'm going to have to get on my feet and actually act this character out in a way that's authentic, right?

01:20:02.400 - 01:20:10.960

So I need to look at the text. So that's a great question. The senses that might be coming up for you, but also what might be coming up if the characters.

01:20:10.960 - 01:20:30.080

And let me just let you know it's not about right or wrong, because how could you really know what's going on with those characters? You know, Yes. But the characters, yes, it can't, they can't be yes, but it try to be like,

01:20:30.080 - 01:20:42.120

OK, but in this verse, So like for me, as they walked Jesus, I know that there's more people there. So I'm trying to focus on the moment of as they walked Jesus wept. Yeah.

01:20:43.440 - 01:20:59.000

All right, so we are at 11:21. So at 11:31, so before you leave on your individual, let's get in groups of three right now so you can look on your row and let's just first make sure we have everybody's got a group.

01:21:01.280 - 01:21:23.000

All right, so do we everybody got a group. Jamie's. OK, so now it's 1122. So from 11:22 to 11:32, go and do this work for your own looking,

01:21:23.000 - 01:21:33.880

looking at these questions. Then you now know your group members come back and find a corner of the room to huddle up together and share what you discover. And then we'll come back.

01:21:33.880 - 01:21:46.640

We'll regather before we break for lunch. All right, thank you all. And as you do the 10 minutes, you know, you might want to get up on your feet. And as an embodied person, you might.

01:21:46.640 - 01:22:01.200

It's a suggestion this suggestion. Yes, 10 minutes on your own to start with and then come back to your groups. I just wanted you to know who you were coming back to to meet with.

01:31:14.680 - 01:31:30.820

On your own and then move back into your groups of three. And we're not going to for the sake of time, we're not going to take a full 30 minutes. So go ahead and in your group, you're going to have about 18 minutes to

01:31:30.820 - 01:48:41.880

11:50 to 11:50 in your group. So just make sure everybody gets a chance to share within your group. The sound of voices about another minute before we gather back together and we will have Q&A, which can be questions or comments.

01:48:51.850 - 01:49:38.040

You can, yeah. You can physically stay like in the group, yeah. Yeah, they're back together. You can physically stay with your group if you'd like to just stay sitting

01:49:38.040 - 01:49:49.120

together. It's up to you. Here's the QR code for you again to to scan. You can write questions or you can add comments because we're going to talk

01:49:49.120 - 01:50:01.600

right now a little bit about what this experience is like, but we're also building this. We're going to build on this after lunch with our exercise after lunch. So questions and also comments.

01:50:03.960 - 01:50:20.690

But it sounded like you all were talking and engaging a lot. And so that's a good thing. And so as you all are putting your questions in and those things, so we are when we are preachers, we are at this this beautiful

01:50:20.690 - 01:50:32.040

intersection, right? We're the first to receive this particular word for this particular people at this particular time. So we're at that intersection.

01:50:33.800 - 01:50:50.120

And it's not only the sermon, but it's also the text. As someone who grew up going to church all my life, I'm continually amazed about how much I take scripture for granted because I've just been exposed to it all my life.

01:50:50.800 - 01:51:11.020

So engaging in processes like this helps me to remember that the Word of God is a living word and I want to preach in a way that is living word. And I also think that what if we just preach the text, right? As preachers, sometimes there can be a lot of pressure

01:51:11.020 - 01:51:23.320

to come up with the most beautifully crafted sermon or the cleverest sermon or the one that gets the most reposts on social media. And our humanity is a part of this process. So I really do say that with no judgment.

01:51:23.840 - 01:51:42.640

But hopefully in some aspect we recognize we're just preaching the text. We don't need to create a whole new narrative. It is, there is enough in what is in scripture and how we are trying to walk out that lived theology, right?

01:51:43.440 - 01:51:54.410

And so really this engagement with the text during our preparation process for some of us might feel like, oh, I don't have time to spend with a text like that. I need to get to the part of writing the sermon and getting to like the content

01:51:54.410 - 01:52:08.390

that I'm actually going to proclaim. But there's a hollowness when we don't allow ourselves to be formed by this integration with the text. And so that's why the spiritual practice of engaging with text, I feel,

01:52:08.390 - 01:52:32.500

is such an important part of the process. But yes. Exactly, there's power in that. And so he wasn't saying, like, I mean, I just preach the same, you know,

01:52:32.500 - 01:52:47.540

that way. I just but he's he's acknowledging the exact he's acknowledging it is living and we are alive and and each interaction with that text. God has a has a word, not in a restricted specific way,

01:52:47.540 - 01:52:57.320

but in an expansive specific way. So let's get to do we have some questions and comments. We have a few comments. Yes, enjoyed the exercise.

01:52:57.320 - 01:53:12.160

Thank you. A simple exercise, but powerful and enlightening. Another commentator said I take for granted that the characters in these texts were people with human experiences and I need to let their stories live.

01:53:13.560 - 01:53:36.160

Another commenter said thank you for this process. I ended up focusing on something very different than I thought I would, and the embodied practice led to something so much richer. Another person said this exercise is very good because sometimes exegesis stresses

01:53:36.160 - 01:53:52.580

me out, though I love it. But I feel that this exercise can be done first before exegeting. Can you speak a little bit about the relationship between this kind of exercise and exegeting the text in our more formal kind of ways of understanding

01:53:52.580 - 01:53:59.760

that word? Absolutely. So first of all, thank you so much for the comments. You know, I'm I and this is a process for me too.

01:54:00.040 - 01:54:14.240

So I always love when I'm like, OK, this, this, this is a good exercise. It translates, people are able to engage it. But so we are, so we, let's say, you know, we do this and then we go to our study and we go to our exegetical process.

01:54:14.240 - 01:54:32.990

First of all, we have this as a part of, as a backdrop, you know, and so we're remembering and again, some, sometimes that character that pops up, you know, what if I preached A sermon that was about a random person in the crowd who was walking with Jesus and I talk about

01:54:32.990 - 01:54:48.280

and, and, and God forms a sermon that's about how do we walk with Jesus in the midst of Jesus's weeping, right? How are we surrounding Jesus and the vulnerable God as those who are choosing to walk with him, Right.

01:54:48.280 - 01:54:59.920

So just for an example. But then I go to my exegesis and I do, I look at the commentaries and I look at other social, political analysis of the day and time and I make those those leaps.

01:54:59.920 - 01:55:19.210

But in the backdrop, I'm remembering the sensory aspects and I'm wondering about how are these sensory aspects going to come into play in the actual content? And so we are allowing this exercise and what came out of this exercise to inform

01:55:19.210 - 01:55:28.040

the commentary, to inform our word study. So word study, because I love language is one of the things that I go to 1st. Like I just want to break up the biblical language.

01:55:28.040 - 01:55:46.550

And you know, and that's wonderful. But if I do this process first, what I have found is then when I get to my word study process, again, the backdrop is something that and, and, and the foundation is something that I'm already working on making specific as

01:55:46.550 - 01:55:57.760

opposed to just the general like, oh, this is really cool. And I find this interesting. Very often as preachers in our exegetical process, we find something like, this is just really cool information.

01:55:57.760 - 01:56:07.120

And then we put it in our sermon because we're like, this is really cool information. But at the end of the day, it's like, what did that have to do with the focus and the text and that, right?

01:56:07.120 - 01:56:20.880

So sometimes we have to parse out for ourselves. And someone had a comment earlier about this that might have been part of what was just for us. And that's OK that our exegetical process, some of that is just for us and we can

01:56:20.880 - 01:56:37.110

hold on to that. So the connection between doing this 1st and allowing all of the study to kind of flow through that. And I believe it's also a way for us to remember that this is a living moment of

01:56:37.110 - 01:56:50.630

inspiration because when we are in this process, I didn't specifically say it, but it's, it was implied that the Holy Spirit is leading us and guiding us. It's not just Jacqueline saying, well, I think this is interesting about the

01:56:50.630 - 01:56:56.640

scene or the characters. The Holy Spirit's like, hey, Jacqueline, let's take a look at this. What do you think about this? Right.

01:56:56.840 - 01:57:08.040

So we're being formed by that interaction with the Holy Spirit. We are also, we're humbling ourselves and being vulnerable and realizing that it's not all our genius that needs to be coming out in this moment.

01:57:08.520 - 01:57:23.360

But then we're also saying, Holy Spirit, do your work of of planting the seeds that the exegetical process is going to water and help grow into the manifestation of this sermon. Beautiful.

01:57:24.680 - 01:57:37.400

Well, I have one question about what happens when you get stuck and aren't able to pull from the text anything that speaks to you in that moment. So what if your imagination is kind of running dry?

01:57:37.400 - 01:57:46.880

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So first of all, we're going to work on that a little bit more in the exercise after lunch. So we'll come back to that.

01:57:46.880 - 01:58:05.580

But to me this is a sort of game time decision, meaning meaning if I'm like, OK, I got nothing. Is that a message from God that like, OK, I is this the like? And now again, if you're from a lectionary culture where

01:58:05.580 - 01:58:19.910

you're like, no, I have to preach on the step. It's like there's no like put this aside or you know, so you it could be a possibility of like, Lord, is this is this where you want me focusing something else that I do that is

01:58:19.910 - 01:58:38.890

a little riskier because it can start to feel like I don't have time for this. Like if it is like, no, this is the text, this is the text. I know this is the text, but I am I got nothing is putting aside the actual implicit process and just saying I'm going to come back to this

01:58:38.890 - 01:58:53.680

tomorrow. I'm going to come back to this in two days and during that time in between, I'm going to keep coming back to the scripture and just reading the scripture. I'm going to go to one of my great apps and let the scripture be read to me.

01:58:53.960 - 01:59:06.360

I'm going to read it in different versions. Not again resisting going to interpretation, but seeing and trying not to have it be in a pressure like I need right now. Some something to come out of this, right?

01:59:06.680 - 01:59:24.880

Because the pressure of the moment of I need it to come alive right now can in and of itself be really, really restrictive for us. So putting it aside in the way of like over doing this exercise and yet still allowing it to live and breathe with us and walk with it for a period of time.

01:59:25.160 - 01:59:40.440

Now you might say I, I, senior pastor of the church that I am a member of rights his sermons on Saturday and he is an anointed preacher and God and the Holy Spirit work with him in that process. But there's not a whole lot of time in that process.

01:59:41.080 - 02:00:01.200

You go, well, let me put this down for a couple of days. So I in conversations I've had with him, it is the sort of like, all right, if it's not about what is being inspired in me, in my imagination, then just what is on the page, What is on the page.

02:00:02.200 - 02:00:12.280

Again, like I just said for my for my text, if it's like I'm not getting any inspiration, but literally the scene is a group of people walking with Jesus while Jesus is crying.

02:00:13.760 - 02:00:34.540

So what if the focus is we are the people walking with Jesus and Jesus is crying? So it might not feel revelatory, but it is revealing the reality of the text. And that's the power of coming back to the text even if you're feeling blocked

02:00:34.540 - 02:00:52.070

because the text is a solid foundation to to work on. It's when you are trying to be really innovative and really clever and you're like, then I got nothing, I got nothing and you've got nothing because you're trying to build it out of straw rather than I've still got the text,

02:00:52.070 - 02:01:05.920

I've still got the text. Thank you. You're just reminding us of the power of this story, the power of this text there. Yeah, even Monday anyways of like.

02:01:06.640 - 02:01:29.320

And I think I will just add resisting that you have to your sermon has to be a way of tying up any questions or messiness or it has to be about absolutes. Maybe a part of the delivery of this embodied message is and so how do we walk that out as a community?

02:01:30.080 - 02:01:42.000

How do we live in that mystery? How do we live in the discomfort of like, if the savior is crying, what am I supposed to be doing that we, we just say this is this is what we're walking with?

02:01:42.000 - 02:01:53.520

Y'all? It's not an easy answer, so I know we are at lunchtime. Thank you all so much for engaging and how you've engaged so far. This has been fun.

02:01:54.240 - 02:02:04.360

I don't let Carolyn come up and tell us where we're going for lunch. And we'll be back and we'll be building on this after lunch. That's right, don't go away. We are building on this at 1:00.

02:02:04.360 - 02:02:18.320

So let these stories continue to percolate in you as you get some lunch. We'll just be crossing over the parking lot into Stocks Dining Hall where we'll have lunch ready for you. Again, if you ordered something special like

02:02:18.320 - 02:02:25.800

vegetarian or gluten free, there'll be a table set aside with those meals there. So enjoy again. Thank you again, Jacqueline, for this morning.

02:02:25.800 - 02:02:33.680

And we'll be back at 1:00. And those of you online, make sure you set a timer to come back at 1:00. We'll start right back here then.

02:02:33.680 - 02:02:55.010

Thank you so much. The Lord bless your bodies and bless the food to nourish your bodies in Jesus name, Amen. We want to thank, thank you, Doctor Jacqueline Williams for being with

02:02:55.010 - 02:03:08.060

us. And we'll have a little bit of a break halfway through the afternoon and another couple of opportunities for questions and answers. So it'll be that QR code up for both online folks and in room in person folks

02:03:08.060 - 02:03:20.360

to ask their questions and give their comments. So join me again in welcoming Doctor Williams back to the stage. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Hopefully everybody had a good lunch.

02:03:20.360 - 02:03:39.400

So because we are in the process of digesting before we dive into our next exercise, I am going to ask you to rise to your feet. And we're going to revisit our exercise from the beginning of the morning of,

02:03:39.400 - 02:04:01.320

you know, feet, feeling your feet on the ground, rooted, hands down at your side, gently closing your eyes or looking down toward the floor to breathe deeply. Our bodies are doing what they've been created to do, digesting, but it's work.

02:04:03.600 - 02:04:54.880

So asking the Lord to give us the energy and mind, body and spirit for the second part of our day together. And if you notice any area of tension in your body, asking the Holy Spirit, asking Jesus to lay a hand of release of tension on that spot,

02:04:54.880 - 02:05:27.460

asking God to give you restoration in that place in your body, good. And gently open your eyes, bring them back to focus and just sway and move in whatever way. This is not a dance competition, so it's not about how good you do it or

02:05:27.460 - 02:05:38.590

how you look. Moments like this remind me of like watching Soul Train when I was a kid when they would do the Soul Train line because I would always do, I would come up with little dances as if I were on Soul Train,

02:05:38.590 - 02:05:46.000

Like what would be my, my dance down the the line that would be the one that people would be like. That's it. But this is not one of those moments.

02:05:46.000 - 02:06:01.800

This is not putting you on display. It's just reminding yourselves that you are an embodied being, right? And that blood is flowing, oxygen is flowing. So whatever you need to do to feel, to remind yourself I'm alive.

02:06:03.080 - 02:06:15.990

I'm alive. Even with our aches and pains, we are alive. And this is something I really do suggest that throughout the process, throughout our preparation process, we have moments where we just get up from

02:06:15.990 - 02:06:32.690

the desk where we are or the couch or wherever we're sitting and again, just invite ourselves to walk around and remind that we're embodied beings. And then certainly before you preach, you know, it can be so hard if you are set to preach on a Sunday or Saturday or

02:06:32.690 - 02:06:53.960

Wednesday or whenever you're preaching, to engage your embodied presence in a way to really say, OK, I need that 10 minutes, that 15 minutes to remind myself that I am an embodied person before I go before the people with this word because sometimes the structure isn't set up to sustain that right?

02:06:54.240 - 02:07:07.920

So hopefully we can introduce that into our structure, if it's not there already to, to say, Hey, I need some, I need some space and some time to remind myself. So go ahead and be seated.

02:07:09.440 - 02:07:32.320

I'm, I want to mention to you, like I've shared throughout the day, I am a Baptist preacher. And so the, the, the, the archetype within my denomination is definitely one that welcomes movement and expression of the body, right?

02:07:34.040 - 02:07:44.200

And that's a beautiful thing. But sometimes, so sometimes people think like that's their struggle. Like I don't know how to be fully embodied because I'm maybe in my church

02:07:44.200 - 02:07:58.840

context or I just don't, you know, in the Baptist Church, at least in the, the, my denominational focus, moving around is not an issue. But sometimes the issue is other people looking at other creatures and saying I want to move like that person moves.

02:07:59.960 - 02:08:08.160

And I will even have students who come and, and I ask them their individual goals and their individual, They like, I want to be like this person. And I'm like, I hear what you're saying.

02:08:08.160 - 02:08:22.040

And also, I'm not going to let you have that as a because we're coming from how you are created. So for some people, moving around as they preach, looks like I'm in the pulpit now.

02:08:22.040 - 02:08:30.160

I'm out in the congregation and now I'm over here and it. And that's what's natural for them. They have the facility and the capacity for that. And that's what's natural for them.

02:08:30.480 - 02:08:47.460

For some people, one step outside from behind the, the, the lectern is huge movement for them. And, and that needs to be honored, right? And so to try not to compare ourselves when we talk about the, the persona, the,

02:08:47.460 - 02:08:59.120

our, our, our embodiment and how it manifests. So I just wanted to remind us of that because a little bit later in the afternoon, we are going to try and tie this also to gestures that might come up.

02:08:59.120 - 02:09:09.680

And when I say that it's not with the particular manifestation in mind, but it's just for you. I use my hands a lot, for better or for worse, I use my hands a lot.

02:09:10.800 - 02:09:27.600

For some people, one gesture is a huge step for them to be fully embodied, and we need to honor that. We need to honor that. So we're going to take the exercise that we did before lunch and we're going to

02:09:27.600 - 02:09:43.950

move it forward in time and space walking with the scripture. So we did this exercise. So you can imagine in your own process, you probably aren't going to have a group, the group aspect that we had, but you can have the individual aspect of

02:09:43.950 - 02:09:54.640

coming to the text, looking at the scene of the text as if you are looking at a script, if you're an actor, right? And what are the movements? What's the blocking?

02:09:54.640 - 02:10:09.520

What are, who are the characters? What are some of the emotional life that might be going on? And then we want to get up on our feet and kind of walk around and let that part of the process start to work in our bodies.

02:10:10.000 - 02:10:25.500

So I'm going to give you some time to walk out on your own. And I've been told if you even go downstairs and go outside. And we just did this for lunch and, you know, came back into the space. For me personally, nature is very important to my sermon

02:10:25.500 - 02:10:42.120

preparation process because so it helps me quiet, helps me quiet my brain. If I say, I'm just going to look at this tree and I'm going to look at this tree until I can see my, the text of the sermon in this tree, whatever that means, right?

02:10:43.440 - 02:10:50.520

So if you want to go outside, wherever you want to go, we're going to find a space. And I want you to, again, these are building off of what we did before.

02:10:50.520 - 02:11:01.790

So what are you sensing as you're walking in the text? And this time I want you to be specific about what are you sensing in your own body? Are there words in the text that are hitting you in your heart,

02:11:01.790 - 02:11:10.920

that are hitting you in your stomach, that are hitting you in places where you're like, I don't really know why why this is hitting me that way? So we, we don't you don't need to get again,

02:11:10.920 - 02:11:22.880

that. You don't need to go to interpretation yet, but where is it hitting you in your body, in your body experience. And then I want us to go to exogenic or, or connecting this to our context.

02:11:23.600 - 02:11:37.680

Can you imagine the text speaking into this moment in this place right now? What is the text speaking about humanity? What is it speaking about God, but connected to your congregation, your context.

02:11:37.680 - 02:11:47.800

So I asked you to come either with a text that you know you're going to be preaching in a specific place or that you're hoping to preach in a specific place. Think about that congregation.

02:11:49.040 - 02:12:03.120

So sometimes this is the hard, this is harder than it seems because we we think of broad terms. We think of like the body of Christ as a whole. And we say, oh, this text is speaking God's love and

02:12:03.120 - 02:12:17.890

that's beautiful. But what's going on in your congregation? What's the message that your congregation needs to hear about God's love based on what is going in the culture going on in the culture of your church community,

02:12:17.890 - 02:12:29.080

Right. We're all in the midst of an election cycle and it's a lot. It's a lot. I'm also a chaplain, right?

02:12:29.840 - 02:12:44.280

Trauma informed care is a part of what I do. And I don't mean this to be a flippant, but we are all traumatized by the things we see on a day-to-day basis. Just with what's going on in election cycle and life of politics,

02:12:44.280 - 02:12:57.150

it's traumatizing. It really is. And I'm not saying that in a sort of metaphorical, I'm saying we're taking in the trauma of all of this aggressive discord and

02:12:57.150 - 02:13:09.200

dissonance. And so think about your congregation and the things that you know that are going on now. I'm not talking about you're going to start picking specific people out and

02:13:09.200 - 02:13:26.260

naming names and right, but we want to get specific about the senses and the sensory experience that's rising up from the text and connected that to the people that God has called you to preach this word for. Now, there might be specificity because you

02:13:26.260 - 02:13:34.120

have access to the congregation 'cause you're the pastor and you engage with them. There might not be as much specificity as you want 'cause you're like, well, I don't, I'm not.

02:13:34.120 - 02:13:42.680

I don't serve on the staff ministry or I can't. I don't know them in that way. But even things that you just observe anecdotally from your own life in the community.

02:13:43.600 - 02:14:01.160

So when I say imagine what this text is speaking in this moment, in this place right now, it's to this people. What is it speaking about? God and the need for God and the answer that some of these these questions of

02:14:01.160 - 02:14:19.080

sensing the text are bringing up. So going back to my text, for instance, thinking of my church community, my home church, It's the church I grew up in, the church my parents started attending when they started dating in college.

02:14:19.840 - 02:14:35.920

So there's a lot of familiarity there there, and which is beautiful, but sometimes that means that I have to, if I'm preaching in that context, almost say, Jacqueline, step outside of that familiarity a little bit, have a little bit more critical distance,

02:14:35.920 - 02:14:50.360

and ask God to help you see this message. So from my text, perhaps part of the focus that God might engage me with in the text is, OK, here's a group of people. We're walking with Jesus towards the tomb.

02:14:51.640 - 02:15:13.950

Jesus is weeping. How do we as a community hold space for the tears of Christ in this community in 3rd Ward, Houston, TX? What might be triggering the tears of Christ in this neighborhood in this part

02:15:13.950 - 02:15:24.740

of Houston, TX? What is this message speaking? And so at this point, you don't have to answer the questions, but you're just thinking of your context, trying to say,

02:15:24.740 - 02:15:40.560

what is the sensory experience speaking? What might it be speaking to this congregation this time, this moment. So you're going to go, you're going to take your text, you're building off the the, the scene analysis that we did and the

02:15:40.560 - 02:15:51.120

senses that are coming up. And now you're asking God, what is, what is, how are those connected to what's going on in the congregation that I know about? And you might be a guest preacher.

02:15:51.280 - 02:16:04.020

So a guest preacher who's like, I'm not a part of this, so I don't know his church, but there's still some specific answers there. And sometimes the question you have to ask the question in a way of like,

02:16:04.020 - 02:16:18.870

I know I probably won't get or I may not get a direct answer guide, but I'm still lifting up the question because I want to be in that heart, mind, spirit space to receive it. As I preached at times at congregations, I had no idea what God was leading me to

02:16:18.870 - 02:16:26.920

preach into this specific congregation. So after the fact, the pastor comes up to me and says, how did you know that? I didn't know that?

02:16:26.920 - 02:16:42.140

And it's probably good I didn't know that because I would have overthought it, but it was the the Holy Spirit. I believe that there's a specific word for this community. I might not know, but help me enter into that space even if

02:16:42.140 - 02:16:51.280

I don't cognitively make that connection. So any questions about this exercise? Yes. Yeah.

02:16:53.400 - 02:17:04.160

So we, they, when you it was communicated, it was a text that you know, you're going to preach coming up soon. And if you don't have one right now that you know you're going to preach or that you want to preach.

02:17:04.720 - 02:17:17.880

And this was really good, Doctor Carolyn said she was like, oh, wait, what is my answer? She thought of a word came to her joy, which led her to a text. So you don't have to overthink it.

02:17:18.080 - 02:17:36.230

No one here will know that you're not really going to preach this text soon. But absolutely that they a text that you can have a connection to you in this moment and utilize for the exercise. And then what I was talking about is I, we had first LED people to to what is

02:17:36.230 - 02:17:45.900

happening in the text just movement wise. Who are the people, the characters in the text? How are they moving? Mine was Jesus wept, but in the the voice translation,

02:17:45.900 - 02:17:54.200

it was as they walked, Jesus wept. So what does it mean that Jesus is walking in the midst of this group of people and he is weeping. What is their reaction?

02:17:54.200 - 02:18:05.360

What is his reaction? Just using sanctified imagination to fill in that picture of literally what's happening in the text. Any other questions?

02:18:06.880 - 02:18:22.840

All right, so we are at 1:17. You are going to head off come back. I want to give you a good amount of time. Come back at.

02:18:34.000 - 02:18:48.600

140 because I want to give you a good amount of time. And remember, you're not interpreting yet just what comes up, even in question form, what comes up. And when we get back, we'll talk about connecting that.

02:18:48.600 - 02:19:00.880

Yes, yes, the same text we're building as if you're in your sermon preparation process for that one text. Yes. So go ahead, be free, be free.

02:19:00.880 - 02:42:45.480

Come back at 1:40. Right. Yeah. There we go.

02:42:46.120 - 02:42:59.160

We are back. We're going to have a break in a few minutes, but let me advance this so you can get to our QR code because again, questions and comments about this part.

02:42:59.160 - 02:43:12.980

So as you can see, we're building. I want this to replicate what a possible process you would have in your sermon preparation process. So rather than just throwing ideas at you, I'm trying to createspace where we can

02:43:12.980 - 02:43:26.860

walk with what might this look like in my own preparation, sermon preparation process. And a couple of things before we dive into questions that I wanted to share is once we're at this part making the connection to the congregation with

02:43:26.860 - 02:43:44.080

specificity, we're also seeing ourselves hopefully as a part of that congregation, as a part of that community. And it goes back to that earlier questions about our scars. Sometimes the word that is being spoken by God into this congregation at this

02:43:44.080 - 02:44:01.810

particular time is touching on some some communal scars that are also connected to our personal scars. Or in that working with the text, asking these questions, it's our individual scars that are coming up and that can present some tension

02:44:01.810 - 02:44:17.440

where our instinct of self preservation is like, let me cut that off because that might make me more vulnerable in the pulpit. And I get that and we're all human and I'm not asking anybody to fake it till you make it.

02:44:17.440 - 02:44:31.060

I don't really believe in that. But, but I am saying, can we use it as a point to, to ask God to really help us? Because if if God is speaking that and saying there's this communal scar or hurt

02:44:31.060 - 02:44:42.310

that's going on. And I have a word and you're my preacher right now and I need you to offer this word. And I know it's also touching on something for you,

02:44:42.310 - 02:45:01.600

but I am going to strengthen you to be able to offer that word. This is a huge trust process, right? That is not easy many times to walk, especially once we start getting specific, it's it can feel safer to stay in the sort of superficial level.

02:45:01.600 - 02:45:14.250

That's like this is true for every Christian. But just as Jesus's sermon in the Bible, sermons in the Bible were to a specific group of people. They were also going to speak to us over time,

02:45:14.250 - 02:45:27.390

but he was speaking to those people in front of him. Just as that is part of the model. We want to replicate that with the specificity. And it's a, it's an offering of community and

02:45:27.390 - 02:45:36.960

communal love to our congregations. I care about it. I care that this is the word that God has sent for us as a people. And I want to honor that.

02:45:38.040 - 02:45:57.240

So questions, comments about this part about connecting it to and connecting senses to our congregational exegetical process. Well, this one was posed actually before lunch, but I think it relates to this connecting piece.

02:45:58.120 - 02:46:19.330

The questioner asked the exercise drew me to add lots of details not explicitly in the Scripture fun, but could be risky. So they're asking for suggestions for how to balance that what's in the Scripture versus our sanctified imagination, bringing ideas,

02:46:19.330 - 02:46:32.920

and absolutely be honest about it, be transparent about it, Say, hey, I was meditating on the Scripture. This is what the Lord has brought to me. This is not specifically in the text.

02:46:32.920 - 02:46:48.720

And you're absolutely right to point that out, right? Because we're also teaching our community how to use their sanctified imagination, which is not use it as the absolute be all, end all interpretation, but as a method of engaging the Scripture.

02:46:48.920 - 02:47:04.720

So I think just being transparent about that, saying I can't tell you how what Jesus was feeling or what the people who are walking with Jesus for feeling on that day, but I am stretching into the text to say what's a possibility?

02:47:05.080 - 02:47:18.560

So if you lift it up as a question and as an invitation to reflect, and then you're honest and transparent and you don't try to make it. This is the absolute interpretation of this text. And anybody who thinks anything different doesn't have Jesus,

02:47:18.560 - 02:47:28.960

then I think you are you're being honest in that communication and you're helping them to see. Well, maybe God will do that with me in my own time of meditating with the scriptures, right.

02:47:28.960 - 02:47:45.750

Maybe God is going to open up my sanctified imagination and help me walk with that with accountability. Yes, yes. For those online.

02:47:45.750 - 02:48:01.590

The question was, how is this like an unlike isajeeting bringing into the text or ideas? I think it's, it's, it's a, it's a that same well, and it's this, it's this, it's, but it's the same thing just naming when

02:48:01.590 - 02:48:17.520

we are taking that leap, take taking artistic license when we're when we're doing that saying, hey, hey, hey, hey, this is what's the text? This is what's the preacher asking God to help us see the text in a larger enhanced way.

02:48:17.520 - 02:48:39.500

But really naming it very specifically and what we talked about earlier is the text is your foundation and in a very specific way. So for you as the preacher to know here's where I am taking a leap and is that the leap that God is asking me to take and then am I working into the literal

02:48:39.500 - 02:48:55.520

content of the sermon sharing that with my congregation. So it's it's that honesty and transparency with ourselves in our preparation process that starts back because then if we keep, if we're just, oh, this is feeling so good.

02:48:55.520 - 02:49:17.520

And now I've just got, you know, and it's it's become a self-centered. Hopefully it's the text that's going to get us back, get get us back in the in in rooted in the text. Exactly and exactly, yes, and that's a part.

02:49:17.520 - 02:49:26.640

I think that's also helpful when we lift it up as questions when we lifted up as well. What what if? What if for some people in that crowd walking with Jesus,

02:49:26.640 - 02:49:39.330

they were uncomfortable with the person that they believed to be the Messiah crying. What if some people in that crowd with Jesus, they were comforted by the fact that they could see Jesus as humanity and they

02:49:39.330 - 02:49:51.000

could relate with him on another level? What if some people who were walking with Jesus were angry because they were walking to Lazarus's tomb and they still couldn't understand why Jesus didn't just stop.

02:49:51.200 - 02:50:03.040

So we lived it up as questions in a way that's so obvious that people are saying that people are going, oh, you're not just saying it's 1 interpretation and this manipulation and you're trying to tell me how to see it, Jacqueline.

02:50:03.400 - 02:50:20.400

You're saying there's as many responses to what's being highlighted in the text as there are human beings. And how do we as a Community Center on what the message is from God? And that's also the benefit of having a centering point that you're always,

02:50:20.400 - 02:50:38.990

that comes from the text that you're always going to get back to. A couple of questions from the the Slido related to kind of this idea of storytelling opening up a number of different options. You know, one one comment is do you suggest

02:50:38.990 - 02:50:55.360

storytelling as a way to see the scripture and kind of maybe a simple way, but it sounds like it opens up a lots of different possibilities. But I wanted to also follow up with this other question. I found so much more than I expected in my text through these exercises.

02:50:55.640 - 02:51:04.640

How do we settle on a clear direction? So if it opens up so many more things, how do we still have a sermon that has 1 clear theme? Yes.

02:51:05.320 - 02:51:20.320

So this is a connection to all along the way you're doing this work and you're also doing your exegetical work, right? This is, I think, where those things start to more explicitly partner and into the specificity of the focus where the Holy

02:51:20.320 - 02:51:36.360

Spirit is leading you because you've got what is being lift it up in your own spiritual practice of preparation of your sermon. You've got your exegetical study and work and you're saying what is the the the centering piece, right?

02:51:36.400 - 02:51:51.080

Remembering that God is at work in all of this. So you got your centering piece and that's what helps you narrow the focus of the narrative. And that's why it's a both and it's not an either or proposition either.

02:51:51.080 - 02:52:03.840

I'm going to just do all of this stuff where I'm kind of what am I feeling and what am I thinking? And I'm not going to ground it in the larger dialogue about this text or I'm only going to center it in the larger dialogue of the text.

02:52:03.840 - 02:52:14.960

But without the specificity of what came out of my own spiritual practice, it just becomes sort of a, and there's this exegetical and this and this and this, and I found this and this commentary and people are going to wait.

02:52:14.960 - 02:52:24.640

What's the focus? What's the center here? So all along the way, these things are working hand in hand and that is what through the power of God.

02:52:25.040 - 02:52:38.890

So very, very clearly. Hear me that This is why it's a spiritual practice, not an intellectual journey that we are trusting the process of God. We're opening ourselves to that process and saying I'm a willing participant in

02:52:38.890 - 02:52:52.880

your movement, Holy Spirit, and you're going to help me. You're going to help me narrow this down and you're also going to help me be honest that it's not I Jesus, that it's exegesis. You're going to help me with this and I'm going to surround myself with community

02:52:52.880 - 02:53:06.880

and we're going to talk about that toward the end. That's also going to help ground me and be like, wait a minute, Jacqueline, you know, your preaching lately has become real, not grounded in the text, right in love, people I really trust and who are part of

02:53:06.880 - 02:53:21.410

my true sort of inner circle of community. That's an important part of this process because we are all at certain points in our formation. So we we want to be humble and surrendered to the power of God through

02:53:21.410 - 02:53:43.450

this and not rely on our own capacity and our own abilities. I think this might also relate to that is this question of how do we balance what's for us and what is for our congregation. And yeah, so it's it's that continuation of as it

02:53:43.450 - 02:53:56.960

is, as it is revealed, the focus for the congregation. Those things are going to start to balance out. You're going to start to see because of God, you're going to start to see where it's.

02:53:57.600 - 02:54:07.440

That's for Jacqueline. That's for Jacqueline, this is for the congregation, which is why we are even at points in the in the preparation we're thinking about the congregation.

02:54:07.720 - 02:54:22.960

We are asking God to help us reveal what is the message for the congregation. That's why the self reflection going back to the beginning of the day, the Psalm 139, show me myself, Lord is not so that it can become about me, but it's because so that I can become

02:54:22.960 - 02:54:36.160

self reflective and self aware and build those muscles to be like, you know what, this is kind of a Jacqueline thing right now. And this is kind of a Jacqueline moment, which is beautiful, but it doesn't need to be a part of the sermon, right?

02:54:36.320 - 02:54:54.040

Self reflection, self-awareness and asking God to show us those things is going to help us be able to focus in on what is the word you're speaking for the community. And it's not an exact science, which is why it's a spiritual practice,

02:54:54.040 - 02:55:12.520

which is why it's a part of a lived theology of faith where we acknowledge on any given day at any given time. If I let go of the fact that it is only through the grace of God that I can do anything that I am doing, then I'm in trouble.

02:55:12.720 - 02:55:20.000

When I let go of that and start to think it's because, Oh well, I have this training and I can do this, and I have this process and all of those things. And I don't say that flippantly.

02:55:21.120 - 02:55:42.160

I say it in a very real way that is central to the work. So we're going to have a quick break and come back and we're going to talk about building some of these aspects into the content of the sermon message into the content that.

02:55:42.160 - 02:55:53.560

So, OK, I've got the stuff and I have my exegetical work and I feel like I'm seeing the through the the, the shared space and the through line and the focus. How does that actually form into the sermon?

02:55:54.880 - 02:56:09.080

All right, so let's take 10 minutes. That means coming back at 5 minutes after 2. All right, be free or whatever you need to do. If you need to sit and process that's good too, but we are on 10 minute break.

03:05:44.120 - 03:06:05.960

All right, we're going to regather and go into the home stretch and talk with more specificity about, OK, how do all these, how might all these things work into the actual content and form of my sermon? So this is a process, right?

03:06:06.000 - 03:06:24.840

You can see how engaging these tools and these exercises that we've been working on today, it's like, OK, this is adding time to my process because you still want me to do all the exegetical and the word study and all of these things like how are and, and yes, I'm not trying to trick you into it.

03:06:24.840 - 03:06:38.080

Like, oh, this is a shortcut. It's true, it is, but this is the pathway toward and figuring out your process toward embodying it. It's not a magic switch that you can just turn on, right?

03:06:38.480 - 03:06:54.560

And even when we ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, help me, the Holy Spirit isn't like the tooth fairy, right? Just kind of going like thing that God has worked into the work of our lives, our agreements into in a process, right?

03:06:54.560 - 03:07:10.170

That's part of our formation. So if we look at this as well, I'm being formed by the process. And if I just woke up one day and I just magically was able to do this, am I going to really be able to realize that formation and point to that

03:07:10.170 - 03:07:26.160

formation as it glorifies God. So incarnational preaching that this is what we're talking about from the very beginning, that we are flesh and God is giving us a word for the people.

03:07:27.160 - 03:07:46.440

And so it is incarnational preaching, not because we are the Incarnate Word that is Jesus, but the preaching theology, philosophy and practice is incarnational. And Niles Gregerson has some writing, and it's in the resource resources on the last slide of this PowerPoint where he talks about deep incarnation.

03:07:46.440 - 03:08:02.000

And so when the incarnation is deep in the sense of being deeply embedded in the frail suffering and mortal flesh, mortal history of the flesh, this embeddedness of incarnation speaks to the embodiedness of incarnation preaching.

03:08:02.480 - 03:08:19.860

Embodied preaching exists superficial artifice by offering and allowing the entire bodily experience to be a guide and resource in the process, preparation and proclamation of the Incarnate Word. So just as much as we are engaging, like I've said,

03:08:19.860 - 03:08:41.320

the cognitive resource of our study, we are trying to have practices that help us engage the embodied experience, the physical experience, and the sensory experience so that it can be integrated, right? So that we can preach a word that is representative of deep incarnation even

03:08:41.320 - 03:08:55.670

in these frail, suffering and mortal bodies. So signs of embodiment in the sermon. Now, before we dive into this, let's just take a moment. In fact, I'm just going to back this side up again

03:08:55.670 - 03:09:05.520

so you won't rush to. Let's talk about the formation of the sermon. So we all know whether you've been to seminary, not been to seminary, or whether, you know, introduction, body, conclusion, right?

03:09:06.400 - 03:09:18.720

But really, when we talk about what's the central focus, the central point, lots of different people who've written about this talk about it in different ways. So Thomas Long talks about the focus and the function.

03:09:19.800 - 03:09:34.760

You know, other people talk about the theme, central theme statement, right? But it's it's in all of our study and our spiritual practice towards embodiment. What is the centering message that God is bringing?

03:09:35.160 - 03:09:56.990

So if we take the central claim of the text, So if we go with my, my text, right as an example, as they walked, Jesus wept it there, it starts with a claim based on the text, a claim about God. So this is central, not just a claim about society,

03:09:56.990 - 03:10:12.800

not just a claim about our thoughts and feelings, not just a claim about what might be sort of provocative to state a claim about God that is central in the text. So with this text, right as they walked, Jesus wept.

03:10:13.920 - 03:10:33.960

I could say a claim of that text based on the text is that God is an emotional, is an emotionally intelligent and emotionally available God, emotionally intelligent and emotionally available God. So that's the claim of the text, but that's still a little general when we

03:10:33.960 - 03:10:52.620

come to the sermon. The focus, as Thomas Long would say, would be based on that claim. God is emotionally available, emotionally intelligent God. A potential focus could be God is teaching us to be emotionally available

03:10:52.620 - 03:11:07.280

and emotionally intelligent as we walk with him. That is based on the text that is. But does everybody see that is clearly based on the text. It wasn't me saying like I think that.

03:11:07.280 - 03:11:25.630

I mean, it's clearly based on Jesus walking and he's crying right claim about God. He's he's emotionally available and intelligent. God is teaching us the focus to be emotionally available and emotionally

03:11:25.630 - 03:11:40.240

intelligent as we walk with Jesus. What is the function of that is what God is saying and this is this is my hope for how this word, this focus will function out there in creation.

03:11:41.200 - 03:12:03.600

So I could say because God, because Jesus is teaching us to be emotionally available and emotionally intelligent as we walk with him, we are going to focus as a community on resources that allow us to be emotionally available and emotionally intelligent.

03:12:04.520 - 03:12:19.820

So we're going to focus on holistic ministries that take into account that we are called to be emotionally available and emotionally intelligent as we walk with Jesus. And then if I'm the pastor, I'm I'm my outline, like, OK,

03:12:19.820 - 03:12:26.120

So what are those resources? What is those, What are those ministerial resources that we're going to get? And and I might add to that and why?

03:12:27.200 - 03:12:40.350

Because we are all our emotions are everywhere, right? If I tie it to this present moment, there's an election cycle going on. Emotions are everywhere. And we need to know how God is calling us to not just regulate those emotions,

03:12:40.350 - 03:12:57.320

but use them as resources, as followers of Christ. So do so do you all see how I walked that out from a claim, from the text to a focus and a function and tying it to the community? And that's all based on the text.

03:12:57.320 - 03:13:10.360

Now, you might say, well, Jacqueline, you can do that without all the stuff that we did today. But when we go to putting it in the form of the sermon, I'm not going to just say those things.

03:13:10.800 - 03:13:22.080

So I'm not necessarily going to just say, here's it. Here's the claim, here's the focus and the function, right? Because what is somebody going to say? But how do we block that out?

03:13:22.400 - 03:13:40.200

I understood the words that you were saying. I understood the language that you were speaking. But when I find myself in that moment of crisis, what resources do I have to help me walk that out, Right?

03:13:40.520 - 03:13:54.800

So signs of embodiment in the sermon that come through your own process. And again, today we were just focusing on the textual analysis piece, sort of like actors do. But there are other there are other focuses that, you know,

03:13:54.800 - 03:14:11.400

in future workshops that I will read right where we talk about the body as a communicator and the voice as an instrument and things like that that we're bringing into the process that are signed. So the first places of sensory experience in the midst of the sermon.

03:14:11.400 - 03:14:44.320

And that we are actually, I'm actually going to say, imagine yourself walking with Jesus on that road to Lazarus tomb. Lazarus was your friend, Lazarus was your brother. Jesus is your teacher and you think he is your Savior, but Lazarus is dead.

03:14:49.120 - 03:15:12.680

What are you feeling? I'm smelling the sweat of the people walking with us in the heat of this day towards this tomb. As we are walking toward death in our daily lives,

03:15:12.680 - 03:15:36.920

as we go about the work of being followers of Christ, are there moments where you feel like you are walking toward death and Jesus is with you and Jesus is crying, but you don't understand why he's leading you toward a place of death?

03:15:38.600 - 03:16:03.360

You don't understand why he didn't just save Lazarus. So inviting into the sensory experience in explicit ways, and the reason you did that individualized study was to be able to make those connections in a truly integrated way, not a surface way.

03:16:05.200 - 03:16:31.540

And so again, the connection in my work as a chaplain is because those surface ways and moments of crisis often fall hollow. And when the preachers have not preached a word that is full of those complexities and the dynamics of a fuller, full sensory human experience,

03:16:31.540 - 03:16:59.120

it comes across as well. If you're a good enough Christian and you pray enough and you read enough Scripture, you shouldn't be feeling these complex feelings. Lived Theology What is our theology of walking with Jesus towards death?

03:17:01.880 - 03:17:09.520

OK so my theology says God is with me. Jesus is there. He didn't say OK I'm going to run to the tomb. Y'all just stay here.

03:17:10.320 - 03:17:26.400

I'm going to run to the tomb like Lazarus. I'll bring Lazarus back. Jesus is with us and has asked us, allowed us, to walk with him. Jesus is emotionally available, emotionally intelligent.

03:17:30.560 - 03:17:54.520

What is our theology of suffering, our theology of love in the midst of the pain on this side of eternity is God, a God that either does what we want him to do or does not do what we want him to do. And that is how we measure the barometer of God's love for us and presence with us.

03:17:56.280 - 03:18:11.960

So we get to these questions of lived theology in part by reflecting on this embodied experience. It's not a theoretical experience of yes, God is love. If you are loved, then why is my brother dead?

03:18:17.440 - 03:18:37.830

A lived theology that is not a neat and tidy bow. And you can even project into that and say yes, Lazarus was. If I'm using the rest of the pericope, Lazarus was resurrected. That is very rare, few and far between between on this side

03:18:37.830 - 03:18:53.270

of eternity. Most of us don't get to go to the tomb and our loved one is resurrected. What Jesus is with us and we're walking with Jesus, and Jesus cares and is emotionally available and mostly entails,

03:18:53.270 - 03:19:12.640

but my loved one is still It's a lived theology that is much messier, and the spiritual practice of embodiment helps us engage that messiness and preach from a place of true integration. Not meeting tidy bows, if we go to it encourages exploration.

03:19:15.360 - 03:19:31.480

So where does where does the idea that God is not a vulnerable God, that God is not vulnerable? Where does that come from? If we have this image and reality of Christ weeping and walking and why?

03:19:31.480 - 03:19:51.440

Why does that make some sometimes make us uncomfortable to think of God as vulnerable preaches to the mind, body and spirit, right? A possible integration into the actual sermon of how many times have we walked with Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus?

03:19:52.880 - 03:20:10.880

God, how many times are you going to call me to walk that walk with Jesus over and over again to the tomb of Lazarus, when in my personal life, the life that I've lived, Lazarus has never been called out of the tomb, right?

03:20:11.960 - 03:20:26.640

To the mind, body and spirit, encouraging us to go to those places that are not easy or Jesus. We're going to walk to this tomb towards death. But you are with me.

03:20:28.640 - 03:20:37.040

You are with me viscerally. I can smell your body. I can hear your sobs. You are with me.

03:20:37.120 - 03:20:52.470

This is not intellectual preaches to the mind, body and spirit and it's communally minded. We are walking together. And when you, my brother and sister, say I'm not doing that,

03:20:52.470 - 03:21:03.880

I'm not walking with Jesus to the tomb, He should have been here. I'm not walking with him. We say, what do we say? OK, then I'll, I'll sit with you.

03:21:04.240 - 03:21:31.590

I'll sit with you even if you're never ready to walk or hold on to my hand, and we'll walk together or even in your anger. We're walking one step at a time, whatever that might be. It's communally minded because the messages of God, yes,

03:21:31.590 - 03:21:49.200

they have individual import and impact, but it's about the community. It's about the body of Christ, right? So these are specific ways and all these things that I'm saying, I'm saying put them literally those words into your sermon that we don't have to

03:21:49.200 - 03:22:05.520

feel like we have to put it implied on top of it and make people really reach for it. Like, are you saying that because again, the chaplain experience I have, I cannot, if I had a nickel for every time somebody said,

03:22:05.520 - 03:22:24.420

but I'm not supposed to be mad of God, OK, Well, Martha came running up to Jesus and said if you had been here, my brother would still be alive, I believe you. But if you had been and married, so the same thing Now, again,

03:22:24.420 - 03:22:37.280

I wasn't there. I cannot say definitively that they were angry, but in the complexity of human emotions, it's not too far, I believe to say maybe anger was a part of that,

03:22:37.280 - 03:22:48.680

or at least miss misunderstanding of like, but then I don't understand. You are the Messiah, So what? What is this? What is this life with discipleship that you're calling us to?

03:22:48.960 - 03:23:06.200

Right? Because people sitting in the pews need a message that gives them permission to have the most honest relationship with God that they can have. And that includes the doubts and the complex emotions.

03:23:06.200 - 03:23:20.720

So we name them. Maybe this is a part of it, but we're walking with Jesus, Jesus to the tomb. We're not walking with him to the unicorns and rainbows and roses.

03:23:20.760 - 03:23:29.200

And we're walking to the tomb. And even when Lassus gets called out, he's smelly and gross and decay. I mean, I don't what was that? What are we?

03:23:29.440 - 03:23:39.920

So now you're going to hand this our brother back Who's. And now how is he going to be there's it's continual questions in this life of faith on this side of eternity. How is this really going to end up?

03:23:39.920 - 03:23:57.400

So what if we preach a message that's, yeah, on this side of eternity? It's going to be questions upon questions upon questions upon questions. But Jesus is walking with us. I smell his sweat, I hear his sobs, I see his eyes.

03:23:57.680 - 03:24:35.770

I I feel his his presence. Yes, from exactly, and that's and that's where we get to go to from the literal of what's happening in the text that we've kind of analyzed. This is literally what's happening on the page and in the text to what is it in

03:24:35.770 - 03:24:43.080

your life? What are the dead places? Right. So we're placing it on the table of the word.

03:24:43.080 - 03:25:00.920

You know, many of us, if we've studied worship, it's like, you know, Word and table. And I think it's actually they're both, they are integrated. There's not a separation that the word is the table and the table is word for us.

03:25:00.920 - 03:25:10.320

That's, that's Jacqueline. That is Jacqueline, that is Jacqueline, but that's just that's that's a part of that helps me process it. So there's open-ended exploration.

03:25:10.320 - 03:25:26.240

Now, this can be complicated because we live in a society, especially in Western culture, especially in the United States, where we have built up a a contextualization that at the end of the sermon, people want answers, absolutes.

03:25:26.920 - 03:25:33.280

And I get it. It's because they're like life is hard and I need you to help me walk this life out. I get all of what you're talking.

03:25:33.280 - 03:25:49.160

It's OK for me to live with questions, but I need the absolute. If God gives you an absolute and a message, preach the absolute. But be very careful to pray and ask God. Is this an absolute that you gave me or am I succumbing to the temptation to make

03:25:49.160 - 03:26:03.680

it an absolute because the question is too hard to walk with. So open-ended exploration. And even when it's an absolute, there's still going to be the question of how do we walk this out?

03:26:03.680 - 03:26:17.280

So that function aspect of how do we walk that out? Where the pastor might say, OK, we have these ministries that are going to help us be emotionally self reflective and self intelligence and self aware. And for those of you who are still like, what does that even mean?

03:26:17.280 - 03:26:27.200

We're going to have a workshop about what that means, right? There's something that I have learned about my own personhood where I'm very emotionally available. I am not always emotionally intelligent, which means I can cry.

03:26:27.200 - 03:26:33.000

And sometimes I'm like, I don't know why I'm crying. I don't know. And I, you couldn't pay me money to tell you, right?

03:26:33.000 - 03:26:44.680

And so the pastor is saying, we're going to have these resources and these experts and these people who are going to come and we are going to integrate this into all the ministries of the church. That's a way that a particular congregation,

03:26:44.680 - 03:26:59.680

a particular preacher may say this is how God is calling this word to function in the life of this church based on that focus statement and that claim of the text reflection points. You don't have to tie it in an easy bow.

03:26:59.680 - 03:27:15.840

You can lift up these questions as a reflection and be really honest and say, let's reflect on all of the dynamics of this. I don't have the definitive answer. Just because God has called me the priest, He's not unveiled all the truths of the

03:27:15.840 - 03:27:29.280

universe to me. So we're, and we're doing this together as a community and the word that God brings will keep moving and keep growing and keep flowing in the life of this community.

03:27:30.360 - 03:27:55.850

And yes, sanctified imagination, now sanctified quiz set apart for God's purpose, not just imagination, which can take us in lots of fun places, but maybe not God's purpose, right? Set apart for God's purpose, sanctified imagination,

03:27:55.850 - 03:28:04.560

continually asking God, please help me. I'm a very creative person. I can think of lots of different directions that we could just go that would be fun.

03:28:05.240 - 03:28:21.330

But God help me to focus this and for this, my imagination to be sanctified, to be consecrated, to be anointed. You know, I come from a tradition where those are words that mean a lot, but they can also kind of be thrown

03:28:21.330 - 03:28:36.630

around. But if we are serious about asking for Lord, your sanctification, your consecration, your anointing. And at the end of the day, me knowing that the space between my lips,

03:28:36.630 - 03:28:56.760

my lips and the ear and the hearer's ear is holy ground and the space of the Holy Spirit to constantly be coming to because we are serving a word. But for the specificity of that word, what kinds of utensils do we need to use? What kind of serving dishes do we need to use?

03:28:56.760 - 03:29:11.560

What are we, what's the, what's the diet? What is the, the, the, the cuisine that we are offering? That's all specificity that our spiritual practice of preaching and and of embodiment is helping us to engage.

03:29:13.240 - 03:29:34.340

And even when we serve the meal, we're serving it in an open handed way that says, Lord, my prayer is that you do with this what only you can do, what only you can do. So in talking about how we might not get always get to that place of absolutes

03:29:34.340 - 03:29:46.990

that people feel like they want. That's part of the spiritual formation of a congregation. So it's not something that you can just, or maybe, you know, just coming and being like, guys, I'm changing things up in my preaching

03:29:46.990 - 03:29:58.070

and this is how, and there's going to be a lot more open-ended. You know, that people might be like, what what is happening, right? That you that there's a vision casting process and then a working out of that

03:29:58.070 - 03:30:12.880

vision asking God, how do we implement this? Because this is where the Lord is, is is taking us as a community so that we can be holistic. We can live out our holistic makeup as a community, right?

03:30:13.480 - 03:30:24.800

And that's just an example that the, the, the people wanting absolute and maybe that's not, or at least not in the way that we've might done it before. What is the absolute?

03:30:24.800 - 03:30:37.790

The absolute is that Jesus is walking with us. The absolute is not that we're going to be walking towards something that we want to be walking toward. The absolute is that even as Jesus calls us out of those dead places,

03:30:37.790 - 03:30:46.040

it still may not be what we want, what it looks like. It still may be. You know, in the hospital. I always pray for peace.

03:30:48.000 - 03:31:03.080

That doesn't mean the person is not going to die. It means that somehow in the midst of that heartache and heartbreak, the presence of God can be felt and a present that is release, a presence that is relational where the person feels God.

03:31:03.080 - 03:31:25.380

You're with me, you're weeping with me. You're emotionally available, emotionally intelligent, and so I will keep walking with you. So those are some of the ways that this process of the spiritual practice of,

03:31:25.380 - 03:31:40.530

of preaching in an embodied way and engaging these exercises. And again, this today was just about engaging the text. But in all of these ways, whether that's looking at my my bodied

03:31:40.530 - 03:31:55.560

person as an instrument, my voice as an instrument, or any of those other aspects, sometimes one of the focuses that I utilize with my students is just start with the emotional aspect. So what are the emotions that are present?

03:31:55.560 - 03:32:14.120

You know my text, it's easy weeping, right, sorrow morning. But what are the emotions that are and start with how do you how do how do I add the emotions to the the text in my preaching? So as the scripture is read and as I'm referring the scripture I'm referencing,

03:32:14.120 - 03:32:22.750

you know, if we go to the Garden of Gethsemane, right, and Jesus is weeping tears of blood, it's really easy. I mean, especially if we we've been doing we've

03:32:22.750 - 03:32:33.030

been going to church our whole life. We've read the Scripture a million times and we're just like, you know, Jesus weeping tears of blood. Well, let's back up a second and break up open

03:32:33.030 - 03:32:56.760

the emotional life that he is illuminating there. That is very real, right? That that is that is a meal to sit it with that and then and then take it to what does it mean that Jesus was like, Hey, if you're, if we're, if we're asking,

03:32:56.760 - 03:33:13.910

if you're open to my suggestion, I would rather not do this yet your will be done right. So, so in the texts that we have, what is the emotional life? Sometimes that's enough to start with, or as I referenced before,

03:33:13.910 - 03:33:29.800

a place of gratitude for this particular text, for this particular congregation and putting that in the form of the sermon. We can be grateful that Jesus isn't like, oh, I know you're sad about your brother, your friend and your neighbor Lazarus.

03:33:29.880 - 03:33:42.900

I'm going to resurrect him. So you guys just go to sleep, wake up in the morning, Lazarus will be there at breakfast, still be miraculous. But this, this intimacy of Jesus walking with us

03:33:42.900 - 03:34:04.480

and inviting us to walk with him is so foundational to our relationship with Christ, right? So I'm grateful that you allow us to walk with you, Jesus. I'm grateful that you walk with us and show us your full self sleeping those

03:34:04.480 - 03:34:18.280

gratitude points, right? The prayer points, the prayer that you might write based on your own spiritual practice of preaching and the preparation maybe actually goes into the actual content of the sermon.

03:34:19.080 - 03:34:30.000

So it's not all just these things that are going to feel good and be maybe fun or interesting to do. It's going to translate to the actual content of your sermon, but it's not formulaic.

03:34:32.320 - 03:34:45.210

It just it just isn't because God is not formulated. I don't think that's a theology of Jacqueline. I don't think God is formulated. So he's not going to guarantee every single time this just follow these five

03:34:45.210 - 03:34:57.800

steps, right. And before we get to questions, we had a question earlier about how do you know it's successful in body preaching? How are you measuring success?

03:34:59.800 - 03:35:15.450

God, I felt you. Thank you. I don't know that everybody is going to be like good sermon Rev and even if they do, maybe they're just used to saying good

03:35:15.450 - 03:35:28.520

sermon, right. I don't sometimes we do get the kind of gift of being able to receive a message something back and that's that's precious. But the success is, I was in it with you, God.

03:35:28.720 - 03:35:52.790

The success is I've been formed by this time with you. The success is I offered it up and I'm trusting your hand to continue the work of your Word. So again, in our humanity, we want those markers and those signs

03:35:52.790 - 03:36:03.800

that say, yes, you're doing this right, but what is the right in this life of faith? There are some things we can go to. You know, it's not abusive.

03:36:03.800 - 03:36:28.240

It's not even, you know, but but ultimately success in preaching, I think embodied or or however you categorize your preaching can be a trippa that we all have to actively ask God to help us resist for our own sanity and well-being.

03:36:31.720 - 03:36:43.000

So question. Sure. I had one person ask. I missed the meaning of quote, the scene of the text and quote movements

03:36:43.000 - 03:36:54.490

in the text. Could you reframe them in brief? Yeah, yeah. So in fact, let me go back to this was in our

03:36:54.490 - 03:37:11.000

exercise, our exercise A. So this is when I just asked you to start with your, your text, the verses, the verse that you brought that you're hoping to preach, you will be preaching. The scene of the text is like this is where we're talking.

03:37:11.080 - 03:37:22.410

We're we're we're making this connection between text and script analysis for actors, right? So the scene of the text is literally what was going on. So from my text, oops, from my text, it is OK,

03:37:22.410 - 03:37:37.040

Jesus was coming to Mary and Martha's house knowing that Lazarus was already dead. By the way, Martha comes out, says Lord, if you had been here you would still be alive, but we trust you.

03:37:37.720 - 03:37:53.840

She goes back to talk to Mary and says hey, Jesus wants to see you. Mary comes and says the same thing and basically Jesus tells them I'm going to resurrect Lazarus and they start walking toward the tomb. So my text of as they walked, Jesus wept.

03:37:53.960 - 03:38:11.200

The scene of that is literally just the scene of what's happening. People are there's a group of people who were at Mary's and Martha's mourning the death of Lazarus, and they are walking with Jesus toward the tomb and Jesus starts crying.

03:38:11.200 - 03:38:24.880

So the scene is literally just what's what's the action of the text that is going on. The movements of the text is, is is in this particular text we moved from, you know, it's it's we're walking.

03:38:25.920 - 03:38:35.240

So what are the movements in this? What are the literal, like physical movement of the people in the text? Because sometimes that opens something up, right?

03:38:35.440 - 03:38:50.880

So it's G So so when Jesus there's the group that has says there's the adulterous woman, right? And Jesus bends down to right on the ground. He's bending down.

03:38:50.880 - 03:39:02.920

And this was not from me. This is from another preacher. So I don't want to take, I don't want to take credit for it. The bending down of Jesus forced people to look at that woman physically.

03:39:02.920 - 03:39:20.400

The movement of Jesus bending down put her in their eyesight. That preaches in and of itself, right? And so it's when I say movement, I, I mean literally like what is the physical movement?

03:39:20.400 - 03:39:28.640

Not moving to interpretation yet, but OK, you just notice, Oh, well, that's where Jesus bent down. And a lot of people in that text, they will focus on what did he write? What did he write?

03:39:28.640 - 03:39:37.760

What did he write? And I get it, that's part of our humanity. But since we're not explicitly told, how much time do we want to focus on that instead of a what?

03:39:37.760 - 03:39:47.080

That's interesting. Jesus bent down because he could have just said what it is he wrote, he wanted to write. So again, it's using your sanctified imagination.

03:39:47.080 - 03:40:03.530

It's taking a leap of faith because Jesus said, and by the way, the reason that I'm going down to the ground is so that she can take a better look at her, right? But we can go based on what he says next, that his goal is for us to focus on

03:40:03.530 - 03:40:19.350

ourselves and who we are as finger pointers and focus on her and this idea of what is redemption. In God's economy, right? So literally the, the physical movements of the text and

03:40:19.350 - 03:40:29.890

for actors, this is what we call our blocking. Like, OK, you're going to start the scene now over here and you're going to be doing your thing and then, you know, at some point in the scene, you're going to move over here and

03:40:29.890 - 03:40:43.710

there's a reason and you're going to drink this water and you drink the water and you know so it's not very it's not the, it's not necessarily like, oh, and it opened up all the doors to all the answers in the universe. It's literally just, and then starting that as a wondering of

03:40:43.710 - 03:41:05.600

like, huh, So what does that create? What kind of space does that create? You speaking about just now your actor experience and, and blocking it made me think of my, my prejudice or assumptions about actors

03:41:05.600 - 03:41:22.320

being so almost over the top in their body movement, having to go, you know, and, and, and you haven't done that at all in our exercises. You haven't emphasized us needing to move our bodies in particularly, you know,

03:41:22.320 - 03:41:44.020

in my, again, my, my idea of what actors do on a stage and a play in order to make their actions seem visible to people who are far away. But you're you're inviting us to think of our embodiment in in our imagination and also kind of how we really take all of our senses,

03:41:44.020 - 03:42:00.440

all these gifts of the body to the scriptures. One of the one of the comments is I see this sensory work is adding a richness to the imagery and language, the words we select for the sermon. So would you agree?

03:42:00.520 - 03:42:17.800

Yes, that is, again, that's one of the tangible things that we can take and put into because we've sort of we've nurtured the capacity for us to think in expansive ways about this text. And we can use that to say, what words do I want to use when I'm

03:42:17.800 - 03:42:28.760

putting together? Because I, I'm experiencing this beautiful, vibrant picture and I want to help the listeners experience that. So what kind of language do I need to use?

03:42:28.760 - 03:42:42.080

It's it's going back to the very specific things that are actually going to show up in your sermon. And absolutely, as I said earlier, for me and body preaching is not like you're going to be so big or you're going to your voice is going to be,

03:42:42.080 - 03:42:52.120

it's like that. However God uses you, let God use you that we call that an acting people who are just doing too much. It's like they're eating the scenery because that's like the next thing.

03:42:52.120 - 03:43:03.900

That's the next biggest thing they're going to do. They're just going to start eating the scenery, right? But that is not necessary right there and there. There is this leap, like acting isn't, you know,

03:43:03.900 - 03:43:17.240

And so we're utilizing some of these tools, but we're not saying it's the same thing because we are playing at it. Acting and the stakes are not the same. The stakes are not salvation coming to creation, right?

03:43:18.240 - 03:43:27.200

And so, but it is like one other aspect is what kind of the pericope that you're looking at. Is this tragedy? Is it a comedy?

03:43:27.960 - 03:43:47.600

You know, Friedrich Bichner has a book Telling the Truth, and I'm it's on my it's on the slide. I always forget what's after the it's like fairy tale comedy or tragedy. And so looking at different texts through those genre lenses of right.

03:43:47.800 - 03:43:55.600

So they're like part of like Sarah and Abraham, you know, she laughed because she's like, I'm too old to be getting pregnant And it's just hilarious to me. Like that's my own.

03:43:55.600 - 03:44:07.280

My response is like, OK, you telling me I'm going to be pregnant, That's not going to happen, right. The comedy there taking it seriously of like, this is our this is an aspect of our life of God.

03:44:07.280 - 03:44:16.080

Sometimes we're just like, God, What are you kidding me right now? Like that's an amazing blessing, but also I'm 5000 years old. Like, why now? Why now?

03:44:16.080 - 03:44:34.440

Or like I can't, I can't help but laugh, right? And so even looking at that, the genre of the text and some of those other aspects, because yes, this is preaching, but God has a full array of of revelation, right?

03:44:35.080 - 03:44:44.640

God is funny. God appreciates humor. It's OK to bring that into our preaching, especially if the text is speaking that to us.

03:44:45.000 - 03:44:55.400

Right? Yeah. One of the things I've heard from you today is that our embodied preaching is as diverse as the different bodies that we inhabit.

03:44:55.640 - 03:45:03.330

They're not all going to look the same. We're not. We don't all have to, as you talked about trying on your mother's clothes, we don't have to wear the the body of

03:45:03.330 - 03:45:15.440

somebody else in order to have an embodied preaching style that each of us has. It's our own style of being embodied and that that is what God is using. So I just want to thank you for that.

03:45:15.800 - 03:45:29.600

Yeah, that is that's one of the joys of this work is again, you start from a place of wanting to see yourself as a preacher the way God sees you. That in and of itself, hopefully is a restorative and healing

03:45:29.600 - 03:45:44.120

process for you. When we spoke earlier about our scars, that it becomes engaging those scars and those wounds is less like the monster in the closet that we're terrified of and more Casper the Friendly ghost.

03:45:44.720 - 03:45:51.320

OK, Yeah, I know. I know who you are, Casper. I know where that scar came from. But it's not a prison I'm living in.

03:45:52.000 - 03:46:05.720

And yeah, I don't have the same capacity to do this like that preacher and I don't have the same capacity to do. That's OK. You're not supposed to necessarily, or maybe God will allow you to have your

03:46:05.720 - 03:46:22.200

own version of what that thing is that you appreciate about that. The other preacher I the church that I grew up in in Houston, the founding pastor who just passed away this last spring was an amazing man of God.

03:46:22.600 - 03:46:35.080

And he told he his preaching is William Lawson. And so he used to, we used to say a lot of people said he's like the quiet storm is a preacher, right? Because he's very his tone was very conversational.

03:46:35.840 - 03:46:45.440

But he grew up at a time, which is still true, that in the black church, a lot of people hoop. And you may not know what that is, right? But it's vocalistic styling, right?

03:46:45.880 - 03:46:55.080

And he grew up at a time where was like, if you can't hoop, you can't be a preacher. And that to some people is still, they still believe that, right? And so he said, he tells us funny story.

03:46:55.080 - 03:47:04.320

He was called ordained ministry very young. He went out to the woods where he grew up in so because he so he could have some privacy and he was like, I'm just going to, I'm going to learn how to hoop right.

03:47:04.320 - 03:47:17.720

So he just was making all these sounds that I can't. I don't know why I wasn't there, but you can just imagine someone trying to get their voice to do something that their voice was like, this is not. And so finally he just realized, oh, wait, it's not happening.

03:47:18.480 - 03:47:33.740

Maybe God, you don't. Maybe you don't need that from me as a preacher. And then he started his preaching career and like I said, a, a, an amazing man of God who utilized his gifts and talents for God's Kingdom and

03:47:33.740 - 03:47:43.530

setting captives free in lots of different ways. And then who? So yes, he had his moment where he thought, well, this is, this is something I need to learn how to

03:47:43.530 - 03:47:56.080

do to be a preacher. But eventually really out of desperation, he was like, well, it's not happening. So I can either continue to focus on that and try to do it and have that be a distraction in my preaching, or can I say, or I say that's just not how God has

03:47:56.080 - 03:48:07.160

created me as a preacher. But instead of focusing my energy on that, I can say, well, God, how have you created me as a preacher? Right.

03:48:07.160 - 03:48:20.840

And some people are leaping across the stage. If that's an honest manifestation, leap away. But if you just convinced yourself that that's the only way to preach a sermon is to leave, you're going to, first of all, you're going to hurt yourself.

03:48:22.600 - 03:48:36.280

And second of all, it's going to all be about why is Chaplin up there just leaping across? We don't even know what her sermon was supposed to be focusing on. Because whenever we focus on those external things or that archetype we're

03:48:36.280 - 03:48:47.830

trying to fit, it becomes a distraction to the message God actually has for the people of God, right. Even if you're a great leaper, it's like, oh, she leaps so well. Well, what did God have to say for the two

03:48:47.830 - 03:48:53.640

people? I don't know. But she was leaping. And I guess that that's, it was a leap of faith.

03:48:53.640 - 03:49:02.860

Maybe I'm not sure, but but now if your message is about leap of faith and God, you have given you that talent, then leap away. Because then just for a second, we'll talk about the,

03:49:02.860 - 03:49:11.880

the physical gestures that come out of it. Once we, we're, we're in the spiritual practice of preaching. We've done our extra just our exegetical work.

03:49:11.880 - 03:49:26.320

And we're, and we're like, there's this gesture, a physical gesture that God is bringing to my mind to enhance and illuminate this sermon. And I'm like, Lord, what do you what?

03:49:26.320 - 03:49:36.760

Because I don't do that. I stand at the podium and I stand at the podium. So, and for some people, it's not even a big, it's not even a big thing.

03:49:36.800 - 03:49:51.310

It's like God wants me to use a peace time to go like this five times throughout my sermon when I get back to my focus and function. Because again, when you use your focus and function, you need to come back back to it throughout the sermon so people can get,

03:49:51.310 - 03:50:08.010

Oh, this is what our focus is, but it's a peace time because it's a gesture that will support that centrality and that specificity, right? But it's the, the reason you were able to receive that is because you've been asking in explicit, integrated ways, God,

03:50:08.010 - 03:50:17.920

reveal this text to me, reveal this message on multiple mind, body, spirit levels. And OK, I'm going to use the peace side because I think that and it's amazing how people will be like,

03:50:17.920 - 03:50:38.250

I don't remember the words that you said. I remember that peace side. There's another question asked earlier in the day about our spiritual disciplines and what is the difference between the spiritual disciplines for sermon prep and

03:50:38.250 - 03:50:50.320

the the disciplines that are outside of sermon prep. You put up a slide about different kinds of disciplines. Could you talk about if there's a difference between those? So, oh, wait, it's back this way.

03:50:52.040 - 03:51:08.750

So again, like we talked about, we hopefully you have spiritual discipline, disciplines and spiritual practices that you engage with to nurture your relationship with God and your engagement with God and your, your capacity to just sit like Psalm 131

03:51:08.750 - 03:51:22.720

in the lap of God, like a lean child and just revel in the love and the delight. So I say that to say it's not always this transactional. Like I engage in the spiritual practice so I can get this thing that I, I want.

03:51:23.000 - 03:51:40.840

Sometimes it's just the presence being in the presence of God. But but when we're talking about the spiritual practice of preaching and embodied preaching, it is doing, engaging these spiritual practices in specific ways about this sermon preparation process.

03:51:41.520 - 03:51:56.620

So if if solitude is something, you know, meditation and solitude is something that is one of your spiritual practices, that's great. You can use it in your sermon preparation process. But how are you going to sort of open yourself to understand that to to open

03:51:56.620 - 03:52:13.480

yourself to this is connected to my sermon preparation process. So is it the reading of the scripture before you go into that time of solitude and silence? Is it more of a lectio Divina kind of thing where you're utilizing the text

03:52:13.480 - 03:52:27.250

that you're actually going to be preaching on? And you usually use lectio, but this time you're want to make sure that you're using it with the with the text. If you're doing any sort of prayer, whether that's extemporaneous,

03:52:27.250 - 03:52:40.240

whether it's written prayers or whatever, that might be connected to your text. If you use other things, again, that are not in the, you know, celebration of discipline book, but that are part of your spiritual practice.

03:52:40.240 - 03:52:53.920

So music and poetry and art, you know, I meditate, I think there was a question we saw, like I used someone using, I think religious icons to meditate on. How can, how can you go to those images?

03:52:53.920 - 03:53:11.100

And I'm a visual learner. And so that's something I do a version of that and my own spiritual practice. But when it's tied to sermon preparation, I try to use an image that is connected to that text for me and meditate looks, look at the image and prayer and meditate

03:53:11.100 - 03:53:22.880

on, OK, what is being revealed about this sermon and this text? Really, really the text first before I'm moving to actually the writing of the sermon.

03:53:26.440 - 03:53:40.840

No questions. OK, great. So on your feet, one more time, one more time you can feel your toes on the ground.

03:53:41.960 - 03:53:54.480

I did at a preaching conference once. A female preacher preached a message and she took her shoes off because she was like, I just need to feel. I need to feel the ground.

03:53:54.880 - 03:54:11.340

And I remember that so many times. She was in tune enough with her own needs of embodiment to be like the heels are not doing it today. I feel disconnected and what's going to help me feel connected is, you know,

03:54:11.340 - 03:54:33.310

my feet on the ground. So, so feel your feet on the ground and actually let me go to this image as we are talking about images and how you might why right at the end of the day, all right, all right,

03:54:33.310 - 03:55:06.420

when we're not going to let it stop us, the image of the knitting, the knitting image and being rooted through our knitting, we're going to get to the image in a second. But as you are feeling your feet on the ground, your arms gently by your side,

03:55:06.420 - 03:55:31.420

eyes gently closed, Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the moments where we felt resonance. And thank you for the moments where we felt confusion.

03:55:32.740 - 03:56:18.450

Help us to continue to offer those moments to You. Keep breathing, God, as You admit every single person in this room with a profound level of intimacy. Help us to engage our entire beings with Your Word and with the offering of Your

03:56:18.450 - 03:56:51.320

Word to all of creation. May we feel the wind of Your spirit and follow it. Keep breathing. Help us to see you and to sense you, God.

03:57:01.660 - 03:57:23.010

May the meditations of our hearts, minds, and spirits align with your will and your will. And in the name of Jesus we say together, Amen. Amen.

03:57:24.090 - 03:57:37.350

Thank you all. There we go. So remember, you're not just rooted on the ground, your feet on the ground are connected to the rooting,

03:57:37.350 - 03:57:57.560

to the rooting of your knitting. Some of those things, you know, some of them are still a mystery to you. So may they be revealed. And when you are standing to preach, may you stand in that rooting.

03:58:00.200 - 03:58:14.760

Thank you everybody, for a wonderful day, a wonderful day. Thank you so much on behalf of all of us here at Austin Seminary and part of the Faithful Preaching Project. We're just so grateful for you, Doctor Williams.

03:58:14.760 - 03:58:33.740

So thank you so much and thank you all for being here. Appreciate you online and those of you here in person for joining us on your little bulletin there on the inside, there's AQR code that you can scan if you would, to fill out an evaluation form so that we

03:58:33.740 - 03:58:44.960

can hear how we're doing and how we can do better in the future. So again, we hope you'll also sign up to join us for our next workshop coming this spring. So safe travels to all of you.

03:58:44.960 - 03:58:48.480

Again, blessings, thank you so much for being here. God bless.