Sermon Outline: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

1 Corinthians 2:1-5
1. Literary/Poetic Analysis – First, try to discern the genre of this text. Is it a story? A letter? A Prophetic oracle? A psalm? A beatitude? A genealogy? A proverb? Apocalyptic? How it functions (see below) is intimately related to its genre.
Next, list the verbs. Then, look for what seems to be the main metaphors or images of the passage. List them. Is God like a “father” or “mother”? Or a potter? Does mercy “pour” out? Is the Reign of God like a “mustard seed”? Is the life of faith like a “foot race”?
Are there any people, places, events, etc., whose meaning might be more symbolic than literal (e.g., Ezekiel’s “wheel within a wheel,” the young man dressed in white in the empty tomb in Mark 16:5, or the fact that Nicodemus comes at “night” in John 3)?
2. Structural Analysis – Look for any shifts within the text: of characters, location, time, topic, etc. What seems to be the episodes; how might they be blocked out as a play; what might be the changes in the scene?
List the sequence of events the “plot” of the story of the argument. This clues you in on the progression of thought, i.e., how the author is leading you along toward an emotion, understanding, insight, etc. Finally, look at what has changed from beginning to end. Characters? Emotions? Theological understandings?
3. Theological Analysis – On the basis of your analysis of terms, genre, metaphors, symbols, structure, and rhetorical intention, what seems to be the theological meanings underlying or expressed by each section (or “scene”)? What theological themes? What faith issues seem to be at stake? What might this passage be trying to answer, to teach, or solve, or criticize, or produce? What cultural conflicts might rumble within this text – or as a result of it? What situation(s) does it seem to be trying to address? And important for your preaching of this text: what ethical implications might follow from these insights? Here is your chance to think deeply about the text to reflect on its implications. This theological analysis and your reflection upon it is absolutely crucial to any movement toward a sermon. What you preach about is directly dependent upon what you discern at this stage.
4. Looking for Key Terms – Write down every term you think might have an outside chance of a possibility of being some sort of key term important to understanding what’s going on in this text. Names, locations, characters, qualifiers, verbs, specialized words – it’s all fair game here. Then go to a concordance and look up where each one appears in this author’s work (Mark’s gospel, or Luke-Acts, or Paul’s letters, or Chronicles, etc.), to see how they might fit into this author’s view of the faith; how they might accumulate meanings in the course of the book and so contribute to what the author might be trying to accomplish in this particular passage. Some might be fairly innocuous; others might be crucial. You never know.