I’m a fan of “breath prayers” such as the Jesus Prayer. Here’s one way I practice it:
BREATHE IN: Jesus Christ
BREATHE OUT: Son of God
BREATHE IN: Have mercy
BREATHE OUT: on me.
Prayers like these are ways of remaining attentive to God throughout day; praying without ceasing.
This experience has recently led me to consider the “breaths” involved in my preaching. As I currently view it, there are at least six breaths involved in a typical sermon. Each one is critical if the sermon is going to do what it’s intended to do.
#1: BREATHE IN: Here, I’m breathing in God’s word. As I practice Lectio Divina, meditation and contemplation on the text, I’m striving to take in all God wishes to do and say through the particular text from which the sermon will grow. I find it best if I have at least a couple of weeks for this breath.
#2: BREATHE OUT: Having taken in God’s word, I now exhale and allow that word to be “fleshed out” both in my life and in the form of a sermon. I strive to live by this word in the weeks leading up to the sermon. And I strive to craft this word into a manuscript from which I will preach the sermon. It takes me three weeks and three drafts to flesh out this manuscript.
#3: BREATHE IN: For three days, I breathe that sermon manuscript back in. Through rehearsing it out loud three times on Friday, three times on Saturday and three times on Sunday, I strive to inhale the sermon so that it is firmly planted in my mind and my heart and is ready to be delivered on Sunday morning.
#4: BREATHE OUT: On Sunday morning, at three services, I breathe out that word upon the church. Hopefully, there is a sense in which God is breathing out through me as I deliver the sermon.
#5: BREATHE IN: Now the listeners, as they hear the sermon I’m breathing out, breathe in that word. Hopefully, each listener inhales that word and allows it to root in his/her heart and mind. I have no control over how well this does or does not happen. Beyond my prayers and the work I’ve invested in breaths 1-4, there is little else I can control at this point.
#6: BREATHE OUT: My ultimate goal is for each listener, in the week that follows the sermon, to exhale and to begin to let that word be “fleshed out” in his/her own life. This is the ultimate barometer of success–how well the sermon is exhaled by listeners in ways that shape who they are and what they do.
