This particular sermon was based upon a passage from St. Paul who says, "Rejoice! Have joy!" The only reason for this narrative was the laugh at the end. The preacher could have used any joke to acquire this laugh, but instead chose to use a well established, drawn out narrative that is utterly useless for the rest of the sermon,

Narratives, and especially vibrant, illustrative materials, are remembered more than anything else in a sermon.4 Narratives have an amazing ability to focus the thoughts of a congregation. This is why they should be handled with such care and delicacy. When used improperly, they can completely prohibit understanding of the following sermon.

Directional Confusion

Narratives not only create, but they guide our thinking. This ability to guide our thoughts can be a powerful tool for the preacher. But it is a tool that can also become very detrimental when used improperly. Instead of guiding thoughts toward a given sermon or text a narrative has the ability to lead the congregation down other paths not intended by the preacher. One example of narrative illustration, which has the ability to misdirect our thoughts, results from emotional imagery:

The TV screen holds our attention on the refugee children having their first meal in days, just after the UN trucks have brought them to safety. We watch and begin to feel our stomach knot up. While they devour the soup and bread, we can no longer think of eating a thing.5

This is a powerful narrative image. So, what was the purpose in telling the above narrative? If the writer of this passage intended to have us feel guilty, then he/she has succeeded.

But this was not the case because the following text did not establish philanthropy as a main goal. This narrative has directed the congregation to thoughts of starving children, not toward further involvement in what the preacher is going to say. For the next 30 seconds or so, the congregation will be thinking about starving children with bloated bellies. It would be very difficult to pull this narrative image up from the nosedive of daydreaming. Narrative must always be employed with the knowledge and intent of furthering the remainder of a sermon. Emotional outpourings do pull people in, but the people are pulled into their own thoughts and not the rest of the sermon.

One way of combating vague and misdirected narratives is through the synthetic method. The synthetic method attempts to identify key elements of a sermon or speech, and then create the narrative illustration from those elements.6 This is one reason why many honored homileticians will say the introduction is the last portion of a sermon to write. It is the last portion because you do not know which key elements to use in an introductory narrative until the text has been written.7

Narratives employing the synthetic method are typically tight, short and very clear in their focus and point of direction especially at its conclusion:

There is a modern painting of the crucifixion. When you look at the painting, all you see is darkness, black on black. Then, suddenly, in the center of the picture, carved in pigment, you trace the shape of a scream, a gaping mouth in the dark. The title of the painting: "Eloi, eloi, lama, sabachthani" -- "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The picture is true to the scripture. It was the ninth hour and Jesus screamed, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!" See the shape of a scream.8