to try to describe the traditional homiletical form as if it were a single structure. In reality, the traditional form allows for a rich variety of preaching. Thomas Long remarks, “Far from being predictable and uniform, the traditional approach to form in skillful hands produced a remarkable array of sermon structures.”6 This is an approach to sermon form that worked well for many generations, and few questioned its homiletic wisdom. But with the coming of the final decades of the twentieth century,