Preaching Tips

Be curious.  It sounds simple. But much of what it means to do image exegesis relies upon an avid curiosity, the willingness to chase bunnies into strange and unfamiliar places, and to open metaphors into all of their layers and colors until they reveal the hiddenness within their folds. Metaphors…

The key to innovation is making new and unique connections or discovering connections you did not first see that were there.  Such is the way we look at scripture. Sometimes it means reading the scripture closely over and over again, and thinking of it visually, dramatically, thoughtfully, personally, characteristically. For…

Inflections make or break a good sermon. Make sure you are conversing with people, not just speaking “at” them. The word in scripture when Jesus speaks with His disciples is “lalein” –to chatter, discuss, chat with, converse with…. all together like “bird twitter.” Jesus’ sermons were conversational. The more monotone…

Metaphor is timeless.  This is the beauty of metaphor. This is why the Hebrew scriptures can be so enduring and wonderful and illuminate Jesus so well! But metaphor also manifests within Time and Place. And we need to understand how and why certain metaphors were chosen for specific moments. For…

In wintry days when the best solution for a nasty cold is salt water nasal rinse… it’s a great time to talk about the value of salt. The “salt covenant” was a key metaphor in Hebrew thought, and Jesus used that metaphor several times as well. The shepherds knew it…

This year, Christmas Eve falls on Sunday. That means for many churches, more emphasis on liturgy, and the bells and smells of Christmas on that last Sunday in advent, as well as evening services. Christmas Eve is a time more than any other when we break out the metaphors in…

Many times when we read the same scriptures over and over, we wonder how to make them new.  You can not only focus on the metaphors but the characters of scripture in advent. What is Mary’s story? Joseph’s story? The Shepherd’s story? What are the various perspectives on the nativity?…

Many pastors lament over doing the same scriptures each year for advent and Christmas. What to do? Here’s where your metaphors can help! Look at the metaphors in the scriptures. Exegete those images to find that they link to many other scripture stories in the Hebrew testament. Metaphors open up…

Advent is a time in which silence and waiting can be emphasized. The theme of silence has many metaphors in scripture. Muteness (as in Zechariah) is one of them. In preaching, as well as in worship, think about how you can create moments of silence, pauses, Selah times in which…

In our time and culture, we don’t really understand, most of us, what it means to pledge loyalty to a King. In order for us to understand the concept of Christ the King, we need to explore the metaphor of “King”… and all of its sub metaphor –crown, scepter, ring,…