Folks have asked me for this, so here it is! I use this mainly to generate content (rhetorical inventio). For other procedures that I admire, see this and this.

Procedure for Sermon Writing

Find old sermons and notes in physical files and computer.

Make note sheet with the readings on them (or Notes document on computer).

Read the readings in NKJV or ESV.

Discuss the sermon text with others, especially laypeople, to see what questions they have of the text. Be sure to research and address these.

Review exegetical computer documents, filed by book of Bible.

[For saints’ days, consult both historical (e.g. Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche or Catholic Encyclopedia) and legendary sources (Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend).]

Compare main Bible versions: NKJV or ESV, KJV, Vulgate, Lutherbibel.

Read sermon text in original language. (Add to “Textual Notes”.)

Check Index Rerum for topics. (This is my personal master index of my past research. See this for one way to make an index for yourself. My Index Rerum is organized alphabetically by topic, however.)

Look up the passage in Book of Concord.

Read a commentary, or look up the passage in dogmatics, if necessary. If there is time, read one ancient commentary and one classic Lutheran commentary.

Outline the sermon.

Find illustrations for each point.

Find practical uses (can use “Evangelischer Wegweiser” in Gerhard’s Schola Pietatis at the beginning, or Das Weimarische Bibelwerk). For more on practical uses, see this. The uses are:

Teaching
Admonishing
Warning
Consoling

Look for antithesis. (What would be the opposite of this teaching, consolation, command, example, virtue, or vice? How has this been misunderstood?)

Find the cross in this pericope, or bring it in from one of the other texts of the day. Don’t force it in, but if the cross of atonement isn’t there, remind the hearers who our God is, about His will to save mankind through the cross of Christ, and who they are.

Answer the question: “Why is this important for the hearers to hear?”

Write (but write the introduction last). 1400 words for a short Sunday sermon (2000 words max), 1000 words for a short chapel sermon (1400 words max).

Practice.

Categories of Illustration

Use illustrations from the common experience of your hearers. Keep illustrations short: no more than one sentence, and less than a sentence is best.

Combat
Lawsuit
Physician/medicine
Family/servitude
Government
Market/commerce
Nature/farming
Food and drink
Body
Building/architecture/construction
Crime/police
Love
Machinery/electricity/technology
School/education
Gifts

Valerius Herberger, known in his life time as the "Jesus preacher" and "Little Luther," was a prolific writer of sermons. Besides preaching Sundays, festivals, and weekdays (a duty shared from the time of his diaconal service in 1599 until his death in the preaching office in Fraustadt in 1627), he found time to publish meditations and literary postils on the Pentateuch and early histories Joshua, Judges, Ruth—these occupying about 1200 folio pages—the first twenty-three psalms, the book of Sirach (in 97 sermons), Christmas and the Passion from the four Evangelists, and the New Jerusalem from the book of Revelation, and several volumes of funeral sermons, in addition to his regular Sunday and festival sermons on the Epistles and Gospels. Toward the end of his life, he was preparing several of these for publication, many manuscripts no doubt being copied for the press by his son Zacharias and published only posthumously, in some cases not until the 18th century.

Among all these works we also find the curiously named Geistreiche Stoppel-Postilla, meaning spiritual gleanings-postil (Stoppel is a cognate of the English word stubble), in Latin "Spicilegium." The term is agricultural and refers to the produce gleaned or manually harvested from the edges, corners, and margins of the field after the main work has been done. Here Herberger harvested a storehouse of sermons on pericopes throughout the Gospels and Acts not generally treated in the regular course of the church year. He does not cover all the remnants of each Gospel, however, but as you can see, begins with Matthew, and tends to avoid repeating parallel passages in the other Gospels, resulting in 103 sermons of about 6 folio pages each on average. Especially noteworthy is the paucity of Marcan sermons here. Acts, meanwhile, consumes 87 sermons of similar length. Since this may prove of interest to others, I provide a list of the contents here. The page numbers refer to those of the Leipzig Gleditsch edition of 1715 (see image above).

Part One: Gleanings from the Holy Gospels

1. Matthew 1 — p. 1
2. Matthew 3a. — p. 9
3. Matthew 3b. — p. 19 * another version of this sermon appears in his Evangelische Hertz-Postille.
4. Matthew 4:12-17 — p. 28
5. Matthew 3:23–25 — p. 34
6. Matthew 5:1–12 — p. 41
7. Mathew 5:13–16 — p. 49
8. Matthew 5:17–19 — p. 57
9. Matthew 5:27–end — p. 65
10. Matthew 5:38–6:4 — p. 73
11. Matthew 6:5–13 — p. 80
12. Matthew 6:16–23 — p. 86
13. Matthew 7:6–14 — p. 94
14. Matthew 7:24–fin. — p. 101
15. Matthew 8:14–17 — p. 107
16. Matthew 8:18–22 — p. 112
17. Matthew 8:17–22 & Luke 9:61–62 — p. 117
18. Matthew 8:28–fin, 9:1 — p. 122
19. Matthew 9:14–17 — p. 127
20. Matthew 9:35–fin. — p. 132
21. Matthew 10:1–4 — p. 137
22. Matthew 10:5-15 — p. 142
23. Matthew 10:16 — p. 148
24. Matthew 10:17–27 — p. 153
25. Matthew 10:28–32 — p. 160
26. Matthew 10:34–fin. — p. 168
27. Matthew 11:11–15 — p. 174
28. Matthew 11:16–24 — p. 180
29. Matthew 12:1–21 — p. 186
30. Matthew 12:31–37 — p. 191
31. Matthew 12:28–31 — p. 196
32. Matthew 12:42 — p. 200
33. Matthew 12:46–fin. — p. 205
34. Matthew 13:44 — p. 210
35. Matthew 13:47–fin. — p. 215
36. Matthew 14:1–12. — p. 219
37. Beheading of John (Mark 6:17–29) — p. 225
38. Matthew 14:22-fin. — p. 231
39. Matthew 15:1—20 — p. 237
40. Matthew 16:1–12 — p. 242
41. Matthew 16:21–fin. — p. 248
42. Matthew 17:1–9 — p. 254
43. Matthew 17:10–13 — p. 260
44. Matthew 17:14–21 — p. 264
45. Matthew 17:22–fin. — p. 269
46. Matthew 18:15–20. — p. 274
47. Matthew 19:1–15 — p. 280
48. Matthew 19:16–26 — p. 284
49. Matthew 21:23–32. — p. 289
50. Matthew 21:33–fin. — p. 295 {“275”}
51. Matthew 22:23–33 — p. 299
52. Matthew 23:1—33 — p. 305
53. Matthew 23:34–fin. — p. 311
54. Matthew 24:1—14. — p. 316

1. Mark 8:22–26. — p. 322
2. Mark 9:49–50 — p. 327
3. Mark 12:41–44 — p. 331
4. Mark 13:33–fin. — p. 332

1. Luke 1:1–4 — p. 338
2. Luke 1:5–25 — p. 341
3. Luke 4:33–fin. — p. 346
4. Luke 11:1–13 — p. 351
5. Luke 12:13–21 — p. 356
6. Luke 13:1–5 — p. 362
7. Luke 13:6–9 — p. 366
8. Luke 13:10–17 — p. 370
9. Luke 13:31–fin. — p. 373
10. Luke 14:25—33 — p. 378
11. Luke 17:7–10 — p. 384
12. Luke 22:31–38 — p. 391

1. John 1:15–18 — p. 396
2. John 1:29–34 — p. 400
3. John 1:43–fin. — p. 406
4. John 2:12–fin. — p. 411
5. John 3:22–fin.— p. 418
6. John 4:1–14 — p. 426
7. John 4:15–24. — p. 431
8. John 4:25–46. — p. 437
9. John 5:19–30 — p. 442
10. John 5:31–fin. — p. 448
11. John 6:23–58 — p. 454
12. John 6:27, 33, 35, 47, 51, 58 — p. 460
13. John 6:59–fin. — p. 465
14. John 7:1–13 — p. 470
15. John 7:14–39 — p. 475
16. John 7:40–fin. — p. 481
17. John 8:1–20 — p. 486
18. John 8:21–30 — p. 492
19. John 8:31–45 — p. 497
20. John 9:1–17 — p. 502
21. John 9:18–fin. — p. 507
22. John 10:17–31 — p. 513
23. John 10:31–fin. — p. 517
24. John 12:27–30 — p. 523
25. John 12:31–fin. — p. 528
26. John 13:18–fin. — p. 534
27. John 14:15–23. — p. 539
28. John 16:30–fin. — p. 544
29. John 17:1–5 — p. 548
30. John 17:6–19 (parts 1–4) — p. 554
31. John 17:6–19 (part 5) — p. 559
32. John 17:20–23 — p. 564
33. John 17:24–fin. — p. 568

Part Two: Gleanings from the Acts of the Holy Apostles

1. Acts 3:1–8 — p. 1
2. Acts 3:9–16 — p. 5
3. Acts 3:17–fin. — p. 10
4. Acts 4:1–12 — p. 16
5. Acts 4:13–22 — p. 20
6. Acts 4:23–31 — p. 25
7. Acts 4:32–fin. — p. 30
8. Acts 5:1–11 — p. 34
9. Acts 5:12–16 — p. 39
10. Acts 5:17–21 — p. 44
11. Acts 5:21–32 — p. 48
12. Acts 5:33–40 — p. 53
13. Acts 5:40–fin. — p. 57
14. Acts 6:1–7 — p. 61
15. Acts 8:1–8 — p. 65
16. Acts 8:9–13 — p. 69
17. Acts 8:14–25 — p. 73
18. Acts 8:26–fin. (I: of Philip) — p. 77
19. Acts 8:26–fin. (II: of the Eunuch) — p. 82
20. Acts 9:23–25 — p. 87
21. Acts 9:26–30 — p. 91
22. Acts 9:31 — p. 95
23. Acts 9:32–35 — p. 100
24. Acts 9:36–43 — p. 104
25. Acts 11:1–18 — p. 108
26. Acts 11:19–26 — p. 113
27. Acts 11:27–30; 12:25 — p. 118
28. Acts 13:1–12 — p. 123
29. Acts 13:13–41 (Paul & Barnabas) — p. 128
30. Acts 13:16–41 (Paul’s sermon) — p. 133
31. Acts 13:42–43 — p. 139
32. Acts 13:44–fin. — p. 143
33. Acts 14:1–7 14834. Acts 14:8–18 — p. 152
35. Acts 14:19–fin. — p. 157
36. Acts 15:1–4 — p. 162
37. Acts 15:5—21 — p. 168
38. Acts 15:22–29 — p. 174
39. Acts 15:30–35 — p. 179
40. Acts 15:36–fin. — p. 184
41. Acts 16:1–10 — p. 190
42. Acts 16:11—15 — p. 195
43. Acts 16:16–24 — p. 200
44. Acts 16:25–34 — p. 206
45. Acts 16:35–fin. — p. 211
46. Acts 17:1-10 — p. 216
47. Acts 17:10–15 — p. 221
48. Acts 17:16–21 — p. 227
49. Acts 17:22–fin. — p. 233
50. Acts 18:1–11 — p. 239
51. Acts 18:12–17 — p. 245
52. Acts 18:18–fin. — p. 249
53. Acts 19:1–7 — p. 255
54. Acts 19:8–12 — p. 259
55. Acts 19:13–20 — p. 264
56. Acts 19:21–34 — p. 270
57. Acts 19:35–fin. — p. 275
58. Acts 20:1–12 — p. 280
59. Acts 20:13–17 — p. 286
60. Acts 20:18–fin. — p. 290
61. Acts 21:1–6 — p. 296
62. Acts 21:7–14 — p. 302
63. Acts 21:15–20 — p. 308
64. Acts 21:20–30 — p. 313
65. Acts 21:31–fin. — p. 319
66. Acts 22:1–22 — p. 324
67. Acts 22:23–29 — p. 330
68. Acts 22:30–23:6 — p. 336
69. Acts 23:6–11 — p. 341
70. Acts 23:12–16 — p. 345
71. Acts 23:17–fin. — p. 350
72. Acts 24:1–4 — p. 358
73. Acts 24:5–21 — p. 363
74. Acts 24:22–27 — p. 368
75. Acts 25:1–12 — p. 374
76. Acts 25:13–fin. — p. 379
77. Acts 26:1–24 — p. 285
78. Acts 26:24–fin. — p. 392
79. Acts 27:1–13 — p. 398
80. Acts 27:14–26 — p. 403
81. Acts 27:27–41 — p. 409
82. Acts 27:42–fin. — p. 414
83. Acts 28:1–6 — p. 419
84. Acts 28:7–10 — p. 424
85. Acts 28:11–16 — p. 428
86. Acts 28:17–22 — p. 434
87. Acts 28:23–fin. — p. 439

Monday, November 27, 2023

Mayes Procedure for Sermon Writing

Procedure for Sermon Writing

Categories of Illustration

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Herberger's "Other" Postils