The above example was an introductory narrative to a sermon based on Mark 15 in which Jesus cried out before He died and released His spirit. The image of a scream in the narrative is very appropriate. The concentration upon the open mouth is complementary to the remainder of the sermon. The rest of this sermon dictated the creation of the narrative and not the other way around.9 The narrative found all of its creation, existence and life from the text it was taken from.

The Challenge of Focus

If a speaker loses the focus, the attention of an audience, then he has lost everything. A congregation does not have an opportunity to rewind a speaker and grab what was said. This is the main difference between the spoken versus written word. Switching of focus, or creating a battle between the narrative and the rest of the text, is a major problem for all preachers.

Consider the following narrative:

One man is talking to another. "My wife and I," he exclaims, "got angry last night and we had a fight."

His friend asked him, "How did it end up?"

"Why she came crawling to me on her hands and knees!"

"What did she say?"

"She said, 'Come out from under that bed, you coward!'"

That's a veteran vaudeville story. If you want an updated version: the wife called her husband deliriously on the phone. She could hardly catch her breath from the excitement. "Harry," she cried, "I won the lottery! I won the lottery! Pack your clothes!"

"Great!" said Harry. "Summer or winter?"

"All of them," she said. "I want you out of the house by six!"

Thus anger, hostile and sarcastic -- and both different from the anger Jesus displayed in today's gospel.10

Note for a moment the structure of the above narrative. The preacher began with a short narrative, progressed to another short narrative and then had a change of focus into the body of the sermonic text itself while calling attention to the gospel reading for the day. In less than a minute, there have been four changes of focus for the congregation. "These numerous shifts are precisely the problem.

The intent of narrative is to create a shared reality between preacher and the members of the congregation.11 The problem with this narrative is that it does not create one shared reality for the hearers, but has been laced with four separate narratives. The hearers are never able to have a particular scenario established in their minds; they are moved to embrace four different narrative combinations.

I would propose that external narratives, those stories separate from us, should be employed less often. External narratives tend to focus attention on an external story or image that further removes hearers from the current speech or sermon. A way to counteract this is to employ narra-tives that are created with the audience in mind -- an internal narrative.12

This type of internalized narrative isn't just a reflection of our own thoughts, but it actually allows the hearer to become an active character in the narrative. Internalized narratives will create a memorable introduction and still be focus driven toward the goal of the sermon.13 Consider the following as an example of this type of narrative: