Speaking in Moves

Contrived example:

We are sinners.   "Sinners"--the word may sound old fashioned, but it's true: we are all of us sinners.  Oh, nowadays we avoid the term.  We say we have "hang-ups," or perhaps we rattle off psychological words talking wisely of "depression,"  "anxiety," or a "guilt complex."

But again and again, we circle back to the old biblical word: We are sinners, all.  Certainly, we can read about sin in daily papers.  Big sins, murder or rape, are bold-type headlines.  And certainly, we notice sins in the life of others.  "She doesn't care about anyone else," we say, or "He is so vain."

But when it comes to our own lives, how hard it is to see our sin.  Maybe sin come to us in a brief, flashing moment of regret when we say to ourselves, "I should go back and apologize," but then we don't and the moment is past.  Or maybe, it's when at tax times we flip through our check stubs and think for an instant, "I should have given more away."

Or perhaps, when we hear youngsters dream big dreams for their lives and we suddenly think, "Well. we've settled for less; we haven't been what we could have been."  Then, we move away and try to forget.  Listen, the worlds isn't divided into sinners and nonsinners:  Down deep we know ourlives are compromised.  "We supposed to love," says the detective-story hero.  "But, we all flunk," he says.  Sinners--that's the biblical words, and we know it's true.  We are, all of us, sinners.

Statement of Idea:

1. Contrapuntal: "Oh, nowadays we avoid . . ."
2.  External sin: "Certainly we can read . . ."
3. Internal sin: "But when it comes to . . ."

Restatement of Idea:  "Listen the world isn't . . ."

All human speaking involves movement: we speak of A and then B and then C and so forth.  Public speaking requires the forming of separate moves, long enough to structure in consciousness but no so long as to strain attention.  Thus the public speaking involves the designing of language in modules of meaning for group consciousnes.

The public speaking that is preaching demands that we think through moves so that the theological understandings may relate to our common cultural consciousness and be true to lived experience.  Preaching, like it or not, is a sophiscated form of public address.  We do not merely speak or convey information.  We are forming the faith-consciousness of the church on behalf of Jesus Christ.

Homiletic: Moves & Structures by David Buttrick (pg 35-36)