You may have heard the sayings, "Originality is forgetting where you heard it," and "plagiarism is using one source, using multiple sources is called research." Last Sunday's sermon was one of my favorites in a while, because of the interaction I played out of an original idea combined with a powerful single source.
In Matthew 5:3, Jesus makes a definitive teaching about mourning. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." There are many layers to this teaching (I ended the sermon applying it to our sin, death, and need for salvation). Because our current series is looking to the Bible for how to love God and heal through loss, I applied it to loss. So I spent a half hour leading the congregation to basically memorize Matthew 5:3 by returning to it over and over, as we fleshed out what Jesus mean by choosing the present and active verb tense of 'mourn.' I chose to paraphrase it as 'blessed/abundant-lifed are those who actively-mourn their loss.' Or, 'Blessed are those who don't skip any stages of grief.'
When Jesus brings up the subject of mourning, it happens to be something psychologists have spent a lot of time on. What is typical/normal/abnormal/healthy/unhealthy in the ways humans grieve loss? After much research, there is a grand consensus in the human sciences that there are 5 stages that best describe the healthy process of grieving a loss, over a long period of time. And to get stuck at, or skip over any of the stages is bad and blocks healing. We Christians would say it this way - social science has gotten good at observing and describing how God made us to 'work' when it comes to loss and grief.
So my idea was to apply Jesus' teaching of 'actively mourning' viewed through the lens of each of the 5 classic stages of grief. But I used the standard source to describe the stages - the classic description written by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler. And some of you noticed - I met yesterday with a physician in our church who is starting a new practice locally. She said 'I loved how you made Kubler-Ross' 5 stages come alive through Scripture!' At times I was quoting their document at verbatim, at times not (she never damned cats to hell, nor warned Lake Norman people about the quick fix of dating too quickly after a separation, divorce or loss).
Sometimes I name my sources if I think it will be helpful, many times I don't because it makes for laborious communication. Excellent sources are one way of keeping my preaching and interaction with God's Word fresh and growing. In this instance, I thought it would be helpful for you to 'see my work.' For those of you interested, here is the original essay in full. Its really good stuff.Download Stagesofloss
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