Worship Resources for June

Voicing Biblical Figures

From time to time over the past 20 years of my ministry, I have preached as if I were a character from the Bible. Over the years, I have spoken as Zebedee (the father of James and John), as Elizabeth (the mother of the Baptist), ¹ as Peter, as Joseph Barsabbas, known as Justus (the unsuccessful candidate for the replacement for Judas) and as Moses, among others.

Quite recently, I have broadened this out to, sometimes, voicing a dialogue between two biblical characters, specifically (and repeatedly!) a dialogue between Gabriel and God or Jesus. I offered the first two of these ‘Gabriel Dialogues’ to the editor of this journal for him to consider publishing as ‘Worship Resources.’ ² He not only enthusiastically accepted them, but also urged me to continue to produce material in the same vein, which I have gladly done, composing numerous further ‘Gabriel Dialogues,’ ³ two ‘Jacob Monologues,’ ⁴ and one ‘From Mark at the beginning of the Lectionary Year of the Gospel of Mark.’ ⁵

While this way of delivering a message to a congregation is not one that can be used every single week, I have found it to be an effective and engaging way of helping people to engage with the Bible—and, indeed, with God.

Of course, I am not the first person to speak as people from the Bible. Kahlil Gibran’s Jesus: The Son of Man, ⁶ for instance, is a series of monologues by people who encountered Jesus. Unlike the likes of Gibran, however, I seek to remain as faithful as I can to the text of the Scriptures—not just to the passage on which the monologue or the dialogue is based, but the broader sweep of the Bible, working in references or allusions to other passages that I feel are apposite. Speaking in this way has allowed me to work in connections with other biblical passages that may not commonly be linked with the text from which I am starting. Often, it is these broader connections that allow me to make the key points that make what I am presenting a sermon rather than simply a retelling of a biblical narrative.

Creating such monologues or dialogues does involve some imaginative ‘filling in of the gaps’—there is no biblical record of any conversations between the Lord and Gabriel, for instance, but as Luke 1.26 speaks of Gabriel being sent by God, some sort of prior encounter between the Archangel and the Almighty is surely implied. Similarly, that Gabriel was summoned by the exalted Jesus, rather than by Yahweh Armies, to be sent to Philip (Acts 8), is surely a warranted inference from the overall biblical story. In what I compose, I try to be faithful to the Bible and to ‘sound’ exegesis, while at the same time using my imagination and bringing in other texts that are relevant, but not originally associated with the passage I am working from.

When I speak as a biblical character or characters, generally I don’t dress up in a costume or say before I start that I am going to speak as someone from the Bible. I just launch in! I think that the surprise this engenders is part of what helps folk to become engaged and drawn in and attentive to what I am saying. Some of my beginnings must be quite disconcerting to my hearers! Once, when I was preaching in a Church in Darlington, I began, ‘I knew that Princess Nefertiti could not be my birth mother, long before she ever told me’! I was, of course, speaking as Moses. After I had spoken as Mark, using the original form of the piece published in this journal, with its beginning, ‘When I was born on Cyprus . . . .,’ someone in the congregation, who did not already know me, said to me that he was initially totally puzzled, as he did not think that I looked to be a Cypriot in any way! In all cases, however, I quickly identify or make clear who I am speaking as.

As a man, I must admit that I have found it extremely hard to voice a female character from the Bible. It doesn’t seem to work! I certainly found this to be the case when I spoke as Elizabeth. When I reused that material in a different Church, I cast it as a letter from Elizabeth to that congregation, and that got around my problem.

I think I would find it very difficult, too, to speak as God or Jesus directly to a congregation. It’s different voicing the Divine to another biblical figure in a dialogue (as in the Gabriel Dialogues).

Not only does this way of preaching engage my hearers, it somehow allows me to make my points more forcefully than if I were speaking in my own voice.

It also forces me to use my imagination and to engage my own emotions, which is not something I generally find easy to do. And it draws me personally more deeply into the text and the characters of Scripture. So, it is good for me as well as for those who hear me.

It’s not the only way of preaching, and shouldn’t be. Publishing my pieces as ‘Worship Resources’ rather than as ‘Sermons for the Christian Year’ feels right, to me certainly.

But voicing biblical figures, speaking as characters from the Bible, is for me a powerful way of bringing the text to life and expounding the Gospel, for me and for those who hear me using this way of preaching. Perhaps other readers of this journal who are preachers might like to explore preaching in this way, too.