Preaching the Bible—and Doing It Biblically:
The Form and Function of Biblical Texts

By Thomas E. Phillips

What did you think of that sermon?” As a professor of New Testament, I am often asked that question. It sometimes follows a chapel service at Colorado Christian University where I teach. At other times it follows a worship service at the local church where my family and I worship. Regardless of where I hear the question, I cringe. Sure, I’m a professor of Bible. Sure, I care about biblical preaching. And, of course, I find some sermons more helpful than others. But I don’t attend worship services in order to serve as resident critic. Like all of the other believers gathered for worship, I attend worship services in order to worship! Therefore, I have no desire to assume the role of Roger Ebert and begin rating every sermon with final thumbs up or thumbs down. So, when asked about my evaluation of any particular sermon, I explain what kind of sermons I like. I like sermons that preach the Bible and do so biblically.

When I talk about preaching the Bible and doing so biblically, I mean creating sermons that are not only faithful to the content of scripture, but sermons that are also faithful to the shape of scripture. I grew up in an environment where every sermon had a familiar shape. A typical sermon opened with an overview of the biblical text, then offered an “exposition” of the text with three alliterated “points,” and finally closed with a moving personal story that led to an altar call. I thought that every “good” sermon could be outlined something like one of my own early sermons on the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20):

Introduction (Jesus’ story of the four types of soil)

Point 1: The Seed which Grows (the message of the Gospel)

Point 2: The Sower who Loves (the love of Christ)

Point 3: The Soil who Decides (the decision of the audience)

Conclusion (story of my conversion from “hard” to “good” soil)

Altar Call

Although I was faithfully preaching the content of the biblical story, I now believe that I wasn’t preaching it biblically. I was taking the marvelous story in this parable and transforming it into an essay. I was preaching the Bible, but I wasn’t preaching it biblically.

I know hundreds, maybe thousands, of preachers and I don’t know of a single one who doesn’t strive to preach biblically. When it comes to preaching, those of us in holiness circles have no lack of desire to preach biblically. We all accept the authority of scripture and we all want to preach biblically. Sometimes, however, we aren’t always sure exactly how to do that. In this article, I want to discuss three specific questions that I now ask about every biblical text from which I am preparing to preach. I hope that asking these questions helps me to preach the Bible more biblically.

First, I ask: “What kind of literature is this particular Biblical text?” Although the Bible is a single book, it contains many different kinds of literature. Biblical scholars call these different kinds of literature “literary forms,” and the scripture plays host to a myriad of literary forms. The Bible communicates to us through parables, blessings, commands, riddles, proverbs, hymns, stories, poetry, visions, speeches, allegories, prayers, rebukes, warnings, and admonitions—to name only a few. If I preach all of these forms in the “three points” fashion, I may be faithfully preaching the content of the Bible, but may not be preaching that content biblically.

In order to truly preach biblically, I must be faithful to the literary form of the particular biblical text.
On the first day in many of my Bible classes, I walk around the room and hand the students random pieces of paper, including letters, bills, grocery receipts, wedding invitations, and quizzes. I then ask each student to tell the class what he or she was given. The students invariably begin by describing what kind of paper they were given. For example, one may say, “this is a memo that Dr. Phillips sent to a student” or “this is an obituary from the newspaper.” The students intuitively recognize what kind of literature they have before them and they invariably begin describing their literature by explaining the form of the literature they were given (e.g., a receipt, a letter or an invitation). When they look at a grocery receipt, they immediately recognize it and understand where it comes from and what it’s used for. And when they look at a wedding invitation, they immediately recognize it and understand how one is expected to respond to it. In other words, they immediately begin to interpret the function of a piece of literature in light of the form of that piece of literature. The point of the exercise is to help the students recognize that this same principle applies to biblical literature, that is, the form of a biblical text determines the function of a biblical text.

Thus, the second question I ask about a sermon text is: “What is the function of this particular biblical text?” If I really want to preach the Bible and preach it biblically, I must reflect upon how specific biblical texts functioned for their original audiences. I must ask the question: “How did a parable or a blessing or a proverb function for ancient people?” When we encounter the vast variety of literary forms within our own modern, highly literate, culture, we tend to associate the various forms with their appropriate function intuitively and without any conscious reflection. Thus, we immediately understand the difference between a proverb about a snake (“don’t play with the rattle until you kill the snake”) and a scientific definition of a snake (“a snake is a legless reptile”). We intuitively recognize that the proverb teaches about the value of prudence and caution and has little to do with literal “snake-handling,” while the scientific definition describes a snake and, even when mastered, provides very little insight for how one ought to live.

If we are to preach the Bible and to do so biblically, we must understand how a particular text functioned in its ancient setting. We need to reflect upon how a blessing, or parable, or curse, or proverb, or confession functioned for its original audience. Many biblical texts offer doctrinal or ethical instructions, but many others offer praise, encouragement, and warning. We need to think not just about what a text said to its readers, but also about what a text did for its readers.

Because the Church has insisted that the Bible cannot be frozen in the ancient world, but must also speak today, I ask a third question: “How can I make this biblical text refunction for my community?” I strive to make the biblical text refunction, that is, to make my sermon function in same manner for my congregation as it functioned for its original audience. If I take a biblical blessing like “Blessed are the peacemakers” and preach a sermon which demands that people become peacemakers, I may have preached the content of the biblical text, but I certainly haven’t preached that content biblically. Rather, I have taken a blessing and made it function like a commandment. To preach an ancient blessing like a commandment would be the literary equivalent of reading your spouse’s grocery receipt like a shopping list. The information conveyed may be very similar, but the form is different—and the function is, therefore, very different.

My goal is to allow the ancient Word to function in the same manner for my modern community as it did for the ancient community who first heard. I want to make a blessing bless, to make a proverb speak proverbial wisdom, and to make a warning warn. My goal is not to find three “points” to teach, but rather to create a sermon which will best enable the ancient words to function for my community as they did for the author’s community long ago and, in doing so, to allow the ancient words to serve as the new Word of the Lord to a new community.

In both the ancient and the modern world, the form of literature determines its function. To truly preach biblically, one must understand the form and function of the biblical text from which the sermon is drawn. The hallmark of good preaching is that the form and function of the sermon are faithful to the form and function of the biblical text so that the biblical text can refunction within the contemporary community. In the remainder of this article, I want to discuss six of the forms found in scripture in order to illustrate how asking these three basic questions about the form and function of Scripture can help us to preach more biblically.

*This article will be continued in the Pentecost 2004 edition of Preacher’s Magazine.

Thomas E. Phillips is Associate Professor of New Testament at Colorado Christian University. He and his family are members of Denver First Church of the Nazarene.