Overview
This sermon structure uses a single image in the opening and the closing of the sermon for the hearers. In the opening use of the image, the preacher describes the image and then offers a thematic statement that he associates with the image. The central body of the sermon then becomes a preaching of that thematic statement. The thematic statement becomes a refrain that holds the sermon together. The preacher uses that thematic statement to interpret the text and to apply that text to the lives of the hearers. It often helps if the refrain is gospel-centered so that it enables the preacher to proclaim the gospel as it is heard in the text, the theological teaching, and the lives of the hearers today. The sermon concludes by returning to the image (creating a frame around the body of the sermon) and offering the hearers a final climactic statement of the refrain.
Example
Sermon by Dr. David Schmitt preached in Chapel at Concordia Seminary on March 8, 2011: