Sermon illustrations, like babies, come in two types.
Figurative illustrations are comparisons: metaphors, similes, analogies. To illustrate anger figuratively, I might compare it to gunpowder.
Literal illustrations are examples: To illustrate anger literally, I might tell about when I lost my temper and broke a glass.
Before this powerful pair took on meaning for me, I would ask, How can I illustrate this point? Now I ask both How can I illustrate this literally? and How can I illustrate this figuratively? I then select the best to suit my purposes.
Here are some advantages of the figurative illustration:
1. Insight. Comparisons bridge from what listeners know to what they don’t know. Comparisons penetrate the essential nature of something; what listeners have personally experienced, they understand at a level that transcends words.
2. Association. If I illustrate from the game of basketball, I touch listeners’ memories, attitudes, and emotions associated with the game. The mind of a listener is not a clean slate. I purposely use figurative illustrations with favorable or unfavorable associations in mind.
Like the smells of baby powder on infant skin, associations waft from figurative illustrations; my task is to ensure they match and serve truth. An adverse metaphor, such as likening moral authority to an assault rifle, is untrue in its effect because it stirs revulsion rather than receptiveness.
3. Indirection. Indirection breaks down listeners’ sophisticated defenses against the truth. Like a stealth fighter, an analogy carries its payload into a person’s heart unawares. Jesus used metaphor for this purpose.
4. Imagination. Imagery energizes communication—in politics, marketing, and Bible prophecy.
Literal illustrations also have advantages:
1. How-to. The literal illustration often models what we want others to imitate or avoid. If I illustrate earnest prayer by telling when I fasted and prayed for God’s help with my finances, listeners see how to do it themselves.
2. Authority. Something about true stories carries extra weight.
3. Comprehension. Some listeners have trouble seeing comparisons; they just don’t get it. Literal illustrations are readily perceived by all.
4. Directness. Literal illustrations come straight at you, to the point. Impatient listeners like that.
Literal and figurative illustrations are a powerful pair.
God’s crusade of joy
By using both figurative and literal illustrations, I amplify a point without redundancy.
In a sermon on joy, I wanted to establish that God is not a wet blanket. I began indirectly, with a figurative comparison. I told of a relative who, as a teen, was burned on his face and hand when a powerful firecracker blew up as he held it.
“If that boy’s parents had tried to stop him from playing with firecrackers,” I asked, “would they have been spoil sports? No, they would have been faithful parents. God is no different when he gives commands intended to protect us from harm.”
Then I gave a literal illustration. I quoted from Mickey Mantle’s story in Sports Illustrated about how alcoholism had nearly killed him: “I could be talking to you and just completely forget my train of thought,” said Mantle. “I’d forget what day it was. What month it was. What city I was in.”
I concluded, “When God warns us against drunkenness, he isn’t a spoil sport; he’s a lifesaver.”
I was now on firm ground to make the point of my sermon, that contrary to myth, God is on a crusade to bring us joy. Figurative and literal illustrations are a powerful pair for preaching.
Craig Brian Larson is pastor of Lake Shore Assembly of God in Chicago, Illinois.
1997 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or contact us.
