“A Story Worth Telling” FPC, Troy, OH; March 15, 2015; Ephesians 2: 1-10; Isaiah 44: 24-28
Introduction: Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind: Scarlett O'Hara was always seeking fulfillment and never finding it. You may remember her character from reading the book or seeing the movie – she is always trying to get that next thing, but never seems satisfied.
Mitchell describes a recurring nightmare in which Scarlett would find herself running in a fog trying to find an unknown safe haven. When she described it to Rhett, “Oh Rhett, I just run and run and hunt, and I can't ever find what I”m running for. It's always hidden in the mist and I know if I could find it I'd be safe forever and ever and never be cold or hungry again.” Rhett asks, “Is it a person or a thing you're hunting?” “I don't know,” she replies. (I found this story reading through old sermons preached by Dr. John McCoy at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton, Texas. Dr. McCoy was the preacher I listened to on a weekly basis growing up in that church).
I think there is a lot of that going around in our world today. People searching, but never quite finding. People achieving or gaining lots of things, but never finding fulfillment.
During our Lenten journey this year, we have been invited to engage – God's story; our story; and others in the world.
We have talked quite a bit about our own stories, those moments in our lives when we have experienced God.
And how we can share those stories with others.
The power of the stories is not found in their “touchy-feely” moments; no, the power of the our stories is how they reveal the God who is present in our stories.
This week, we are invited to consider what the material calls the “big story.”
Move 1: Big story
a. The big story give us the basic framework of what God has done.
1. Gives us content for our stories.
2. Using the framework of the big story helps us avoid the pitfall of debating theology or arguing over the Bible.
3. Focusing on the big story is a way to avoid theological differences.
4. breaks down the "big story" into four moves: designed for good; damaged by evil; restored for better; and sent to heal.
b. Designed for good..
1. God as creator.
2. Not a scientific argument.
3. Intention of God to create and be in relationship with us.
4. reminded that after God had created, God looked at the world and humanity and called it God.
5. That the God who created intended for us to be good.
c. Damaged by evil.
1. Acknowledges our sinfulness.
2. How we ignore God or decide we want to be God..
3. Recognizes that not only are we sinful, but also that there is evil in the world..
4. Declares the vulnerability of our humanity.
d. Restored for better.
1. God sends Christ to die on the cross for our sins.
2. God sending the Holy Spirit to shape us into the new creations God calls us to be.
3. again, notice the intentionality of God – God moving toward us to save us.
e. Sent to heal.
4. Declares the vulnerability of our humanity.
d. Restored for better.
1. God sends Christ to die on the cross for our sins.
2. God sending the Holy Spirit to shape us into the new creations God calls us to be.
3. again, notice the intentionality of God – God moving toward us to save us.
e. Sent to heal.
1. Growing into our calling as the body of Christ.
2. God sending us into the world to proclaim the good news of God's saving grace.
Move 2: A couple of stories
a. Kathy Wehrman shared with me this week a passage from Rob Bell's book What We Talk about When We Talk about God. Bell tells this story: "One morning recently I was surfing just after sunrise, and there was only one other surfer out. In between sets he and I started talking. He told me about his work and his family, and then, after about an hour in the water together, eh told me how he'd been an alcoholic and a drug addict and an atheist and then he'd gotten clean and sober and found God in the process. As he sat there floating on the bard next to me, a hundred or so yards from shore, with not a cloud in the sky and the surface of the water like glass, he looked around and said, "and now I see God everywhere."
1. A story that shows how someone's life has been changed.
2. a dramatic story, but also notice how the story encompasses most of the big story.
3. acknowledges his sinfulness. How he is damaged by evil.
4. He is able to move beyond his sins. He finds God and God restores him for better by helping with get clean and lay claim to a new future.
5. Shares with others what God has done in his life. Sent to heal by the telling of his powerful story.
b. Or consider the story of John Newton, who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace" that we will sing later in the service.
1. Slave trader. Both experienced a horrible time serving for a slave trader, and then he becomes a slave trader.
2. Had a conversion experience. He was in the boat in the middle of the open seas during a a major storm. He found himself reading the Bible and laying claim to his faith in God.
3. Did not immediately give up slave trading, but tried to bring a humane approach to it.
4. After a few years, he realizes that he can no longer reconcile his faith with his actions.
5. He gives up his work as a slave trader and ultimately becomes and Anglican priest.
6. not only does he become an abolitionist who speaks out against slavery, but he writes hymns.
7. “Amazing Grace,” of course, being his story of being saved and transformed by God's grace.
8. His epitaph reads: "John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy." (you can find this from several sources. I saw it in the notes for the Presbyterian Hymnal and then at http://www.gospelweb.net/JohnNewton/newtontombstone.htm)
9. An epitaph that reveals not only his story, but the big story of the God who saves him him.
2. God sending us into the world to proclaim the good news of God's saving grace.
Move 2: A couple of stories
a. Kathy Wehrman shared with me this week a passage from Rob Bell's book What We Talk about When We Talk about God. Bell tells this story: "One morning recently I was surfing just after sunrise, and there was only one other surfer out. In between sets he and I started talking. He told me about his work and his family, and then, after about an hour in the water together, eh told me how he'd been an alcoholic and a drug addict and an atheist and then he'd gotten clean and sober and found God in the process. As he sat there floating on the bard next to me, a hundred or so yards from shore, with not a cloud in the sky and the surface of the water like glass, he looked around and said, "and now I see God everywhere."
1. A story that shows how someone's life has been changed.
2. a dramatic story, but also notice how the story encompasses most of the big story.
3. acknowledges his sinfulness. How he is damaged by evil.
4. He is able to move beyond his sins. He finds God and God restores him for better by helping with get clean and lay claim to a new future.
5. Shares with others what God has done in his life. Sent to heal by the telling of his powerful story.
b. Or consider the story of John Newton, who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace" that we will sing later in the service.
1. Slave trader. Both experienced a horrible time serving for a slave trader, and then he becomes a slave trader.
2. Had a conversion experience. He was in the boat in the middle of the open seas during a a major storm. He found himself reading the Bible and laying claim to his faith in God.
3. Did not immediately give up slave trading, but tried to bring a humane approach to it.
4. After a few years, he realizes that he can no longer reconcile his faith with his actions.
5. He gives up his work as a slave trader and ultimately becomes and Anglican priest.
6. not only does he become an abolitionist who speaks out against slavery, but he writes hymns.
7. “Amazing Grace,” of course, being his story of being saved and transformed by God's grace.
8. His epitaph reads: "John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy." (you can find this from several sources. I saw it in the notes for the Presbyterian Hymnal and then at http://www.gospelweb.net/JohnNewton/newtontombstone.htm)
9. An epitaph that reveals not only his story, but the big story of the God who saves him him.
Two stories worth telling.
Move 3: Grace
a. The verse from this passage from Ephesians that stands out to be is vs. 8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God"
1. Or as Eugene Peterson translates it it in The Message: "Saving is all his [God's] idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish!"
2. Paul pointing out God's intentional desire to save us.
b. Our story is not just about us, but about the God who comes toward us.
1. the God who creates out of love;
2. Sends Christ to save out of grace.
3. Calls us to new life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. The God who sends us back into the world to proclaim God's saving grace.
Conclusion: My Uncle Joe listens to records because he likes the stories that come with the record jackets and he likes the imperfect sounds instead of the perfection of a CD
He liked to sit and read the story and listen to the imperfect music.
If we make our faith stories sound perfect, they become inaccessible to anyone else.
But, when our story reveals God's big story, it becomes and invitation for others to discover the God who comes to save them. A story worth telling. Amen.
Move 3: Grace
a. The verse from this passage from Ephesians that stands out to be is vs. 8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God"
1. Or as Eugene Peterson translates it it in The Message: "Saving is all his [God's] idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish!"
2. Paul pointing out God's intentional desire to save us.
b. Our story is not just about us, but about the God who comes toward us.
1. the God who creates out of love;
2. Sends Christ to save out of grace.
3. Calls us to new life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. The God who sends us back into the world to proclaim God's saving grace.
Conclusion: My Uncle Joe listens to records because he likes the stories that come with the record jackets and he likes the imperfect sounds instead of the perfection of a CD
He liked to sit and read the story and listen to the imperfect music.
If we make our faith stories sound perfect, they become inaccessible to anyone else.
But, when our story reveals God's big story, it becomes and invitation for others to discover the God who comes to save them. A story worth telling. Amen.
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