A sermon conclusion that gives the impression that engagement with the text has been completed and implies that all that remains is a series of steps which the preacher has discerned and provided doesn’t invite ongoing engagement with the text.
A conclusion is not the end of the conversation with the text, it is the beginning point that invites and directs the hearers to an ongoing exchange.
From Preaching Jeremiah by Walter Brueggemann:
… the wonderment of every sermon conclusion is how to permit the sermon to continue its work after the preacher has finished talking. At its best, the sermon is a rhetorical offer that continues to reverberate, giving the listening congregation room and motivation for ongoing processing, but with enough “meat” to suggest a direction for that ongoing process of reimagining, redescrbiing, and redeciding.
Preaching Jeremiah, Walter Brueggemann, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2020, pg 38.
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