L&W

As I sat in church on Sunday, somewhere I haven’t been in a while.  I realized that the sermon is a story, not only in the biblical sense, but in structure. Last week in class we talked about two researchers, Labov and Walesky and how they breakdown the narrative structure of an oral story.  I am sure that the priest would have preferred me to be listening to the content to his sermon on light and salt; however, my mind continued to wonder to class.  The priest began his story with orienting the parish with lighthouses being a beacon or light that people follow.  He spoke about his small village in Ireland where the only electrical power was in the lighthouse.  This light guided everyone in darkness.  Next he paralleled the lighthouse to our lives, basically providing the “ok, so what?”  for us.  And finally I saw how he tied everything back together revealing that lighthouses are within each of us, and we can either provide the light or walk in darkness.  As I think back to class, I am not certain I would call the biblical passages either the abstract or the coda, but one could loosely say that the priest used them as such. 

It is interesting to me is to see that stories, and storytelling IS everywhere.  Furthermore, Labov and Walesky’s structure provides a great approach to breaking down the components of any narrative form playing a central role in communication, especially interpersonal communication.