CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
January 28, 2007
Rev. Bert Tuggle
SERMON TITLE:  “From the Stories People Tell”
Jeremiah 1:4-10, Romans 10:9-17

 

            Glory to you O God.  We come to you this day in this place of worship.  We greet each other and love each other.  Teach us your ways, O God, to love you in the way you would have us do.  Let us be thankful for all that we have and for Jesus Christ who came into this world to forgive our sins.  We pray for our leaders in our community, our state and our nation. We also pray for those who are far away, who are at war.  We pray O Lord for our men and women who serve this country in faraway places.  Lead us O Lord, this day we come to you for your blessings. Most of all we pray for your Son, Jesus Christ, and it’s in His name that we pray.  Amen

 

            Thank you, Mrs. Diamond, for that gracious introduction, for your graciousness and for asking me to be with you today.  It’s my pleasure to bring the gospel to you today and I’m going to read a selection from the New Testament now.  It’s in the Book of Romans, the 10th chapter.  I was asked once if there was a text in the scriptures that sort of mandated my ministry.  I was asked that at a Presbyterian meeting and I said something very intelligent like, “duh”.  No, I didn’t have a text but if I had to find one, this would be it.  This validates any ministry.  This validates any Christian, this text.  Listen, for these words are true and they can be trusted. (Please read Romans, Chapter 19, verses 9 through 17 with me.)

 

            The Word of the Lord! Thanks be to God.  Thanks be to God, indeed!

 

            I know I’m getting old when my favorite songs are not even in the book.  Here are a couple of my favorites.  I found an old book that’s as old as I am, I bet.  Here’s this song and I bet you know it.  “I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of  Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.  I love to tell the story because I know ‘tis true, it satisfies my longing as nothing else can do.  I love to tell the story more wonderful it seems, than all the gold and fancies, of all our golden dreams.  I love to tell the story it did so much for me, and that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.  I love to tell the story, ‘tis pleasant to repeat, what seems each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.  I love to tell the story for some have never heard, the message of salvation from God’s own holy word.”  And here’s another one:  ‘We’ve a story to tell to the nations, that shall turn their hearts to the right, a story of truth and mercy, a story of peace and light.  A story of peace and light.  For the darkness shall turn to dawning and the dawning to noonday bright, and Christ’s great kingdom shall come on earth, a kingdom of love and light”. I love to tell the story indeed and we have a story to tell to the nations.  “We’ve a Savior to show to the nations through the path of sorrow have trod. That all of the world’s great peoples might come to the truth of God, might come to the truth of God!”

How do we show a Savior to the nations without words, without telling stories?  I’ve always been convinced that one of the reasons the church has been strong in the south is because we love to tell stories.  I grew up on stories.  My daddy was a child of the depression.  It made a real mark on him, and on me, because I heard him tell the stories, tell the stories of living through that.  You knew the depression was about over when the rabbit would cross the road and only 2 people running after it.  It makes a mark on you, the stories that people tell.  I’m thinking now of the last scene in the great musical, “Camelot”.  Do you remember that great play a number of years ago? Camelot was a make-believe place.  Arthur made it all up.  He made it up as he went.  He made up a story about how he extracted a sword from a rock, nobody else could do it.  But Guinevere believed it and fell in love with him.  He and Guinevere fall in love and they live happily ever after and there’s no place on earth for ‘happily ever aftering’ than here in Camelot .  But the story goes awry.  The world falls apart.  The world becomes a 9-11 world.  Arthur is betrayed by his own best friend, Lancelot, and his wife Guinevere, They have an affair, fall in love with each other and the world comes tumbling down around them.  There’s a great big civil war going on and people are dying all around and Arthur is on stage now in the darkness wondering to himself, “Oh, Lord, how did it get to this?”  He hears a rustle in the bushes and he is startled and he says, (I’ll quote the dialogue here), he says, “Who goes there?  Come out I say”, and a little boy, (10 years old, maybe) stands up behind the bush.  He comes out of the bush and says, “Forgive me, your Majesty.”  “Who are you, boy?  Are you a page?  You ought to be in bed,” says Arthur. “I stowed away on one of your boats, your Majesty, and I came to fight for the Round Table.  I’m very good with the bow” and he holds up this little tiny bow.  “Do you kill people with this bow of yours”, Arthur says, and he holds it up as if to just show it as a toy instead of a weapon.  “Oh, yes, my Lord, I kill a great many, I hope.”  “Well, what if they kill you?” says Arthur.  “Then I shall be dead, my Lord, but I don’t expect to be dead.  I intend to be a knight.”  “A knight”, says Arthur. “You wish to become a knight of the Round Table.  When did you decide on this extinct profession?  Have you ever seen a knight?  Was your village ever protected by knights?  Was your mother rescued by a knight?”  “Oh, no my Lord, I’ve never seen a knight.  I only know of them from the stories people tell”.  Arthur lets a lot of time go by as he slowly sits down and gets at eye level with this little boy, as if to let those words sink in, ‘from the stories people tell’. And then he repeats those words, ‘from the stories people tell’. “You wish to become a knight?  Tell me what do you think you know of the Knights of the Round Table?”  “I know everything, my Lord”.  Isn’t that wonderful?  You have to be 12 to know everything.

I had a group of confirmation class kids, 12 years of age.  I asked them if they had read the Bible and this little boy said, “Yes, I’ve read it”.  “How much of the Bible have you read?”  “I’ve read all of it”.  “Well, what do you know in the Bible?”  “Everything”, he said.  It turns out that the child had dyslexia and couldn’t read a word.  But he had heard people tell the stories.

Now, back to this dialogue for a minute.  I know everything, my lord, might for right, justice for all, Knights of the Round Table and all this.  “What’s your name, boy?” “Tom, my Lord”.  “Where are you from?”  “From Warwick, my Lord”.  “Now listen to me, Tom of Warwick, you will not fight in this battle.  Do you understand?”  “Yes, my Lord”.  “You will run behind the lines until this is all over and then you will return home to England alive, to grow up and to grow old.  Do you understand?  You will remember what I, the king, tell you and you will do what I, the king, command you.  Each year from December to December, before you drift to sleep upon your cot, think back on all the tales that you remember of Camelot.  Ask every person if he’s heard the story and tell it strong and clear if he has not. That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory called Camelot.  Camelot.  Now say it.”  The little boy says, “Camelot”.  “Yes, my boy where once it never rains till after sundown; by 8 AM in the morning fog had flown.  Don’t let it be forgotten that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was known as ‘Camelot’.  Pelly, his trusted associate comes onto the stage brandishing the sword, Excalibur.  He says, “Give me that sword, Pelly.  And he says, “Kneel, Tom” and the little boy kneels and he taps him on one shoulder and then the other with these words, “With this sword, Excalibur, I knight you Sir Tom of Warwick and I command you to return home and to carry out my orders.”  “Yes, my Lord”.  “Arthur, what are you doing?  We have a battle to fight.”  ‘I’ve won my battle, Pelly,’ and he holds that little boy up who must feel 10 feet tall by now, and he holds his arm around the little boy and he points to him and says, “Here is my victory.  We did what will be remembered.  You’ll see”. Then he says, “Run, boy, run.  Run behind the lines,” and the boy exits the stage and the music comes up again and the curtain falls down.  Then of course the curtain comes back up and everybody who is on stage and everybody who was on the stage and everybody even who was killed in battles, they all stand up as one group of people and everybody lives happily ever after.  It’s a great story, but the reason I quoted it was for that powerful line in there, ‘when that little boy’ (and I think it’s plausible)! ‘A little boy’.  Is there a little boy in you--a little child?  Let that child listen.  Let that little child listen to the stories you’ve been told.  Record them over and over and over.

My wife’s father died of a brain tumor.  When he was in the hospital those last weeks he could quote line after line after line of the songs that he learned as a child in church.  The stuff of faith comes from what you’ve heard.  If you haven’t heard the story then you don’t have the faith.  It’s just that simple.  If you have the faith, it’s because you’ve heard!

We read a story from Jeremiah a little while ago.  The Bible is fond of telling stories.  You go to the Bible with all kinds of questions and instead of getting answers to your questions, you get a story and then you get another story and it’s the same story over and over and over again. And we want to hear it again.  You’re after a preacher so that he (or she) can stand up here and tell the story.  The only requirement is that that person know the story,  We don’t have to change it any more than a child who has been adopted hears his parents tell him the great story of his being adopted.  And you get to that line where you say “and of all the kids in the place you chose me, right?’  Right!  You wouldn’t think of changing it, you don’t adapt it.  It doesn’t have to be changed to be--quote ‘relevant’.  No, no you’re in the story.  Just find your place there.  You’re in there!

I like the title of one of John Claypoole’s books.  It’s on the parables of Jesus and it’s called, “The Stories Jesus Still Tells”.  Jesus does still tell stories!  This text from Romans is so powerful.  I think of a couple of other quotes that I found that are on the same kind of theme and the line that I’m really preaching on is this one line--Faith comes from what is heard!  Faith comes from what is heard!  I remember reading Stanley Harorous.  Stanley Harorous and Will Willoman have collaborated on several great books and one of them is a comment on the Book of Acts.  You know the Book of Acts.  You know the stories.  He says in that commentary, “Christians are a story-formed community”.  Christians are a story-formed community.  We tell the stories, don’t we?  We tell the stories of Pentecost.  On Pentecost Sunday we’ll tell that story because it’s from that story that the birth of the church has happened.

Another quote that I found from Peter Berger and this was years ago.  I was at Princeton Seminary during the summer of the late 60’s, I think it was, (seems like yesterday).  Here’s the quote:  “What the church is all about is one whole story, a story that spans Exodus and Easter morning.  What the church is all about is one old story of God’s dealings with people that spans Exodus and Easter morning.  What the church does when the church gathers is tune in to one section or another of that story– Exodus to Easter.  These are the stories that are the very stuff of our faith.  It’s the fabric of who we are.  We were once slaves in Egypt and we were brought out from there with the powerful arm of the Lord God.  He brought us from slavery into this place.  It took us 40 years.  It took us half a day probably to leave Egypt.  It took 40 years for Egypt to leave us.  You read that story and you will find yourself there and then you read that we’re in the season of Epiphany, right after Christmas.  Poof !  All of a sudden Christmas is over and the Epiphany is here.  And Jesus is a full grown man and he is baptized in the river Jordan by John the Baptist and he’s off into a ministry.  I think today’s text is about his opening the scripture on the Sabbath Day in the synagogue in Nazareth.  He opens that scripture and he reads it.  Then he closes it and says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”.  People are just amazed at him.  But then the amazement doesn’t last but a few minutes.  Instead of being the ‘toast of the town’ they want to kill him by the time he’s finished preaching.  I wonder why that                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       was?  I hope to the good Lord you’re not ready to kill me by the time I’m ready to finish this sermon.  But that’s what happened to Jesus.  He didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear so they tried to kill him.  Maybe it’s because he used those two bad illustrations in that sermon, those illustrations about Jesus coming, not just for you, but for everybody; not just to a congregation but for a whole wider community.  Jesus’ mission is not just to the ‘chosen frozen’, the few.  He’s here to welcome everybody into his kingdom and so you get offended sometimes when you listen to these stories but at the same time these are the stories.  We can’t change them.  We used to think ‘if I could have been there I could have helped him maybe’.  Yeah, well there I am.  I mean, I’m there every other page or two. There are three or four people that don’t know who or what they’re doing and that’s me!  I don’t know who or what I am.  Really I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up and I’m 67 years old you know and I’m not sure what Jesus is going to do next.  I know that he’s going to take the wrong turn no doubt.  He’s going to do something that I don’t like.  He’s done a lot of things that I didn’t like.  Some of the things I didn’t like I’ve grown to like because Jesus will take different turns in the road.

I found a new song.  I do like a few new songs and this is one that I heard the other night on TV when I watched one of my favorite shows - a country music award show. I love country music and so Brooks and Dunn get this award for the best song of the year or something.  I had never heard it because I didn’t buy their latest album.  After I heard it I started raving about it and sure enough my daughter or somebody in my family gave me the album.  So I have these words and I want to tell you the words. I won’t try to sing it.  Brooks and Dunn, though, they outdo themselves on this one--Ronny Dunn just exceeds his abilities.  The name of the song is “Believe” and it tells a story.

Here are some of the words:  Old man Riggly lived in that white house down the street where I grew up.  Mama used to send me over with things.  We struck a friendship up and spent a few long summers out on the old porch swing.  Said he was in the war--went in the Navy where he lost his wife and lost his baby.  I broke down and asked him one time, ‘how do you keep from going crazy?’  He said, ‘I see my wife and son in just a little while’.  I asked him what he meant.  He looked at me and smiled and said, ‘I raise my hands and I bow my head, I’m finding more and more truth in the words written in red.  They tell me there’s more to life than just what I can see.  Oh, I believe, I believe!’  A few years later I was in college talking to mom on the phone one night getting caught up on all the town gossip, the ins and outs of small town life.  ‘Oh, by the way, Son,’ she said, ‘Old man Riggly is dying’.  Later that night I laid there thinking back on all those long lost summers and I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.  If there was anybody that ever deserved a ticket to the other side, it would be that sweet old man who looked me in the eye and said, ‘I raise my hands and I bow my head, I’m finding more and more truth in the words written in red.  They tell me there’s more to life than just what I can see’ and as if to make those his own words he said,  ‘I can’t quote the Book, the chapter or the verse but you can’t tell me it all ends in a slow ride in a hearse’.  You know I’m more and more convinced the longer I live, ‘no this can’t be’--and he picks it over and over , ‘this can’t be all there is!  There’s more to life than just what I can see.  Oh, Lord, I believe, I believe!

Folks, there’s nothing more empowering than the simple words, I Believe!  I believe!

Amen!