Catechism Preaching

I am working on my second sermon based on the Heidelberg Catechism, this one on Lord's Day 35, dealing with the Second Commandment.

While I have done sermons on the Catechism for school, it is a totally different experience doing it knowing that I will be preaching it before a congregation on the coming Sunday. Writing a good Catechism sermon is not as easy as I expected it to be (not that I expected it to be too easy, there is a lot of information and doctrine in this confession).

One thing that I have learned over this last week and a half working on two Catechism sermons is the vital importance of having a good Scripture reading to go along with the Catechism. This reading provides a way of getting some tightened focus on the doctrine of the catechism, so that the sermon is more focussed, and doesn't go all over the place trying to deal with every possible thing.

I sent my preliminary outline to Rev. Van Vliet, and I know that he will give me good advice and show me how to tighten the focus of this outline. But shortly after I had sent it out to him, I started reading some related passages (starting with the chapters surrounding the Catechism's proof-texts) again, and through my reading of Romans 10, I came across what I think is a better way of digging into the material of the Catechism here. I will present it to Rev. Van Vliet and see what he says.

Having spent all yesterday studying for this sermon, and this morning working on a theme and points and outline (well, theme and points usually comes late on Monday, and outline on Tuesday morning), this sermon still requires a good morning's work to obtain an outline that I will be happy with (a good morning's work and a good chat with Rev. Van Vliet).

Well, I should eat some lunch before I go to meet with my mentor.

Hopefully when I return this afternoon, I will have a good idea of where I can fix my outline.