Thread by @K_L_Phillips

I’ve been talking recently with a new friend about how to memorise the #SermonontheMount.
Thought I’d share my thoughts here, just as an interested amateur, in case they encourage others (a) to share their methods, (b) to have a go at memorising this beautiful sermon themselves.

1. Structure and Hierarchy!

I find this the single most helpful element in memorising longer units.
What is the overall structure of the sermon, at the most birds-eye level? E.g.:

Intro
Law and Prophets (Ethics; Devotion; Common Struggles)
Conclusion

Then, each of those units break down into their own structure.

E.g. Ethics. This breaks down into two groups of three sayings each: (a) murder; adultery; divorce. (b) oaths; eye for an eye; love your enemies.

2. #Mnemonics
At every stage, I look for creative mnemonics to help me more easily grasp these structural elements.
E.g.: to help me with the 'Ethics' part of the sermon...

3. Individual Units
After repeating this structure-hierarchy-mnemonic cycle as many times as I need to, I end up with individual units of text - perhaps ~3-5 verses each. In the Sermon on the Mount these units are pretty easy to spot, which makes things much more straightforward.

But still, memorising these small units can still be tricky, so I have a toolkit of memory aids to help me here, too.

Here are a couple, using the ‘#eyeforaneye’, and ‘#Loveyourenemies’ units

(a) Key words
The main bulk of this unit is taken up with three specific examples, which I can summarise with three ‘c’s: Cheek; Coat; Carry (I’m assuming that the reason the person is being forced to walk a mile is so that they can carry some gear).

(b) Chain Links
In this technique, I link one sentence to the next using some sort of thematic link, or sound link, or logical link. Theoretically, you can memorise long strings of text just using this method (but see warning below!)

4. The lovely thing about this method, combining hierarchy, structure, structural mnemonics, and mnemonics for small units of text, is that it frees me to ‘enter’ the text at any point. I don’t just have to start at the beginning and keep parroting until I get to the bit I want.

And if (as often happens!) I find one section of the text has got a bit rusty in my mind - no matter! I can simply skip that small unit and go onto the next, then come back to refresh the weak section later.

5. But why bother memorising?
I find the process itself v helpful in getting me to actually engage with the text, rather than just reading it over and over. E.g., in memorising the SOTM I have been struck by how the Lord’s Prayer in the very middle acts like a kind of axle...

and everything else in the sermon revolves around that axle and links to it. And at the heart of everything: “your Father in Heaven”! How that changes the tone of the whole sermon!

And once memorised, the ability to just access a particular unit and meditate on it at any time (brushing teeth, travelling to and from work, etc) is a wonderful wonderful privilege.

#treasurethetext