The art of NOT using a sermon illustration

I remember very plainly a time when a fellow seminarian explained her approach to the sermon illustration. She said that she was always looking for them and when a particularly striking one came around she would apply it the coming Sunday. From the start something about this struck me as funny. Instead of starting with scripture she was starting with an image or a metaphor borne out of her life experience. I can't deny that it had meaning to her, but I wasn't sure it would work well conveyed to an audience.

Four years later I find myself in much the same spot. The world is full of countless metaphors, some even that fit with the text for this week, and yet I have some serious reservations. Personal experience is both crucial and dangerous for proclamation. It's crucial because you need to live in the world to make any connection with the lives of the people to whom you are preaching. You can't sit at home and play Modern Warfare 3 all day, or sit in your office and read the Bible all day, and expect to speak a message that has both relevance and gravity. However, personal experience is dangerous because it often precludes the different and opposing personal experience of others. This is why I am cautious to use my life, or a symbol therein, to make a point. I am biased by my own experience, and I will never get away from that.

In my infinite wisdom--having served a parish now for a grand total of three weeks--I am learning how not to use a sermon illustration. I have a congregation of people who want to get to know me, so it's hard, but the end result is that I honor the message for what it is: God's word for the people. When Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed it is undoubtedly a great sermon illustration, but much of the appeal of Jesus' words is their timelessness. A sermon is not meant to be timeless--at least it rarely achieves that feat. A sermon is meant for a particular time and place, trusting in the Spirit to move in that moment with that people.

So excuse me if I don't use that illustration. If there's one thing I am sure of it's that it's not about me, and let's keep it that way.