... 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 foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour up on the stageAnd then is heard no more: it is a taleTold 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 ProseHow 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 VersionWhere 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 Speech1 -- 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 Speech1 -- 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 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.