Justin Rossow
Patterns of Belonging
Who’s on your rope? In his book Organic Community, Joseph Myers describes four different “patterns of belonging” we all need in order to experience a sense of community. Myers doesn’t tell us what to do to experience belonging; he describes how belonging takes place. And he doesn’t suggest we necessarily move from more loosely connected relationships […]
Biblical Images for Worship
These images connect the elements of worship with the story of Scripture. As we place God’s name on God’s people in the Invocation, we are taken back to the burning bush, the dedication of Solomon’s temple, the Wilderness Wandering, and our own baptism. From the images related to Confession and Absolution, to the song of […]
The Sanctus and Metaphor Theory
I got to preach Isaiah 6 recently; a text I love in the midst of a sermon series devoted to the biblical images that shape our worship. You can listen to the sermon below, before or after you read the comments (or both), but the sermon brings up some interesting points of metaphor and homiletic […]
Metaphor and Worship
For centuries the Christian liturgy has taken Biblical texts and used them in the flow of worship. This juxtaposition of ancient text and present activity is, in effect, a metaphor. The images and narrative context of the Biblical text become the Source Domain, the lens through which we understand the activity of Christian worship. Worship […]
Bug Zapper, Unplugged Light, or Warm Fire–It Matters!
This sermon was preached on Epiphany by a good friend of mine, Pastor Steve Wiechman at Peace Lutheran Church, Hurst, Texas. Steve has read my dissertation and whether he meant to or not, he did a great job of putting theory into practice. Building on the Epiphany theme of light in the darkness, Steve invites […]
The Potter and the Clay
Listen to this sermon here: This sermon uses the Scriputral image of God as the potter and the disciple as clay in His hands. The basic structure follows a Metaphor design with the following three moves: 1) Evoke the Source Domain 2) Map to the Target 3) Explore with a New Lens The fourth move […]
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
The following is an excerpt from my 2009 dissertation Preaching The Story Behind the Image: A Narrative Approach to Metaphor for Preaching. The LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor is prevalent both in our culture and in the Biblical text. The cognitive linguistic approach characterized by the work of Georg Lakoff, Mark Johnson, and Mark Turner […]
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