Pastor Uhle's rhetorical flourish

Since I've been ranting about language this week, one phrase from Sunday's sermon has stuck with me. Pastor Uhle delivered this nicely crafted phrase:

"God dwells in people, but those same people dwell in buildings: churches."

I love the balance of the line. The chiasmic nature of its structure, the repetition of "people" and "dwell," and the emphasis on the word churches caused by the delayed contrast with more mundane "buildings." I wonder if it was written or extemporaneous or a mix. In any case, it's fantastic oratory.

This is the kind of language that leaves me inspired for the week. His message that a church is more than a building resonates strongly in a period of church closings around us. Our church is comprised of people and language and music, but also a Sunday school and a web site and a blog and a choir and committees... The church is a mosaic of many things, all of them need inspiration and participation to survive. In other words, join the choir this fall!