Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Talk with the Preacher

Home
Progressive Christian
The Rest of the Story

The Rest of the Story

Last updated on: October 14, 2015 at 8:46 pm by Amy Butler

The Rest of the Story 2015-10-14T20:46:43-04:00 Amy Butler

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I love it when the perfect sermon illustration comes along just at the right time.

I love it when that happens.

However, that most certainly did not happen the third week of Lent, when I struggled and struggled to find a way to engage the congregation and the text in a way that had some sort of meaning.

Part of the problem, of course, was, honestly, the passage.

Jesus and the Samaritan woman have this amazing encounter, full of layers and layers of meaning, with potentially thousands of deep and meaningful sermons to be written.

Right?

Well, that may be. But, for the life of me, I couldn’t find an illustration to bring the point home: we confess that sometimes our hearts are hard.

After hearing my lament my friend Carol told me about a story that she’d heard once. It is a moving story from a painful time in American history. In 1957 Little Rock Central High School began the process of racial integration, and a picture taken by photographer Will Counts seemed to capture the hatred, fear and pain of the times. Carol told me that the two girls who were the focus of the photo: the angry white girl yelling at the young black woman, later reconciled, a little step toward healing a gaping wound.

It was an amazing story, surely illustrating our Lenten focus of confessing for the times our hearts are hard and resistant to the work of God’s Spirit.

It was, yeah, that is, until you read the rest of the story.

This Vanity Fair article tells the whole story-all the way to the end. Yes, there was hatred. Yes, there was reconciliation and a softening of hearts. But the happy Disney ending didn’t last. The reconciliation didn’t lead to life-long friendship. It wasn’t all nice and pretty forever and ever and ever. After an initial reconciliation and attempt at forgiveness, these two lives that had intersected a second time again went their separate ways.

So, I wondered: is it okay to tell part of the story even though the rest of the story didn’t turn out how we all would have wished?

A good story is like gold to a preacher, but when you use a good story your people trust you to offer them something they can take their imaginations and wander around in. If I told the first part of the story without the last part was I violating trust?

I decided in the end . . . not. I decided it was worth telling the story anyway, even though the end wasn’t as pretty as, say, Cinderella’s. The reasons I decided to tell it were: first, the softening of hard hearts was real. There was repentance and forgiveness and a new way of seeing the world. And that story is always worth telling.

Second, it all didn’t work out in the end. And . . . that’s probably the experience of most of us sitting in worship. Good intentions with the reality of life mixed in–the very real experience of life, not easy or neat but messy and hard.

But . . . still worth working toward the promise of redemption.

Because even if it happens just a little bit, it’s a story worth telling.

And . . . messy resolution is not the end anyway. God has a grand plan of reconciliation, and, really, that’s the rest of our story, isn’t it?

Answering the Call

Living in Relationship

Previous Post

February 25, 2008

Playlist

Next Post

March 10, 2008 Happy Sad Day

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Answering the Call Being the Church Curating Wisdom Laughing Out Loud Living in Relationship Practicing Discipleship Reclaiming Baptist Speaking from the Pulpit Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005

Search for:

The Rest of the Story

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

True or False: The Gospel of John records seven miracles (signs) of Jesus.