Steven D. Mathewson’s burden is to help preachers give more attention to Old Testament narratives and excel at it when they do. He has a fundamental commitment to the exposition of biblical texts as well as to the application of those texts, but he fears that evangelical preachers have shied away from preaching story. Thus, he purposes in The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative to lay out a path whereby preachers can honor their passion for teaching truth while also giving place to the dominant genre of the Bible.
The first section of the book, then, deals with the journey from text to concept, that is, from the specific meaning of the story to the broader truth of the story. In order to successfully complete this journey, the preacher must give thought to the plot, characters, setting, and points of view of the story. This gives rise to an exegetical outline and the main thrust of the story. And while Mathewson is thoughtful in explaining this process, he’s also insistent that it’s a bit of an art and dependent upon prayer.
The second section of the book deals with the journey from concept to sermon, that is, from the broader truth of the story to the presentation of that truth. Mathewson suggests that the preacher ask three questions in this stage: what does the text mean (explanation)? Is the text true (validation)? What should we do about it (application)? He then deals with a number of matters related to conceiving and writing the sermon, and concludes the book with five sermon manuscripts from various preachers that display the principles of the book.
The strongest aspect of Mathewson’s book is his right understanding of story with an equally strong emphasis on expositional preaching. He is passionately committed to the details and purposes of Scripture and this sets his work apart from so much of the literature on preaching story today. And he’s right to point out that expositional preaching does not demand a particular method but that it demands a commitment to saying what the text says, even when preaching story.
Further, Mathewson does a good job of integrating scholarship on the nature of story into his argument without stripping the text of its divine nature. That is, he doesn’t reduce the Word of God to mere literature but he deals well with the fact that it is literature nonetheless, and he listens well to those who understand the nature of story.
Third, as I mentioned above, Mathewson provides a refreshing balance between the science of method and the art of sermon preparation. I particularly appreciated the analogy to golf, although I thought an analogy to music would have been better. That is to say, while it’s necessary for the musician to learn the rudiments of music, when it comes time to play, he or she must let the notes flow from the heart. And like music, preaching ought to emerge from truth and flow from the heart, especially when it deals with stories.
Finally, Mathewson does an excellent job of guiding preachers along the path of preaching narrative texts. I find him to be a rare blend of an intellectual and a practitioner, one who both thinks well and grasps the contours of the shepherd’s life. I highly recommend his book for the seasoned preacher, although the student or the novice would benefit from it as well.
Mathewson helps us see that preaching expository sermons means allowing the text to dictate not only the content but the shape of the sermon. Most American (indeed Western) preachers are trained to exegete the epistles and of course many of the principles we learn in the process and hone over time transfer to exegeting stories. But the problem arises when the preacher shifts from the exegetical truth to the homiletical presentation of a story for at least two reasons.
On the one hand, old habits die hard and thusthe age-old paradigm of proposition-explanation-illustration-application is difficult to let go in the process of relating a story. Of course, none of these elements need be sacrificed in preaching OT or NT stories but they must, like water, learn to conform to the form of the text. When preaching from Romans, the sermons must take the shape of Romans. When preaching Job, the sermons must take the shape of Job.
On the other hand, I suspect that many Western preachers are suspicious that merely telling a story is not enough to feed the people of God or win the lost to Christ. Texts like Rom 15:4 ring in our minds: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” We tend to think that to make hope palpable we have to do more than merely read, or re-tell, biblical stories in the presence of the church. And certainly, the preacher must do than merely re-tell a story, but at the same time, we must learn to trust in the form, content, and intents of the stories God himself has chosen to tell. At the end of the day, then, telling biblical stories on their own terms is a matter of faith, that is, of trusting that God will work as we faithfully reiterate his Word in the hearing of others.
That said, I would have liked to hear more about how Mathewson conceives the relationship between the gospel and the text of the Old Testament, and how the preacher ought to handle this as he works through specific texts. Surely, the preacher must allow a story to be what it is and not to read too much into it, but at the same time Jesus himself once unmasked his presence in the pages of the Old Testament (Luke 24:27) and thus he bid us to search for and expose him there as well. Furthermore, since all stories consummate in his story, it seems wise to help God’s people see how this is so.
I must conclude by reiterating how much I appreciated this book. I will not only read it again, I will use it as a reference guide as I grow in preaching through the years. I heartily recommend it and urge you to read it for yourself.
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