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Everybody loves a story. I hear it every night as I tuck my children into bed, “Daddy, could you tell me a story?” Judging by the dollars spent on the motion picture industry, the desire for stories does not diminish with age. Robert Fulford says, “Of all the ways we communicate with one another, the story has established itself as the most comfortable, the most versatile – and perhaps also the most dangerous. ... Assembling facts or incidents into tale is the only form of expression and entertainment that most of us enjoy equally at age three and age seventy-three (Fulford x).”
Stories are Powerful
For all its promise, however, narrative has only recently come to be appreciated as a critical component of biblical preaching. Traditional preaching has tended to view narrative as incidental to the more critical task of explaining and applying propositional truth. Narrative has been understood, at best to be a supportive element, and at worst an unwelcome distraction. The narrative preaching movement has sought to swing the pendulum. Noting the dominance of narrative form in Scripture, these “new homileticians” have sought fresh ways to construct sermons that allow listeners to respond in a more engaging environment. These preachers have been criticized for everything from offering mere entertainment to offering a malevolent subversion. Both of these criticisms are off the mark, but only to a degree.
Entertainment is a worthy goal if the word is understood correctly. To entertain, literally means, “to hold the attention.” Surely, this must be a key objective of any preacher worth listening to. At the same time, if by entertain we mean “titillate,” or to merely amuse, we have not properly understood our task. Perhaps we would be more comfortable with the word “engaged.” Sermons intend more than the provision of pleasure. Yet, they ought not always be painful. Preachers need to engage their audiences. There is nothing more engaging than a tale well told.
The idea that narrative preaching is subversive is a more important criticism. It can be shown that “the new homiletic” has roots in postmodern language theories and theologies. A story is more elastic than a proposition. Storytellers may have intentions, yet those intentions are not necessarily made explicit. Story gives the listener permission to participate in truth creation. Of course, tellers have the option of providing “the moral of their story.” Such approaches have been set aside in recent years by those who prefer the ambiguity of story. These storiers would rather let the listener create her or his conclusion. Of course, such open-endedness counters the biblical sense of preaching as proclamation.
Of course, the Bible is story. It also contains stories. Narrative is a staple in the structure of Scripture. The stories in the Bible, though, are not without intention. The Bible has an agenda and so must the preachers who proclaim its truths. Nevertheless, stories can provide an environment where a deeper sense of truth can be forged. Some of the truths in Scripture are mysterious and ambiguous. Stories (and parables) help us live with the truth of the message without necessarily locking down all of the cognitive implications.
We like stories because we live in story. Presentations that abstract out disembodied principles help me put some logic and structure to my thought. The problem is that this form of construction does not match the shape of my life. My life is plotted, not outlined. I live in time, one event after another. Sermons that are built in “time” more than in “space” have a better chance of capturing the moment and helping me meet with God.
Telling the Story as the Sermon’s First Move
Meeting God is a primary objective of sermons that want to integrate head and heart, text and today. This ought to be the first movement of the sermon. One can never go wrong by beginning with a story.The key objective is to integrate the concern for heart with the concern for the text. In other words, we want the listener to make an experiential connection with the Bible.
Storytelling is not only apowerful way to gain interest and attention for the sermon, it is also a useful way to help the listeners identify with the original human beings in the text. The Bible is as thoroughly human as it is divine. Story helps listeners relate to the innate humanity of Scripture.
Of course, we need to be careful with legitimate hermeneutical and historical distinctions. There are three stories that converge in the opening movement of the story, His Story (God’s theological intention in salvation history for this particular text and message), Their Story (the original human situation of the text), and Our Story (the application God intends for the contemporary listener). Telling the story seeks to integrate these three horizons without violating their historic and hermeneutic integrity.
It must be understood that this is more than illustration. Traditional illustrations are limited to the illumination or colorization of propositions. A full-bodied homiletic of story will honor the narrative as central to the text and to the sermon. Narrative does not simply serve to spice up the stuff of the sermon (the arguments). Stories are more than raisins in the oatmeal, tasty morsals that make the nutrition palatable. The story itself can be as spiritually nutritiousas any other aspect of the sermon. The story itself is the stuff, particularly in texts that present in story form.
Telling the story as the first movement of the sermon ought to be kept simple. Multiple stories will cancel each otherout. A single, simple, story that merges the three narrative horizons will serve the preacher best. Such an approach serves the dual purpose of engaging the listener’s attention while embedding the sermon in the life of the text. There is no better introduction.
Improving our Story-Telling
Understanding storytelling requires the preacher to consider the elements of plot more than the elements of outline. An outline is a linear layout of logic and language. A plot is a presentation of people and places.Plot is concerned with elements such as character, setting, action, problem, climax, and resolution. These factors require a different kind of engagement with the text.
Character: Who are these people and why should we care about them? Harry Emerson Fosdick famously said that no one comes to church with a burning desire to find out whatever happened to the Jebusites, but maybe they would if they knew a little more about them. People are people and always have been. Few things are as engaging as compelling characters.
Setting: Where did these things happen and how is that like the place I live my life? Biblical texts need not make a point of the distance between text and today. Biblical settings have a lot in common with contemporary settings. The changes in the world today are not as significant as we sometimes think. How much different, when you get right down to it, is the Baghdad of Nebuchadnezzar from the Baghdad of Hussein?
Action: What is going on and is it still going on? The book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun. People sinned in the Bible and they’re still doing it today.
Problem: What’s getting in the way and how can we fix it? Maybe we’ve learned some things in recent years. Or maybe we haven’t. Regardless, few things are as interesting as a thorny problem.
Climax: Where is the high point in the action and can we feel it the same today? The best stories always build to a climax. Preachers as storytellers need to help the listeners feel the same drama.
Resolution: What did they learn and can we learn the lessons too? Not every story ends with a “happily ever after” but every story ends with something that can be learned – at least the good ones do.
Stories require a sensual kind of thinking. What does the listener see? What does the text feel like – taste like – smell like? The more the preacher/storyteller can imagine the details (without violating the givens), the more the listener is able to sense the impact. The preacher needs to develop an active imagination.
A key to this kind of storytelling is to adopt a sense of immediacy. Stories increase in power as they increase in proximity. The most relevant stories are the ones that are offered in the present tense. Preachers ought to challenge themselves to tell their stories as if they are happening as opposed to telling them as if they have happened in history. Preachers must understand that they are more than historians. Historians are professional story tellers, yet preachers would do well to avoid emulating them. Homiletic telling ought not locate the story in the distant past. The Bible is a dynamic book that speaks ancient truths from ancient places to current people in current places. The preacher must bring the stories to life. Stories that adopt a present-tense experience of the story will create an immediate event where God speaks in a moment in time.
“Tell Me Another One!”
My preaching has been greatly enhanced since I have had children. There is nothing like telling stories to children for improving one’s preaching. Not that we treat our listeners like children, but we really ought to treat them like children. You understand the distinction. We don’t want to “talk down” to our listeners, but we do want to engage them. Such preaching leaves the listener wanting more. “Tell me another one,” the listener says as she returns Sunday after Sunday.
Fulford, Robert. The Triumph of Narrative. Toronto: Anansi, 1999.