Mennonite Weekly Review

Where do pastors find inspiring models for preaching? Every preach­er should identify a model of excellence in crafting sermons.

Esau

Decades ago during my first pastorate, Bernice and I got to the breakfast table at 7 a.m. on Sundays. It was not the food — usually a bowl of cold cereal and some fruit — that was enticing.

The reason for our discipline was a radio program, The Protestant Hour, now called Day 1. Various people from mainline Protestant denominations provided music and a sermon.

Many preachers were forgettable. But when the time came each year for the Lutherans, I listened avidly to the preaching of Edmund A. Steimle. He became my mentor and model.

Those early mornings became our time of worship, before the service when I had to preach. Steimle’s preaching touched my mind, my heart and my soul. This was how to do it.

Steimle was a Lutheran pastor who became professor of homiletics at The Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia and finally at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Once I heard him preach in person.

In preparation for writing this column I turned to Steimle’s book of sermons, Disturbed by Joy. I read again his sermon for Lent, “Cross and Glory.” I found myself asking: What was it about Steimle’s preaching that carried such power and meaning?

The first thing I observed was Steimle’s honesty and realism in speaking about life and about Scripture. He had an earthy quality that put him in touch with simple observations about our common life and experiences.

He must have been a keen observer and listener. He saw significance in small and large events on the stage of history. From there he built bridges to the texts of the world of the Bible.

Second, Steimle respected words and language. Although the printed sermon text is in the form of prose, it reads almost like poetry. It has rhythm and repetition. It delights the ear as much as it challenges the mind.