Words As Images
Sermon
Preaching To A TV Generation
The Sermon In The Electronic Age
... we are addressing a generation accustomed to acting primarily
on visual stimuli ... In our modern age the preacher must
therefore translate the biblical message into one that awakens
all the senses, into words that cause a congregation also to see
and feel and smell and taste. Otherwise the people listening may
never hear the words in which the gospel is framed.15
-- Elizabeth Achtemeier
The printed word communicates by a line of thought. Television
communicates by images. Clearly we must use language rich with
visual imagery. Furthermore, today we understand that effective
communication must involve the whole person, not just the
intellect, but also the emotions and the will. We want not only
to explain, but to move, to inspire and to motivate. That can be
done only with vivid and colorful language. This has always been
true, but television has made it crystal clear.
Imagery As Life Itself
The reason that imagery works is that we live our lives in the
concrete, and the use of imagery forces us to connect our sermons
to daily life. Jerry Schmalenberger urges preachers to "keep your
sermon close to the ground ... We must deal with the nitty gritty
issues of the day in everyday language."16
Fred B. Craddock, professor of preaching and New Testament at
the Chandler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia,
advocates an "inductive movement" in preaching, beginning with
the lives and situation of the people in the pews, then moving to
the biblical message, rather than stating a general truth and
deducing particular applications:
The plain fact of the matter is that we are seeking to
communicate with people whose experiences are concrete. Everyone
lives inductively, not deductively. No farmer deals with the
problem of calfhood, only with the calf .... The minister says,
"all men are mortal" and meets drowsy agreement; he announces
that "Mr. Brown's son is dying," and the church becomes the
church.17
Imagery takes an abstract, general idea and expresses it with
a concrete, specific term which creates a picture in the mind.
For example, "Flowers are beautiful" is a true statement, but the
word flower is a generic word and creates no picture in your mind
unless your imagination narrows the term down and creates for
itself a picture in your mind. However, if I say, "Roses are
beautiful," that's more specific, because we know what a rose
looks like and the image comes to mind. If I say, "Red roses are
beautiful," that becomes even more specific. But if I say, "See
that red rose on the table? Isn't it gorgeous?" I have brought
the idea of flowers down to one specific flower. You know exactly
what I'm talking about because you can see it.
In preaching a sermon on Matthew 5:44, "Love your enemies
...,"one could explain how Christians love even our enemies
because God has loved us while we were yet sinners and Jesus
sacrificed himself on the cross to atone for our sins and
reconcile us to a merciful God, and so on. That is true, and it
needs to be said. But it's abstract. What the sermon needs is an
example of a person who had reason to hate somebody, but whose
hatred was turned to love through the presence and example of
Jesus. That image would illustrate for the listener what is meant
with the text. In this television age the preacher should always
ask, "This idea or truth which I want to communicate -- what
image can I use to fix it in the listener's mind?"
The power of imagery in words is nothing new. Poets have
always known it. Indeed, that's what poetry is. For example, in
analyzing the sense of futility a person might feel about life,
one could say,
"Many people feel a sense of futility about life, thinking that
it has no purpose. They live day by day, but their life lacks
meaning."
That is true, but it is stated abstractly. The words in
themselves carry no imagery and a congregation's eyes would soon
glaze over with this kind of general talk, even though it is all
theologically correct and true.
Shakespeare said the same thing. After scratching his way to
the throne, Macbeth learns of his wife's death and is filled with
foreboding that all his murderous plotting will backfire. In his
despair he says,
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour up on the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.18
This description is lush with imagery. Every line creates
pictures in the mind. Combine an abstract, general statement with
imagery like this (although 10 lines of such richness would be
too much all at once for most listeners), and your message will
have impact. The listener's mind has been given imagery which
illustrates what you're saying.
Walter Brueggemann, Professor of Old Testament at Columbia
Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, is alarmed that the gospel has
become "a truth that has been flattened,
trivialized and rendered inane," that is, it has been reduced to
bland familiarity by people who have heard it so often. The only
possibility for the renewal of preaching is that we become "poets
that speak against a prose world."
The task and possibility of preaching is to open out the good
news of the gospel with alternative modes of speech -- speech
that is dramatic, artistic, capable of inviting persons to join
in another conversation, free of the reason of technique,
encumbered by ontologies that grow abstract, unembarrassed about
concreteness.19
Richard Jensen goes a step further and argues for a "paradigm
shift" in preaching from "thinking in ideas," characteristic of a
literate print culture, to "thinking in story."20
Good speakers have always spoken with color and imagination by
instinct.21 But in today's age of visual communication it has
become doubly crucial for preachers to create concrete pictures
in the minds of their listeners.
Biblical Imagery
Long before television, the Hebrews used pictorial language.
They thought in metaphor and image. The Old Testament is a
treasure house of images. The Old Testament narrative itself is a
story, the account of the Jewish people from Adam on through the
story of the divided kingdom.
One of the most effective uses of imagery in the Bible was
Nathan's confrontation with David. The prophet could have come to
the king and exposed his sin by saying, "You have sent Uriah to
his death so that you could take his wife Bathsheba for
yourself!" Rather he stood before the king and told a story,
"There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other
poor ..." (2 Samuel 12:1) David was drawn into the story, so that
when it was turned to him he immediately grasped the meaning. In
writing about the use of stories in
sermons, William Bausch first considered titling his book
Nathan's Legacy, because all preachers:
stand in Nathan's tradition. He, the rest of the prophets, and in
fact all the sacred writers ... thought and wrote in terms of
stories.22
Take any psalm and "translate" it into the clear but abstract
prose we usually use. Then compare how bland it is compared to
the original. Look at some well-known verses from Psalm 139 for
example:
Plain Prose
How can I get away from God?
Can I get away from
his presence?
No matter where I go,
you are there.
You will always guide me
and take care of me, no
matter how far I
might go.
You can see everything,
so darkness doesn't
hide me from you.
Psalmist's Version
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your
presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are
there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you
are there;
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest
limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall
lead me,
and your right hand shall hold
me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness
shall cover me,
and the light around me become
night,"
even the darkness is not dark to
you;
the night is as bright as the
day,
for darkness is as light to you.
The message of the two readings is the same, but the plain
prose, stripped of its imagery, is colorless and bland. One can
do the same thing with any of the psalms. Imagine how Psalm 24
would sound as abstract statements, without its imagery of the
shepherd, the valley, the table, and so on!
The Old Testament was written when oral communication was
predominant. In the New Testament the language and thought of
Jesus, the disciples and others were formed by their Hebrew
background. Jesus' entire communication was oral. Except for the
single instance when he wrote in the sand (John 8:6, 8), Jesus
never wrote a word, and even in John 8 we don't know what he
wrote. In speaking with people, he knew the power of imagery.
When he was criticized for eating with sinners and tax
collectors, he could have responded by explaining, "God considers
everybody precious and receives even the worst sinners with mercy
and forgiveness when they come to him." That would have been
correct, but abstract. Rather Jesus responded, "There was a man
who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father,
'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me ...'
" (Luke 15:11f.) Immediately an image comes to mind of a father
with an impatient son itching for independence. As the story
unfolds, we watch in our mind's eye as the younger son goes off
into the far
country, squanders his inheritance, returns with anxiety only to
see his father rush out and lift him off his feet with a hug.
The story of the Prodigal Son, or the Waiting Father, is so
powerful that it is one of the best known and loved passages in
the whole Bible. Few people then or now would have noticed or
remembered Jesus' answer if it had been expressed abstractly.
Everybody remembers his story of the father and his two sons.
Kinds Of Imagery
There are various kinds of imagery, from full-blown stories to
a single word which evokes a picture in the mind. We use
metaphors and similes regularly in our everyday language. A
metaphor is an image in place of an abstract term. In describing
King Herod Jesus could have said, "Herod is a cunning and
untrustworthy man," which was correct but colorless. Instead he
called Herod a fox, an image which conveyed immediately exactly
what he meant.
Jesus used metaphors repeatedly. How did he express his love
for Jerusalem? "How often would I have gathered your children
together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings ...!"
(Matthew 23:37)
"Beware of false prophets," he warned his followers, "who come
to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
(Matthew 7:15)
A simile is a comparison usually stated with like or as.
Something is like something else, and immediately an image is
produced in our mind. Listen again to Jesus:
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure ... Again, the kingdom
is like a merchant in search of fine pearls ... Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea
..." (Matthew 13:44f)
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are
like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but
within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness."
(Matthew 23:27)
Parables are also the language of imagery. The definition of a
parable often used for children is "an earthly story with a
heavenly meaning." That's an everyday way of saying, "an image
from life to express an abstract or spiritual meaning." Every one
of Jesus' parables combine a vivid image with a meaning.
The most effective imagery is that which speaks directly about
human life, particularly those situations which touch the
listener personally. When we hear the parable of the Prodigal
Son, we cannot help but think about our own fathers, our own past
and our own feelings in the reaction of the elder brother. When a
pastor tells a story about a person struggling with illness,
everybody in the congregation who has experienced similar
suffering is immediately drawn into the story.
Colorful Language
"Imagery" can be broadly defined as colorful language.
Academic education trains us to write with economy and accuracy.
Speaking needs much more. In preaching class I tell students, "In
your past years of education and here in your other classes, you
are trained to be precise, accurate, banal and boring. Here we
try to change all that." That's exaggerated, but it makes the
point. To touch and move an audience, a preacher must shift from
the abstract language of the classroom to language rich in
imagery for the pulpit.
We need to become adventuresome, even daring and exciting in
our speech. Good preaching needs language with vigor, muscle,
energy and punch. In short, we need language with the rich
texture of imagery -- metaphor, simile, story, zippy adjectives
and verbs.
Be a poet in the pulpit, not a bureaucrat or professor. When
Professor Brueggemann urges preachers to become poets, he is
talking of language with verve and muscle:
By poetry, I do not mean rhyme, rhythm, or meter, but language
that moves like Bob Gibson's fast ball, that
jumps at the right moment, that breaks open old worlds with
surprise abrasion, and pace. Poetic speech is the only
proclamation worth doing in a situation of reductionism, the only
proclamation, I submit, that is worthy of the name preaching.23
The impact of colorful language is not new to the modern age.
Guest speakers and preachers have always been poets in their
speech. Read the banal, prosy statements listed first and compare
that with the vigorous, image-filled language of the great
preachers of the past:
Flat Speech
1 -- One should pray to become closer to God, not just to get
good things from God.
2 -- Jesus looked like an ordinary man, even a fisherman of his
times, and he knew he would die; even then he told us our
redemption was near.
3 -- God is pleased with creative preaching, just as God was
pleased at creation and Easter. The devil doesn't want the Word
preached well, because then his reign would be threatened.
Colorful Speech
1 -- Whoever has decided to pray, really to pray, must seize the
hand of God, not the pennies in his hand.24
2 -- Christ himself was fantastic with his hair every whichway
and smelling of fish and looking probably a lot more like Groucho
Marx than like Billy Budd as he stood there with his ugly death
already thick as flies about him and said to raise our heads,
raise our heads for Christ's sake, because our redemption is
near.25
3 -- The Author of the text laughs in delight, the way that
Author has laughed only at creation and at Easter, but laughs
again when the sermon carries the day against the prose of the
Dark Prince who wants no new poetry in the region he thinks he
governs. Where the poetry is sounded, the Prince knows a little
of the territory has been lost to its true Ruler.26
My faculty colleague James Nestingen preached a sermon on
Matthew 14:22-36, the story of Peter walking on the water toward
Jesus, then sinking when he began worrying about the waves rather
than keeping his eyes on Jesus. This could be explained in clear
prose:
We also can be distracted by the anxieties and worries
surrounding us, taking our attention away from Jesus.
Instead he said:
A lot of us are sopping wet up to our knees. Others are soaking
wet up to the belt line, even the shoulders. And some of us are
barely holding our heads above water, wondering if we'll make it
at all!
That's imagery. It's the difference between explaining something
abstractly or saying the same thing in language which will
produce a vivid picture in the listener's mind.
If somebody asks the listener on Monday what the sermon was
about, the first thing that will come to mind is a person sinking
in panic into the whitecaps. The memory of that image will help
the person reflect back to the text, then to the theme and the
explanation of the sermon. For a person conditioned by television
the impact is made by the imagery of the language.
A "Controlling Image"
Robert Hughes, president of Lutheran Seminary of Philadelphia
and long-time teacher of preachers, recommends
42
what he calls a "controlling image" as the heart of a sermon.
These images, usually introduced at the outset of the sermon,
come back again and again and give unity to the sermon.27
He suggests "framing" the sermon with such an image, where it
recurs at the beginning and end of the sermon, thus fixing it in
the listener's mind and providing the unity to the sermon.
If a preacher is using colorful language, a sermon will have
many images as it moves along. The danger is clutter. There must
be a sense of unity in the sermon, and this is done by making
sure that the listener knows what the primary theme, or
"controlling image," is. Patricia Wilson-Kastner advises,
Normally we will want to make one particular image central; other
images will either clarify or support it. Sometimes another major
image will appear along with or support the primary image in a
sermon. Sometimes these other images find their places as
deliberate contrasts to the primary image ... The key to the
integrity of the sermon is the underlying ... unity of its
imagery.28
The key is to look at the sermon and ask yourself, "When the
listener thinks back on this sermon, what idea or picture will
stand out as the 'glue' that holds it all together?" It may be a
story, illustration, image, or the text itself. When you decide
what it is, then ask, "Have I made this unifying theme clear
throughout the flow of the whole sermon?"
I was preparing a sermon one summer week on Matthew 10:34-42
(Cycle A, Pentecost 6), where Jesus warns the disciples of the
controversy and distress they will encounter as they spread his
word into the world. "I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword," he warns them. The Old Testament lesson was Jeremiah
28:5-9, where the false prophet Hananiah sugarcoats Jeremiah's
stern warnings by assuring the people of peace.
I wanted to contrast the powerful effect of Jesus' words with
the innocuous pabulum our society has often made of the biblical
message, that "gospel of good feelings" with a kindly, harmless
God who loves us but doesn't bother us much. I needed an image
which would convey banality. I chose muzak, that travesty of
music which businesses use to soothe people into feeling good. It
was a perfect image to contrast the power of the gospel and
Jesus' warning to his disciples. People would immediately picture
themselves in stores, offices or elevators where this "grocery
music" is playing, as my children call it. The film The Sound Of
Music was popular at the time, so I used a play on words and
titled the sermon, The Sound Of Muzak.
The entire sermon contrasted muzak, which is not meant to be
listened to but only to soothe, with the gospel, which has power,
and which upsets lives as well as heals them. I conducted no
surveys following the service, but if the sermon was effective,
people who were asked about the sermon would reflect back and
think,
"Well, let's see now, the pastor talked about muzak, which is
harmless noise, and, yes, that's different than the message of
Jesus, which can turn lives upside down ... In the text Jesus
warned us the gospel was strong medicine."
Muzak became the controlling image, around which the whole sermon
revolved. That image would capture the listeners' attention and
stick in their memory, and from that impact they could recall the
message of the sermon.29
The Image And The Message
If you use an image which has a strong visual impact, it must
fit exactly with the point of your sermon. Otherwise people will
remember the image but be distracted from the message of the text
itself, which should always be the heart of the sermon.
I recently heard a sermon on Luke 15, the Prodigal Son (Cycle
C, Lent 4), where the pastor told a moving story about a college
girl who messed up her life in a morass of alcohol, drugs and
broken friendships. She became so despondent that she took her
own life. Her parents, who would have joyfully accepted her back
home in spite of her failings, were heartbroken.
The story did not fit the text -- in fact was the direct
opposite of the text. It was the story of someone who died
without coming home, who never knew the gracious welcome of the
father. The impact of the sermon was not on the joy of
homecoming, nor on the accepting love of the parents, but upon
the tragedy of the girl. Her misery overwhelmed the sermon. In
fact, the pastor was still grieving the loss of a college girl in
his previous congregation, and had allowed the powerful feeling
of his own grief to dictate the sermon.
It was a memorable sermon, because the story was powerful in
itself, but it was not a sermon on the Prodigal Son. Rather than
reinforcing and illustrating the text, the story had buried the
message of the text. The sermon belonged to a different text.
Stories And Illustrations
Story sermons and narrative preaching are currently very
popular. Stories in sermons have always been popular, but this is
doubly true in the television age, because stories produce images
in the mind. Every preacher has experienced it: As we explain
something, we note the mother in the back pew digging through her
purse for crayons and a snack to quiet the squirrely child, the
teenager counting bricks on the wall or passing notes to friends,
the head nodding up and down, and so on. Then begin a story and
the whole congregation becomes hushed and attentive. Finish the
story and the activity resumes.
Some of the discussion about story or narrative preaching is
unhelpful. For instance, some say a story should never
be explained, but should be allowed to speak for itself. That's
not the real issue. One can tell a story with no further
explanation. One can also give the story a context at the
beginning, as with the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-2),
add an explanation at the end, or both, as with the parable of
the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-29, 36-37) One tells a story to
convey a message, and the test of its effectiveness is if the
story works to convey that message.
On the other hand, one can kill a story by over-explaining
what the audience has already grasped. How much we explain about
a story will depend on the audience, and a preacher will have to
determine how best to put the message across. "Our goal is not to
tell good stories," advises Richard Jensen. "Our goal is to
communicate the biblical story through our use of story."30
Some practical guidelines in the use of illustrations and
stories in sermons are:
*Tell enough, but don't include extra details to clutter up
the point.
*Put it in the right place. A deeply moving story told at the
beginning of the sermon tends to overshadow anything said
afterward.
*Make sure it's accurate. I once heard a preacher tell
Dostoevski's story from Brothers Karamazov of Raskalnikov's
rebirth in prison after receiving the New Testament. It's a
splendid illustration, but it's in Crime and Punishment.
*Never divulge confidences or tell stories from your ministry
which cause people to wonder who you're talking about.
*Stories of your own experiences give instant credibility to
your sermon. On the other hand, avoid repeated stories of
yourself and your own family, particularly if they make you the
hero or the goat, or embarrass your children.
God In The World
The use of colorful language, imagery and stories in preaching
is really a matter of good theology. Preachers who believe that
God is truly at work in the world and in people's lives
constantly see connections between the gospel and life around
them. They become attuned to see meaning and significance in what
they see every day, and those concrete images and examples find
their way into sermons.
on visual stimuli ... In our modern age the preacher must
therefore translate the biblical message into one that awakens
all the senses, into words that cause a congregation also to see
and feel and smell and taste. Otherwise the people listening may
never hear the words in which the gospel is framed.15
-- Elizabeth Achtemeier
The printed word communicates by a line of thought. Television
communicates by images. Clearly we must use language rich with
visual imagery. Furthermore, today we understand that effective
communication must involve the whole person, not just the
intellect, but also the emotions and the will. We want not only
to explain, but to move, to inspire and to motivate. That can be
done only with vivid and colorful language. This has always been
true, but television has made it crystal clear.
Imagery As Life Itself
The reason that imagery works is that we live our lives in the
concrete, and the use of imagery forces us to connect our sermons
to daily life. Jerry Schmalenberger urges preachers to "keep your
sermon close to the ground ... We must deal with the nitty gritty
issues of the day in everyday language."16
Fred B. Craddock, professor of preaching and New Testament at
the Chandler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia,
advocates an "inductive movement" in preaching, beginning with
the lives and situation of the people in the pews, then moving to
the biblical message, rather than stating a general truth and
deducing particular applications:
The plain fact of the matter is that we are seeking to
communicate with people whose experiences are concrete. Everyone
lives inductively, not deductively. No farmer deals with the
problem of calfhood, only with the calf .... The minister says,
"all men are mortal" and meets drowsy agreement; he announces
that "Mr. Brown's son is dying," and the church becomes the
church.17
Imagery takes an abstract, general idea and expresses it with
a concrete, specific term which creates a picture in the mind.
For example, "Flowers are beautiful" is a true statement, but the
word flower is a generic word and creates no picture in your mind
unless your imagination narrows the term down and creates for
itself a picture in your mind. However, if I say, "Roses are
beautiful," that's more specific, because we know what a rose
looks like and the image comes to mind. If I say, "Red roses are
beautiful," that becomes even more specific. But if I say, "See
that red rose on the table? Isn't it gorgeous?" I have brought
the idea of flowers down to one specific flower. You know exactly
what I'm talking about because you can see it.
In preaching a sermon on Matthew 5:44, "Love your enemies
...,"one could explain how Christians love even our enemies
because God has loved us while we were yet sinners and Jesus
sacrificed himself on the cross to atone for our sins and
reconcile us to a merciful God, and so on. That is true, and it
needs to be said. But it's abstract. What the sermon needs is an
example of a person who had reason to hate somebody, but whose
hatred was turned to love through the presence and example of
Jesus. That image would illustrate for the listener what is meant
with the text. In this television age the preacher should always
ask, "This idea or truth which I want to communicate -- what
image can I use to fix it in the listener's mind?"
The power of imagery in words is nothing new. Poets have
always known it. Indeed, that's what poetry is. For example, in
analyzing the sense of futility a person might feel about life,
one could say,
"Many people feel a sense of futility about life, thinking that
it has no purpose. They live day by day, but their life lacks
meaning."
That is true, but it is stated abstractly. The words in
themselves carry no imagery and a congregation's eyes would soon
glaze over with this kind of general talk, even though it is all
theologically correct and true.
Shakespeare said the same thing. After scratching his way to
the throne, Macbeth learns of his wife's death and is filled with
foreboding that all his murderous plotting will backfire. In his
despair he says,
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour up on the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.18
This description is lush with imagery. Every line creates
pictures in the mind. Combine an abstract, general statement with
imagery like this (although 10 lines of such richness would be
too much all at once for most listeners), and your message will
have impact. The listener's mind has been given imagery which
illustrates what you're saying.
Walter Brueggemann, Professor of Old Testament at Columbia
Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, is alarmed that the gospel has
become "a truth that has been flattened,
trivialized and rendered inane," that is, it has been reduced to
bland familiarity by people who have heard it so often. The only
possibility for the renewal of preaching is that we become "poets
that speak against a prose world."
The task and possibility of preaching is to open out the good
news of the gospel with alternative modes of speech -- speech
that is dramatic, artistic, capable of inviting persons to join
in another conversation, free of the reason of technique,
encumbered by ontologies that grow abstract, unembarrassed about
concreteness.19
Richard Jensen goes a step further and argues for a "paradigm
shift" in preaching from "thinking in ideas," characteristic of a
literate print culture, to "thinking in story."20
Good speakers have always spoken with color and imagination by
instinct.21 But in today's age of visual communication it has
become doubly crucial for preachers to create concrete pictures
in the minds of their listeners.
Biblical Imagery
Long before television, the Hebrews used pictorial language.
They thought in metaphor and image. The Old Testament is a
treasure house of images. The Old Testament narrative itself is a
story, the account of the Jewish people from Adam on through the
story of the divided kingdom.
One of the most effective uses of imagery in the Bible was
Nathan's confrontation with David. The prophet could have come to
the king and exposed his sin by saying, "You have sent Uriah to
his death so that you could take his wife Bathsheba for
yourself!" Rather he stood before the king and told a story,
"There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other
poor ..." (2 Samuel 12:1) David was drawn into the story, so that
when it was turned to him he immediately grasped the meaning. In
writing about the use of stories in
sermons, William Bausch first considered titling his book
Nathan's Legacy, because all preachers:
stand in Nathan's tradition. He, the rest of the prophets, and in
fact all the sacred writers ... thought and wrote in terms of
stories.22
Take any psalm and "translate" it into the clear but abstract
prose we usually use. Then compare how bland it is compared to
the original. Look at some well-known verses from Psalm 139 for
example:
Plain Prose
How can I get away from God?
Can I get away from
his presence?
No matter where I go,
you are there.
You will always guide me
and take care of me, no
matter how far I
might go.
You can see everything,
so darkness doesn't
hide me from you.
Psalmist's Version
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your
presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are
there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you
are there;
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest
limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall
lead me,
and your right hand shall hold
me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness
shall cover me,
and the light around me become
night,"
even the darkness is not dark to
you;
the night is as bright as the
day,
for darkness is as light to you.
The message of the two readings is the same, but the plain
prose, stripped of its imagery, is colorless and bland. One can
do the same thing with any of the psalms. Imagine how Psalm 24
would sound as abstract statements, without its imagery of the
shepherd, the valley, the table, and so on!
The Old Testament was written when oral communication was
predominant. In the New Testament the language and thought of
Jesus, the disciples and others were formed by their Hebrew
background. Jesus' entire communication was oral. Except for the
single instance when he wrote in the sand (John 8:6, 8), Jesus
never wrote a word, and even in John 8 we don't know what he
wrote. In speaking with people, he knew the power of imagery.
When he was criticized for eating with sinners and tax
collectors, he could have responded by explaining, "God considers
everybody precious and receives even the worst sinners with mercy
and forgiveness when they come to him." That would have been
correct, but abstract. Rather Jesus responded, "There was a man
who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father,
'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me ...'
" (Luke 15:11f.) Immediately an image comes to mind of a father
with an impatient son itching for independence. As the story
unfolds, we watch in our mind's eye as the younger son goes off
into the far
country, squanders his inheritance, returns with anxiety only to
see his father rush out and lift him off his feet with a hug.
The story of the Prodigal Son, or the Waiting Father, is so
powerful that it is one of the best known and loved passages in
the whole Bible. Few people then or now would have noticed or
remembered Jesus' answer if it had been expressed abstractly.
Everybody remembers his story of the father and his two sons.
Kinds Of Imagery
There are various kinds of imagery, from full-blown stories to
a single word which evokes a picture in the mind. We use
metaphors and similes regularly in our everyday language. A
metaphor is an image in place of an abstract term. In describing
King Herod Jesus could have said, "Herod is a cunning and
untrustworthy man," which was correct but colorless. Instead he
called Herod a fox, an image which conveyed immediately exactly
what he meant.
Jesus used metaphors repeatedly. How did he express his love
for Jerusalem? "How often would I have gathered your children
together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings ...!"
(Matthew 23:37)
"Beware of false prophets," he warned his followers, "who come
to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
(Matthew 7:15)
A simile is a comparison usually stated with like or as.
Something is like something else, and immediately an image is
produced in our mind. Listen again to Jesus:
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure ... Again, the kingdom
is like a merchant in search of fine pearls ... Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea
..." (Matthew 13:44f)
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are
like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but
within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness."
(Matthew 23:27)
Parables are also the language of imagery. The definition of a
parable often used for children is "an earthly story with a
heavenly meaning." That's an everyday way of saying, "an image
from life to express an abstract or spiritual meaning." Every one
of Jesus' parables combine a vivid image with a meaning.
The most effective imagery is that which speaks directly about
human life, particularly those situations which touch the
listener personally. When we hear the parable of the Prodigal
Son, we cannot help but think about our own fathers, our own past
and our own feelings in the reaction of the elder brother. When a
pastor tells a story about a person struggling with illness,
everybody in the congregation who has experienced similar
suffering is immediately drawn into the story.
Colorful Language
"Imagery" can be broadly defined as colorful language.
Academic education trains us to write with economy and accuracy.
Speaking needs much more. In preaching class I tell students, "In
your past years of education and here in your other classes, you
are trained to be precise, accurate, banal and boring. Here we
try to change all that." That's exaggerated, but it makes the
point. To touch and move an audience, a preacher must shift from
the abstract language of the classroom to language rich in
imagery for the pulpit.
We need to become adventuresome, even daring and exciting in
our speech. Good preaching needs language with vigor, muscle,
energy and punch. In short, we need language with the rich
texture of imagery -- metaphor, simile, story, zippy adjectives
and verbs.
Be a poet in the pulpit, not a bureaucrat or professor. When
Professor Brueggemann urges preachers to become poets, he is
talking of language with verve and muscle:
By poetry, I do not mean rhyme, rhythm, or meter, but language
that moves like Bob Gibson's fast ball, that
jumps at the right moment, that breaks open old worlds with
surprise abrasion, and pace. Poetic speech is the only
proclamation worth doing in a situation of reductionism, the only
proclamation, I submit, that is worthy of the name preaching.23
The impact of colorful language is not new to the modern age.
Guest speakers and preachers have always been poets in their
speech. Read the banal, prosy statements listed first and compare
that with the vigorous, image-filled language of the great
preachers of the past:
Flat Speech
1 -- One should pray to become closer to God, not just to get
good things from God.
2 -- Jesus looked like an ordinary man, even a fisherman of his
times, and he knew he would die; even then he told us our
redemption was near.
3 -- God is pleased with creative preaching, just as God was
pleased at creation and Easter. The devil doesn't want the Word
preached well, because then his reign would be threatened.
Colorful Speech
1 -- Whoever has decided to pray, really to pray, must seize the
hand of God, not the pennies in his hand.24
2 -- Christ himself was fantastic with his hair every whichway
and smelling of fish and looking probably a lot more like Groucho
Marx than like Billy Budd as he stood there with his ugly death
already thick as flies about him and said to raise our heads,
raise our heads for Christ's sake, because our redemption is
near.25
3 -- The Author of the text laughs in delight, the way that
Author has laughed only at creation and at Easter, but laughs
again when the sermon carries the day against the prose of the
Dark Prince who wants no new poetry in the region he thinks he
governs. Where the poetry is sounded, the Prince knows a little
of the territory has been lost to its true Ruler.26
My faculty colleague James Nestingen preached a sermon on
Matthew 14:22-36, the story of Peter walking on the water toward
Jesus, then sinking when he began worrying about the waves rather
than keeping his eyes on Jesus. This could be explained in clear
prose:
We also can be distracted by the anxieties and worries
surrounding us, taking our attention away from Jesus.
Instead he said:
A lot of us are sopping wet up to our knees. Others are soaking
wet up to the belt line, even the shoulders. And some of us are
barely holding our heads above water, wondering if we'll make it
at all!
That's imagery. It's the difference between explaining something
abstractly or saying the same thing in language which will
produce a vivid picture in the listener's mind.
If somebody asks the listener on Monday what the sermon was
about, the first thing that will come to mind is a person sinking
in panic into the whitecaps. The memory of that image will help
the person reflect back to the text, then to the theme and the
explanation of the sermon. For a person conditioned by television
the impact is made by the imagery of the language.
A "Controlling Image"
Robert Hughes, president of Lutheran Seminary of Philadelphia
and long-time teacher of preachers, recommends
42
what he calls a "controlling image" as the heart of a sermon.
These images, usually introduced at the outset of the sermon,
come back again and again and give unity to the sermon.27
He suggests "framing" the sermon with such an image, where it
recurs at the beginning and end of the sermon, thus fixing it in
the listener's mind and providing the unity to the sermon.
If a preacher is using colorful language, a sermon will have
many images as it moves along. The danger is clutter. There must
be a sense of unity in the sermon, and this is done by making
sure that the listener knows what the primary theme, or
"controlling image," is. Patricia Wilson-Kastner advises,
Normally we will want to make one particular image central; other
images will either clarify or support it. Sometimes another major
image will appear along with or support the primary image in a
sermon. Sometimes these other images find their places as
deliberate contrasts to the primary image ... The key to the
integrity of the sermon is the underlying ... unity of its
imagery.28
The key is to look at the sermon and ask yourself, "When the
listener thinks back on this sermon, what idea or picture will
stand out as the 'glue' that holds it all together?" It may be a
story, illustration, image, or the text itself. When you decide
what it is, then ask, "Have I made this unifying theme clear
throughout the flow of the whole sermon?"
I was preparing a sermon one summer week on Matthew 10:34-42
(Cycle A, Pentecost 6), where Jesus warns the disciples of the
controversy and distress they will encounter as they spread his
word into the world. "I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword," he warns them. The Old Testament lesson was Jeremiah
28:5-9, where the false prophet Hananiah sugarcoats Jeremiah's
stern warnings by assuring the people of peace.
I wanted to contrast the powerful effect of Jesus' words with
the innocuous pabulum our society has often made of the biblical
message, that "gospel of good feelings" with a kindly, harmless
God who loves us but doesn't bother us much. I needed an image
which would convey banality. I chose muzak, that travesty of
music which businesses use to soothe people into feeling good. It
was a perfect image to contrast the power of the gospel and
Jesus' warning to his disciples. People would immediately picture
themselves in stores, offices or elevators where this "grocery
music" is playing, as my children call it. The film The Sound Of
Music was popular at the time, so I used a play on words and
titled the sermon, The Sound Of Muzak.
The entire sermon contrasted muzak, which is not meant to be
listened to but only to soothe, with the gospel, which has power,
and which upsets lives as well as heals them. I conducted no
surveys following the service, but if the sermon was effective,
people who were asked about the sermon would reflect back and
think,
"Well, let's see now, the pastor talked about muzak, which is
harmless noise, and, yes, that's different than the message of
Jesus, which can turn lives upside down ... In the text Jesus
warned us the gospel was strong medicine."
Muzak became the controlling image, around which the whole sermon
revolved. That image would capture the listeners' attention and
stick in their memory, and from that impact they could recall the
message of the sermon.29
The Image And The Message
If you use an image which has a strong visual impact, it must
fit exactly with the point of your sermon. Otherwise people will
remember the image but be distracted from the message of the text
itself, which should always be the heart of the sermon.
I recently heard a sermon on Luke 15, the Prodigal Son (Cycle
C, Lent 4), where the pastor told a moving story about a college
girl who messed up her life in a morass of alcohol, drugs and
broken friendships. She became so despondent that she took her
own life. Her parents, who would have joyfully accepted her back
home in spite of her failings, were heartbroken.
The story did not fit the text -- in fact was the direct
opposite of the text. It was the story of someone who died
without coming home, who never knew the gracious welcome of the
father. The impact of the sermon was not on the joy of
homecoming, nor on the accepting love of the parents, but upon
the tragedy of the girl. Her misery overwhelmed the sermon. In
fact, the pastor was still grieving the loss of a college girl in
his previous congregation, and had allowed the powerful feeling
of his own grief to dictate the sermon.
It was a memorable sermon, because the story was powerful in
itself, but it was not a sermon on the Prodigal Son. Rather than
reinforcing and illustrating the text, the story had buried the
message of the text. The sermon belonged to a different text.
Stories And Illustrations
Story sermons and narrative preaching are currently very
popular. Stories in sermons have always been popular, but this is
doubly true in the television age, because stories produce images
in the mind. Every preacher has experienced it: As we explain
something, we note the mother in the back pew digging through her
purse for crayons and a snack to quiet the squirrely child, the
teenager counting bricks on the wall or passing notes to friends,
the head nodding up and down, and so on. Then begin a story and
the whole congregation becomes hushed and attentive. Finish the
story and the activity resumes.
Some of the discussion about story or narrative preaching is
unhelpful. For instance, some say a story should never
be explained, but should be allowed to speak for itself. That's
not the real issue. One can tell a story with no further
explanation. One can also give the story a context at the
beginning, as with the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-2),
add an explanation at the end, or both, as with the parable of
the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-29, 36-37) One tells a story to
convey a message, and the test of its effectiveness is if the
story works to convey that message.
On the other hand, one can kill a story by over-explaining
what the audience has already grasped. How much we explain about
a story will depend on the audience, and a preacher will have to
determine how best to put the message across. "Our goal is not to
tell good stories," advises Richard Jensen. "Our goal is to
communicate the biblical story through our use of story."30
Some practical guidelines in the use of illustrations and
stories in sermons are:
*Tell enough, but don't include extra details to clutter up
the point.
*Put it in the right place. A deeply moving story told at the
beginning of the sermon tends to overshadow anything said
afterward.
*Make sure it's accurate. I once heard a preacher tell
Dostoevski's story from Brothers Karamazov of Raskalnikov's
rebirth in prison after receiving the New Testament. It's a
splendid illustration, but it's in Crime and Punishment.
*Never divulge confidences or tell stories from your ministry
which cause people to wonder who you're talking about.
*Stories of your own experiences give instant credibility to
your sermon. On the other hand, avoid repeated stories of
yourself and your own family, particularly if they make you the
hero or the goat, or embarrass your children.
God In The World
The use of colorful language, imagery and stories in preaching
is really a matter of good theology. Preachers who believe that
God is truly at work in the world and in people's lives
constantly see connections between the gospel and life around
them. They become attuned to see meaning and significance in what
they see every day, and those concrete images and examples find
their way into sermons.
