Sermon illustrations

This morning, I became aware of something quite ironic in the realm of homiletics. I remember the old adage of three points per sermon with a supporting illustration or two per point. Now why on earth do we need sermon "illustrations"? If we're propounding God's timeless truths from Scripture, shouldn't that be sufficient? Or do the homiletics teachers realize something about lowly lay people? That maybe we aren't sufficiently developed enough to engage timeless truths?

There's something very valuable in telling stories to congregations. Namely, stories are what carry worldview; a well-told (and hopefully true) story can subvert someone's thought patterns in the way that telling them they are wrong definitely won't. For instance, "The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
   “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
   David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
   Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
   “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
   Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD” (TNIV).

History doesn't share with us what would have happened if Nathan had strolled in and said, "King, man, you're a sinner!" Knowing how monarchies ran, he probably would have been killed or imprisoned immediately. But the story found its way into David's heart and broke it when Nathan deftly drew the parallel.

So, sermons. Why do we denude the Scripture's stories to turn them into timeless truths, only to turn around and say, "Oh, when people hear sermons they need to hear stories. It's what makes sermons interesting."

An idea: Tell the Scriptural stories, whether in their original context or with a modern cast of characters, and let the stories do the work they've done for centuries.