“How words are strung together” came up in our weekly pastors’ meeting recently. Perhaps you know this. As native English speakers write and speak, adjectives roll out in a pattern so ingrained that we don’t realize we are doing it. But if we fiddle with the pattern, our head tilts slightly to the left, and one eyebrow goes up, the other down. The normal-to-our-ears sequence: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose, noun. A sports red fast car or a fast red sports car; a black big dog or a big black dog. Which sounds right to you?

Language matters. It is one of the big, beautiful gifts God gave to humanity because it is the means by which we build connections with others. Wait! Connection with others? That pales in comparison to our need for a connection with God, and language is the means by which God makes that happen.

Language matters. Check out Jesus’ sermons. Nicodemus would have listened if Jesus said, “Your parents passed on to you a sinful nature when you were born. You need my words and promises for the creation of a new spiritual life.” But what an impact when Jesus used language like “flesh gives birth to flesh” and “You must be born again”! The Samaritan woman would have listened if Jesus said, “Your soul is dying and needs new life.” But what an impact when Jesus used language like, “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life”!

Language matters in sermon writing. Since that is so, why would anyone not want to speak in the language of the listeners? Speaking in a language unknown to the listeners is not only discourteous, it’s lunacy. Imagine inviting members and guests to an Easter festival service, and you preach your sermon in French (but you are not in Paris or Montreal). What you have written, memorized, and proclaimed may be all true and an accurate reflection of and rendition of the gospel, but if no one in your audience knows French, that’s foolishness! In a similar way, why would anyone not want to speak in a way that is interesting, appealing, engaging? Why would anyone want to do that in a way that functions better than Ambien?

So, how to write and speak non-boring sermons?

• When you have written your sermon, read it out loud as though you are the listener. Would you stay awake through it all? Would your mind drift? I can hear the objection, “It’s the powerful Word of God! So what if I say ‘the devil, the world, and our flesh’ and ‘Jesus lived a perfect life in your place, died the death you deserve, and rose again’ over and over in nearly every sermon week after week? It’s law and gospel! It’s never boring! If it seems boring to some, that’s the listeners’ problem.” Really?
• Use figures of speech. Cicero’s orations were my introduction to that. To this day I thank God for our third-year Latin teacher. He made it a point to point out alliteration, asyndeton, chiasmus, litotes, metonymy, oxymoron, rhetorical questions, simile, and metaphor and encouraged us to make use of those in writing. My friends tease me for using alliteration too much (and I’ve tried to cut back), but it helps my memorizing and does catch the ears of listeners, helping to embed a truth in their hearts. I have marveled at a pastor-friend of mine whose everyday speech… and also his sermons… are loaded with simile and metaphor. I wondered how he could do that, seemingly so naturally. I got the answer when I visited with his siblings. They all spoke that way, having grown up in a home where parents rolled simile and metaphor off the tongue like water from a hallway bubbler.
• Avoid run-on sentences (although, at times there may be a fitting Romans 1 or Ephesians 1 opportunity to do so in which the listener will not get confused or lost).
• Once written, go back over your sermon and change passive verbs to active. Then use a thesaurus to plunk in verbs and nouns you haven’t used before or at least for a while, verbs and nouns that are vivid and appeal to the senses.
• Don’t buy into the old adage, “Write for 5th–6th grade level.” Instead, include words and phrases that will make a 5-year-old smile, others that connect with teens without sounding like you are trying too hard to be “with it” (recently, I dropped a “6-7” in a sermon), and others that tingle the eardrums of a Ph.D.
• Use dialogue. Imagine a character in the text or the author in conversation. If you have written, “Paul encouraged Timothy to train future spiritual leaders,” change it to, “If Paul visited Ephesus and took Timothy out for coffee, he would have looked him in the eye and said, ‘Timothy, what has been pressed into your heart, tattoo it on the hearts of next-gen proclaimers.’”
• Shun the “-tion” words. I don’t even use the words “law” and “gospel” in my sermons because I am always picturing an unchurched-prospect-guest scratching his head and thinking, “What?” Instead, I used phrases like “God’s threats,” “the lightning bolt of God,” “the sharp scalpel of God,” “God’s arms around us,” “God’s smile,” “God’s blood poured over you,” etc.
• Read Daniel Deutschlander’s essays, his devotional books, and his Your Kingdom Come. His exegetical insights are spot on, but also pay attention to his use of language which makes for eye- and ear-perking proclamation and touching application. For example, Jesus words, “I feel compassion” (Mark 8:20) is followed by “[Jesus’] stomach churned… he declares his gut-wrenching recognition of our need” (p.216). Read Mark Paustian’s essays, his Prepared to Answer, and its sequel. Read his Our Worth to Him devotionally but also pay attention to his use of language and phrasing. For example, he does not write, “[The tax collector] would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast,” rather, “The man in the story… had taken that disappointing journey inside and could barely stand it. The sight of it balled his fist at his chest and glued his eyes to the dirty floor” (p.25). Read other WELS authors and preachers who use the language well.
• Read C.S. Lewis, Timothy Keller, and others—not for their theology (although there’s a lot of good, biblical stuff) but for their language and turn of phrase. Read Eugene Peterson’s The Message. You’ll disagree with some of his paraphrasing, but you’ll smile, too.
• Read non-fiction and fiction authors. I have my favorite authors, perhaps you do, too. Read not merely for the story line but also for their use of figures of speech, turns of phrase, vivid vocables (btw—Did you notice the asyndeton there?)

So, how to write a non-boring sermon? I am choosing not to raise the AI issue. I’ll save that for seminary professors to discuss and opine. Personally, I don’t know much about it other than that I understand it is possible to write a sermon and change it from boring to non-boring in a flash. But I think that robs the preacher of the fun and the growth that goes with fresh, personal study and writing.

Language matters. Study, pray, ponder, and God bless your writing and speaking the best news ever!