Approaching the Alps: A Plan for Preparing to Preach Difficult Passages

Sometimes preaching brings us to the homiletical Alps of the Bible. These are the biblical passages that are difficult enough for us to climb ourselves—and far more difficult to manage guiding our congregations through for their spiritual transformation. I recently climbed one of those peaks in preaching Hebrews 6:4–8. Indeed, if we are lectio continua preachers—preaching the full counsel of God—we cannot avoid the heights of the Bible’s difficult texts. Yet from these peaks we often gain our clearest and most expansive views of God and his redemptive purposes. When you hike a hill, you plan for the basics. When you take on an Alp, you prepare more thoroughly, seriously, and humbly. Here are ten preparations for climbing a difficult, biblical text.

Prep Your Family

When we bear the stress of Sunday’s sermon, it may leak into family interactions or our normal dynamics. Start the week by telling your wife and kids you’ve got a heavy task Sunday. Ask for their prayer. Let them know the passage may require a few extra office hours. Preaching is your task, but ministry is your family’s life. Give them a heads up.

Hear From Your Sheep

Throughout the week as you are with your sheep for lunches or coffee or visits, ask them about the passage. This aids in determining your scope and anticipating concerns. Ask them if have confusions or concerns with the text. We could make too much of a text’s difficulty believing our congregation knows or thinks more about it than they do.

Pray

Hopefully this is assumed. You wouldn’t take on the Alps without a guide. The author of the Bible’s complexities is sufficient to guide you through them. Apply James 1:5 to your sermon prep. God does not withhold preaching wisdom from those who are humble enough to ask for it.

Diagnose the Difficulty

Different peaks offer different problems. Is it a theologically difficult passage, like Hebrews 7 or Romans 9? Or is it emotionally challenging? Take Hannah in 1 Sam. 1–2. There may be ladies in your congregation who yearn with Hannah for a child in chapter one but can’t yet rejoice with her in chapter two. It is especially challenging when theological and emotional difficulties coincide, eg. Heb. 6:4–8; Psalm 137; 1 Cor. 7, etc. Diagnosing the difficulty heightens your care in preparation.

Maximally Engage Your Pastoral Instincts

Whatever your method for sermon application, plan to give it more time. Try to think about the passage as though you haven’t heard it or encountered it in seminary. Think about how it would hit you for the first time, spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally. Think about multiple individuals in your congregation and how they will hear it. We don’t want to inadvertently create even more distance from the text to the listener because we’ve failed to apply it effectively.

Settle on a Structure

Anticipating the difficulties you’ve diagnosed, you may need to adjust your structure accordingly. Provide fences for your sermon, state them in your sermon, and stay within them.[1] For example, you may need to list and explain interpretive views, which may be outside the norm, but necessary fences in some cases. Plan the structure to match the situation.

Prepare Normally

After you’ve settled on your structure and considered application on the frontside, work through your normal preparation process. Your routine should be safe for you. Whether you’re hiking a hill or climbing an alp, you still ascend with normal steps. Don’t alter the basics altogether.

Build Out or Cut Down

Building out or cutting down content should be normal steps, and all the more for complex passages. For building out, make sure you haven’t underdeveloped or ignored the difficulty. Under-addressing the natural questions of a text is both a frustration for your listeners and a failure with the text. As you cut down, make sure the difficulty doesn’t dominate the message. Preach the passage, resolving the problem. Don’t overemphasize the problem at the expense of the whole passage.

Don’t Disclaim the Text to Death

A message on a difficult passage may require some preamble. You may need to note some controversy from the outset or provide some extra pastoral and theological scope. However, don’t talk so much about the difficulty of the text that you cause intimidation or disinterest from the outset. Your people have come with hurts and problems, ready to be restored in the grace of Christ. Don’t accidentally talk about the passage like it’s a mountain they can’t climb.

Your people have come with hurts and problems, ready to be restored in the grace of Christ. Don’t accidentally talk about the passage like it’s a mountain they can’t climb.

And certainly don’t sound apologetic for the Bible, even if it’s a heavier reality of God—his wrath, Hell, imprecatory texts, etc.. Your take on a text will not be more compassionate than God’s. Don’t apologize for the passage. Bring your people into the text with fear and trembling, but not shame.

Preach Boldly

If you’ve prepared diligently, preach boldly. Climb the peak with purpose and progress with confidence. Keep in step with your wise and comforting Guide. It will be worth the view from the top.

I pray this is a help next time you’re facing an Alp.

[1] Purely for illustrative purposes, allow me to share a recent preaching sequence from Hebrews 6:4-8:

1.   Introduced with lighthearted word picture.
2. Stated it’s a heavy text and what makes it so.
3. Gave common interpretive views.
4. Briefly defended my view in unit context, book context, and theological context.
5. In defending my view, I was able to answer a pastoral concern. This allowed me to be efficient and do two things at once.
6. Preached it.
7. Raised and resolved the 3 common questions regarding the text.
8. Reintegrated the opening word picture to resolve thought lines and conclude with the imagery.

I did several things in this message I would typically advise against. Steps 2-5 and 7 are abnormal for me.