40 foci for preaching

When I was studying preaching, my homiletics prof, Blayne Banting, taught us about the importance of the sermon "focus." In biblical preaching (i.e. preaching that is focused specifically on a biblical text), the "focus" is that single sentence that distills, encapsulates, crystallizes and summarizes the message of both the text and the sermon. Ideally, everything in the sermon, in some way or another, feeds into or flows out of the focus, and anything that doesn't is shelved for another sermon. Hadden Robinson called it "the big idea"; Blayne Banting called it "the focus." In biblical preaching-- and Blayne Banting was quite clear about this-- the focus of the sermon must emerge from, and tie directly back to the focus of the text. Whatever the text says-- at its heart-- that's what your focus should say; the focus statement should be the result of careful prayer, thought, theological reflection and disciplined exegesis of the text.

The idea of a "homiletical focus" has been very important in my own development as a preacher, and I've found writing the focus statement to be one of the most arduous but invaluable and rewarding initial steps in my process of sermon prep. Sometimes the focus statement will go through up to 10 or more drafts before I finally have it clear.

Is it worth it, all this fuss about a 10-word sentence? I don't know, but I do know that a couple of weeks back, someone mentioned the first sermon I preached at the FreeWay, a year ago, and, without knowing any of this finicky stuff about "homiletical foci" she said: "I remember, you told us: we need resurrected eyes to see the resurrected Lord" (see item 1 on the list below).

So I preached my 40th sermon at the FreeWay this Sunday. I've mentioned before how I'm not one to let biblical milestones like 3s or 12s or 40s pass by unnoticed, and so today I'm thinking back through the last 40 Sundays in the pulpit at the FreeWay (Daniel might call it 40 sevens, maybe?), and mulling over the first 40 foci of my preaching. I admit that some are better than others, but here's the last 40 things I've told the FreeWay about God and life together with him.

1. Luke 24:13-33: We need resurrected eyes to see the resurrected Lord.

2. 1 Kings 19:8-18: God's promises never have to go back to the beginning.

3. Luke 13:1-9: If it don't bear fruit, it's time to uproot.

4. Luke 14:15-24: God is determined to throw the greatest party in history.

5. Luke 16:1-9: Be a scandalous spendthrift of God's grace.
6. Luke 18:1-8: Kingdom come prayers never fall on deaf ears.
7. Genesis 11:1-9: No height of hurt is impossible in the community built on sameness.

8. Jeremiah 29:4-14: God has peace plans for his people.

9. Amos 5:8-26: God rejects empty religious show.

10. Galatians 5:13-15: True freedom is servanthood; and servanthood is true freedom.

11. Mark 1:14-15: God's revolution is happening now, turn around now and believe it.

12. John 3:1-15: God's Spirit is birthing believers into his kingdom.

13. Luke 9:28-35: This chosen one fulfills the history of God's life with his people.

14. Mark 10: 35-45: The king of God's kingdom rules as the servant of all.

15. Acts 1:3-11: In the meantime the Spirit holds us out to the world.

16. Psalm 45: He will reign forever and ever.

17. Luke 1:67-80: The promising God has visited us.

18. Isaiah 7:13-14: God is with you in the mess.

19. Matthew 1:1-17: The Christ's family tree is rooted in scandal and faithfulness.

20. Luke 2:22-36: This little baby is the God-hope we've been looking for.

21. Matthew 2:13-23: The Son of God will weep and wipe Rachel's tears.

22. Luke 2:41-51: We'll find this child of destiny in his father's things.

23. Luke 2:52: The Son of God grew God-wise, God-strong, God-loved.

24. Job 41: 1-11: God's faced the chaos on a scale we can't imagine.

25. Revelation 22:1-5: A day's coming when all manner of thing shall be well.

26. Psalm 1: There's no two ways about it with God.

27. Psalm 26: We walk right with God because his Christ walked blamelessly for us.

28. Psalm 29: The Lord is the real life-giver.

29. John 12:12-19: Death is defeated when the king of love rides into town.

30. Matthew 27:50-54: It really is a good Friday.

31. Mark 16:1-18: God rolled back the stone because we were helpless to move it on our own.

32. Colossians 2:11-13: Baptism is our heart-circumcision.

33. 1 Corinthians 15: 35-49: The God who creates is the God who resurrects.

34. Colossians 3:1-11: You've been raised from the dead: make your life extraordinary.

35. Isaiah 49:13-16: The Lord God out-mothers us all.

36. Hebrews 9:11-15: Jesus is our perfect High Priest.

37. Acts 2:1-13: The Spirit of God has begun the harvest.

38. Genesis 48:8-20: God doesn't choose the way the big-shot executive world chooses.

39. 1 Timothy 2:1-8: Pray for them all, starting at the top.

40. Luke 11:9-13: The Perfect Father will give his children the perfect gift.