Sermon as Story

I've been attending a wonderful storytelling class offered at Unity Church. Last week, Loren Niemi spent time with us on ghost stories and other stories of grief and loss. In the craft of telling, he was masterful in the use of long pauses between parts of the story. These I began to see as white space, which is the essence of good visual design of printed materials. This is just one lesson I learned from this series of gifted teachers and tellers.

Loren described how, in telling his stories, he longs to put his audience into a sort of trance in preparation. I said, perhaps a little flippantly, "that's called worship", and he agreed. While I hesitate to use the word 'trance', which has connotations of hypnotism or suspension of belief in our culture, the idea of being in an enhanced state of readiness, in a contemplative or meditative state does make sense to me. Good liturgy creates this enhanced state. This just puts more weight on the sermon to deliver an authentic and worthwhile message, one that begins to address people's needs for healing and wholeness. In this awareness, I am humbled by the possibility that the pulpit offers, and I become more respectful of those who listen to my words and engage in conversation with me.