Epiphany In Bali
Stories
Object:
A Story to Live By
Epiphany in Bali
by John Sumwalt
Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.
Psalm 47:1-2
Recently Jo and I watched Frida, a stunningly beautiful movie about the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. As we watched the credits I recognized the name of the director, Julie Taymor, but I couldn't remember seeing any of her other movies. It kept gnawing at me where I had heard of her until it finally occurred to me that I had read her name in a Christian Century article by Miroslav Volf. Volf writes of an interview Bill Moyers did with Taymor in which she tells of a trip to Bali many years ago when she was a young artist:
"One day she was alone in a secluded wooded area at the edge of a clearing, quietly listening to the distant music of indigenous celebrations. Suddenly, into the clearing came 30 or 40 old men dressed in the full splendor of warrior costumes and each carrying a spear. They started to dance, and Taymor, who was hidden by the deep shadows of the trees, observed them for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly she had an epiphany:
" '...they danced to -- nobody. They were performing for God˜. They did not care if someone was paying for tickets, writing a review. They did not care if an audience was watching, they did it from the inside to the outside and from the outside in, and that profoundly moved me˜.' "
(Miroslav Volf, The Christian Century, September 6, 2003, p. 35)
Shining Moments
Don't Just Stand There!
by Judith Evenden
When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
Acts 1:9-10
It happened thirty years ago. I am standing at the graveside of my grandmother, my father's mother. Many say her death is a blessing. After all, she has been sick for many years, a victim of that dreaded disease, Alzheimer's, which steals away our loved ones, one memory at a time. As this is my first funeral and as I am a young teenager, I am unsure of how to act, where to stand, what to feel.
In the Salvation Army, the faith family of my parents and all of my grandparents, the tradition in which I have been raised, death is viewed as a "promotion." At death, one is considered to have been "Promoted to Glory." Knowing this, I am uncertain that I can be sad on such an occasion, although sadness fills my heart.
Rather than standing directly beside the grave for the committal service, I choose to stand back a little, by myself, hiding behind my sunglasses. At the moment in which the final words are spoken -- earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust -- my attention is drawn upward, toward the sky. With my head tilted back, eyes looking up, I watch as the dark clouds part and a single gull flies up through the opening into the bright sun. With the sight of this gentle, soaring creature, a smile comes over my face and tears well up behind my dark glasses.
I look back down to her grave. The beam of the sun is now shining directly upon her casket. I glance around at the others; all their eyes are cast down. Am I the only one to witness the ascension of one whose body has died, but whose spirit is being lifted beyond the bonds of death? It is as though she has, in this moment, risen from the cold embrace of the grave and soared up into the loving arms of God.
Judith M. Evenden is a graduate of Queen's University (B.A. in Music and Education) and Queen's Theological College (M.Div.) in Kingston, Ontario, and is a member of the Order of Ministry in the United Church of Canada. Judith currently serves the congregation of Fairbank United in Toronto. In 1990 she released a recording of all original music titled Rainbow Tales. This story appeared in Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels and Holy Coincidences (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2003).
Good Stories
You Will Receive Power
by John Sumwalt
So when they came together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:6-8
The alarm went off at five o'clock, as it always did on Sunday mornings. The preacher rubbed his eyes and sat up on the edge of the bed. The pain was still there. It was the first thing he noticed every morning now. Would he have the strength to do it one last time? There had been many Sundays in the past few years when he wakened feeling weak and feverish, certain there was no way he would be able to lead the service. And each time, as he entered the pulpit, he had felt himself filled with a power that was not his own.
Today was to be his last Sunday as a working pastor. His disability leave would start the following day. After 35 years of ministry, and at the age of 58, it all came down to one last sermon -- on New Year's Day. He had planned it this way. He looked over at his wife, who was just beginning to stir. They had been married 35 years ago today, just before he began his first pastorate. No servant of God could have asked for a better partner. They had shared everything together. Without her caring and her faith, he could not have endured these past six years.
The cancer had been diagnosed in 1978 --- multiple myeloma. The doctors did not expect him to live more than three months. He had not accepted their prognosis, had been determined to prove them wrong, and as he prayed, had felt assurance that he would be healed for ministry. How thankful he was for these extra years. There had been time to savor life, to share precious moments with his children and grandchildren, and to preach as he had never preached before, with a new sense of urgency. People had noticed the difference. The church, which had been at a low ebb when they arrived, was now full of life and promise. That made it easier to say good-bye.
What would he say to them today? The sermon was written, but he knew that on this day he would not stick to the text. He wanted to leave them with a word they would remember, a word that would endure and strengthen their faith in the years to come. And then he thought of the birds.
It had happened on the Fourth of July in the same year that his cancer was diagnosed. They were on vacation. He had been wakened by the singing of birds at about five o'clock in the morning. When he stepped outside the hotel and looked up into the tree, he saw hundreds of birds, and he remembered standing in awe and listening to them sing for over a half-hour. What a glorious sound as they sang at the tops of their voices their early morning song. Praise be to God!
The church was full that New Year's Day, and the congregation waited expectantly as the preacher stepped into the pulpit for the last time. He prayed for strength, as he always did, and once again felt himself filled with power. Christ was there with him.
It was really an Easter sermon that he preached.
"We share responsibility for our own deaths," he told them, "as we share responsibility for our lives. Dying is a part of living. What happens to me when I am near death is my business. Since I have a responsibility for my life under God, I also have a responsibility under God for my death. Our goal in life is not to survive, our goal in life is not just to be healthy, our goal is not just to live a long, long life. Our goal in life is to please God as long as we live, regardless of the number of days -- and to live that life in faith that we shall live with him forever and ever and ever."
And then he told them about the birds.
This story is shared in loving memory of Rev. Donald E. Sumwalt. The story of the birds and the excerpt from the sermon are taken from a tape prepared by his son, Tom Sumwalt. My special thanks to his wife, Hazel, for other details in the story and for permission to share it. It is a slightly fictionalized version of his last Sunday in the pulpit, but true in every way to his life and faith. Don served charges in Mooresville and Greenfield, Indiana, and Ash Creek-Bear Valley, Webster, Markesan, Juda-Union, Oakly and Chippewa Falls in the Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church. He was born June 28, 1926 in Texhoma, Texas, and he died July 25, 1985 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. His remains are interred at Rose Lawn Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin. Uncle Don was my inspiration, my model for life and ministry. He lived what he preached.
Scrap Pile
What Goes Up...
by John Sumwalt
Acts 1:1-11
What goes up... (cup ear and wait for the congregation to say, "...must come down").
What goes up here is Jesus. What comes down -- and if and when -- is the story that we have lived with for 2,000 years.
The season of Eastertide ends every year with this story of Jesus' ascension into heaven. Jesus takes his disciples outside of Jerusalem to one of the suburbs (Bethany), tells them to wait in the city until they have been clothed with power from on high, and then they watch as he is carried up into heaven.
There are only two accounts of Jesus' ascension in the scriptures. Both of them are written by Luke -- one in his Gospel, and the account in the book of Acts. The Acts version is more descriptive and has more detail:
Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and as they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)
Jesus was gone forever. This was the last good-bye. That's why they were looking up, gawking. He had left them alone with instructions to wait, to be witnesses to all nations, and with a promise to return. Now, what to do in the meantime, in the in-between time?
William Barclay writes in his commentary on this passage that "the ascension must always remain a mystery, for it attempts to put into words what is beyond words and to describe what is beyond description." Barclay says, "There had to come a day of dividing when the Jesus of earth became the Christ of heaven." He adds, "Surely it is the most precious thing of all to know that in heaven there awaits that self-same Jesus who, on earth, was wondrous kind. To die is not to go out into the dark, it is to go to him."
There is hope for us in this life with all of its hardships and suffering. Jesus is with us in spirit, and there is hope for us after death. Jesus has gone before us.
This was a favorite theme of Fanny Crosby, the great gospel hymnwriter of the 19th century, who wrote over 8,000 hymns, including such favorites as "Blessed Assurance," "To God Be the Glory," "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross," "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior," "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," "I Am Thine, O Lord," "Rescue the Perishing," "Jesus Is Tenderly Calling," and "Safe In the Arms of Jesus."
Samuel Trevena Jackson tells this story about the impact of another one of Fanny's power-filled compositions:
"The year is 1910. The place is Perth Amboy, New Jersey. A hackman stops to pick up two passengers. One is a middle-aged clergyman; the other is a withered old crone, apparently blind, ravaged, and wasted beyond belief, bent nearly double with age. But as the coach jolts along en route to the railroad depot, the hackman becomes aware that there is something unusual about this ancient woman.... She is speaking to the clergyman. Her voice is not dry and quavering as one might be led by her appearance to expect, but it is clear and high and mellow and young. Far from senility that one might expect in one so venerable [Fanny was 90 years old], the lady's mind is as fresh and young as her voice. She evidently is a woman of great intellect and refinement. She and the clergyman are discussing some point in theology. The coachman listens intently to the wit and wisdom the old lady displays. When it becomes obvious that the driver is paying more attention to what she is saying than to the road, the minister speaks up.
" 'This is Fanny Crosby, the hymnwriter,' he says. The hackman is stunned. He stops his horse, takes off his hat, and weeps openly. Getting himself together, he proceeds to the depot, where he searches for a policeman and finds one. He introduces the old woman to him. 'This is Miss Fanny Crosby that wrote "Safe In the Arms of Jesus." I want you to help this young man get her safely to the train.'
"The cop is stunned. 'I sure will,' he says. Then he says falteringly to the little old lady, 'We sang your hymn "Safe In the Arms of Jesus" last week -- at my little girl's funeral.'
"As he looks at the ground with reddened and shining eyes, 'Aunt Fanny' takes his enormous arm in her skinny hands and says, with great feeling and tenderness, 'My boy -- I call all policemen and railroad men "my boys," they take such good care of me wherever I go -- God bless your dear heart! You shall have my prayers! And tell your dear wife that your dear little girl is Safe In the Arms of Jesus.' With these words, the constable broke down and wept openly." (Fanny Crosby's Story of Ninety-Four Years, Fleming H. Revell, 1915, p. 119)
Excerpts from a sermon preached at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, May 11, 1997.
**********************************************
Rosmarie Trapp of the famed von Trapp Family Singers will be joining John June 5-9 for a series of "Vision Story" events in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Sheboygan, and Richland Center, Wisconsin.
Vision Stories in the Bible and Today
Author and storyteller John Sumwalt will tell stories from his book Sharing Visions and lead a workshop on "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today" at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee on Saturday, June 5, from 10:00 - 2:00 p.m.
A number of authors from the three "Visions" books will be present to tell their stories, including Rosmarie Trapp of the famed von Trapp Family Singers (Rosmarie is the oldest daughter of the Captain and Maria). She will tell her vision stories and sing songs from The Sound of Music.
Phone reservations to 414-453-0700 or e-mail jsumwalt@naspa.net. A $15.00 registration fee is payable at the door and includes a sub sandwich lunch. Motel information is available upon request.
John will tell biblical vision stories as well as vision stories by Pope Pius XII, Harry Truman, Abraham Lincoln, and several ordinary persons of our time who have had extraordinary visions. The Bible is filled with many familiar vision stories, but people didn't stop having visions after biblical times. We just don't talk about them as much for fear people will think we are crazy.
John and Rosmarie will be also be offering one hour Vision Stories programs at the following Wisconsin Churches:
*Willow Valley United Methodist Church, rural Richland Center, Monday, June 7, 7:30 p.m.
*Immanuel United Methodist, Kenosha, Tuesday, June 8, 7:00 p.m.
*St. Luke's United Methodist, Sheboygan, Wednesday, June 9, 7:00 p.m.
There is no registration fee at the Kenosha and Sheboygan events. A free will offering will be received.
**************
Looking for just the right story for this Sunday's sermon or Sunday School class? There is a large selection of stories on the StoryShare website (http://www.csspub.com/story.lasso). Click on "samples" to see two of our weekly editions.
New subscribers receive a year of StoryShare plus full access to the StoryShare archives for just $19.95. Subscribing online is convenient using our secure server -- or you can all CSS toll-free at (800) 537-1030 Monday - Friday from 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM (Eastern Time) or send an e-mail to orders@csspub.com, and our customer service team will be happy to assist you.
We invite you to forward this offer to all of your friends who are looking for good stories.
**************
The second volume in the vision series, Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences, is available from CSS Publishing Company. For more information about the book visit the CSS website at http://www.csspub.com. You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
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StoryShare, May 23, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
Epiphany in Bali
by John Sumwalt
Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth.
Psalm 47:1-2
Recently Jo and I watched Frida, a stunningly beautiful movie about the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. As we watched the credits I recognized the name of the director, Julie Taymor, but I couldn't remember seeing any of her other movies. It kept gnawing at me where I had heard of her until it finally occurred to me that I had read her name in a Christian Century article by Miroslav Volf. Volf writes of an interview Bill Moyers did with Taymor in which she tells of a trip to Bali many years ago when she was a young artist:
"One day she was alone in a secluded wooded area at the edge of a clearing, quietly listening to the distant music of indigenous celebrations. Suddenly, into the clearing came 30 or 40 old men dressed in the full splendor of warrior costumes and each carrying a spear. They started to dance, and Taymor, who was hidden by the deep shadows of the trees, observed them for what seemed like an eternity. Suddenly she had an epiphany:
" '...they danced to -- nobody. They were performing for God˜. They did not care if someone was paying for tickets, writing a review. They did not care if an audience was watching, they did it from the inside to the outside and from the outside in, and that profoundly moved me˜.' "
(Miroslav Volf, The Christian Century, September 6, 2003, p. 35)
Shining Moments
Don't Just Stand There!
by Judith Evenden
When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
Acts 1:9-10
It happened thirty years ago. I am standing at the graveside of my grandmother, my father's mother. Many say her death is a blessing. After all, she has been sick for many years, a victim of that dreaded disease, Alzheimer's, which steals away our loved ones, one memory at a time. As this is my first funeral and as I am a young teenager, I am unsure of how to act, where to stand, what to feel.
In the Salvation Army, the faith family of my parents and all of my grandparents, the tradition in which I have been raised, death is viewed as a "promotion." At death, one is considered to have been "Promoted to Glory." Knowing this, I am uncertain that I can be sad on such an occasion, although sadness fills my heart.
Rather than standing directly beside the grave for the committal service, I choose to stand back a little, by myself, hiding behind my sunglasses. At the moment in which the final words are spoken -- earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust -- my attention is drawn upward, toward the sky. With my head tilted back, eyes looking up, I watch as the dark clouds part and a single gull flies up through the opening into the bright sun. With the sight of this gentle, soaring creature, a smile comes over my face and tears well up behind my dark glasses.
I look back down to her grave. The beam of the sun is now shining directly upon her casket. I glance around at the others; all their eyes are cast down. Am I the only one to witness the ascension of one whose body has died, but whose spirit is being lifted beyond the bonds of death? It is as though she has, in this moment, risen from the cold embrace of the grave and soared up into the loving arms of God.
Judith M. Evenden is a graduate of Queen's University (B.A. in Music and Education) and Queen's Theological College (M.Div.) in Kingston, Ontario, and is a member of the Order of Ministry in the United Church of Canada. Judith currently serves the congregation of Fairbank United in Toronto. In 1990 she released a recording of all original music titled Rainbow Tales. This story appeared in Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels and Holy Coincidences (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2003).
Good Stories
You Will Receive Power
by John Sumwalt
So when they came together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:6-8
The alarm went off at five o'clock, as it always did on Sunday mornings. The preacher rubbed his eyes and sat up on the edge of the bed. The pain was still there. It was the first thing he noticed every morning now. Would he have the strength to do it one last time? There had been many Sundays in the past few years when he wakened feeling weak and feverish, certain there was no way he would be able to lead the service. And each time, as he entered the pulpit, he had felt himself filled with a power that was not his own.
Today was to be his last Sunday as a working pastor. His disability leave would start the following day. After 35 years of ministry, and at the age of 58, it all came down to one last sermon -- on New Year's Day. He had planned it this way. He looked over at his wife, who was just beginning to stir. They had been married 35 years ago today, just before he began his first pastorate. No servant of God could have asked for a better partner. They had shared everything together. Without her caring and her faith, he could not have endured these past six years.
The cancer had been diagnosed in 1978 --- multiple myeloma. The doctors did not expect him to live more than three months. He had not accepted their prognosis, had been determined to prove them wrong, and as he prayed, had felt assurance that he would be healed for ministry. How thankful he was for these extra years. There had been time to savor life, to share precious moments with his children and grandchildren, and to preach as he had never preached before, with a new sense of urgency. People had noticed the difference. The church, which had been at a low ebb when they arrived, was now full of life and promise. That made it easier to say good-bye.
What would he say to them today? The sermon was written, but he knew that on this day he would not stick to the text. He wanted to leave them with a word they would remember, a word that would endure and strengthen their faith in the years to come. And then he thought of the birds.
It had happened on the Fourth of July in the same year that his cancer was diagnosed. They were on vacation. He had been wakened by the singing of birds at about five o'clock in the morning. When he stepped outside the hotel and looked up into the tree, he saw hundreds of birds, and he remembered standing in awe and listening to them sing for over a half-hour. What a glorious sound as they sang at the tops of their voices their early morning song. Praise be to God!
The church was full that New Year's Day, and the congregation waited expectantly as the preacher stepped into the pulpit for the last time. He prayed for strength, as he always did, and once again felt himself filled with power. Christ was there with him.
It was really an Easter sermon that he preached.
"We share responsibility for our own deaths," he told them, "as we share responsibility for our lives. Dying is a part of living. What happens to me when I am near death is my business. Since I have a responsibility for my life under God, I also have a responsibility under God for my death. Our goal in life is not to survive, our goal in life is not just to be healthy, our goal is not just to live a long, long life. Our goal in life is to please God as long as we live, regardless of the number of days -- and to live that life in faith that we shall live with him forever and ever and ever."
And then he told them about the birds.
This story is shared in loving memory of Rev. Donald E. Sumwalt. The story of the birds and the excerpt from the sermon are taken from a tape prepared by his son, Tom Sumwalt. My special thanks to his wife, Hazel, for other details in the story and for permission to share it. It is a slightly fictionalized version of his last Sunday in the pulpit, but true in every way to his life and faith. Don served charges in Mooresville and Greenfield, Indiana, and Ash Creek-Bear Valley, Webster, Markesan, Juda-Union, Oakly and Chippewa Falls in the Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church. He was born June 28, 1926 in Texhoma, Texas, and he died July 25, 1985 in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. His remains are interred at Rose Lawn Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin. Uncle Don was my inspiration, my model for life and ministry. He lived what he preached.
Scrap Pile
What Goes Up...
by John Sumwalt
Acts 1:1-11
What goes up... (cup ear and wait for the congregation to say, "...must come down").
What goes up here is Jesus. What comes down -- and if and when -- is the story that we have lived with for 2,000 years.
The season of Eastertide ends every year with this story of Jesus' ascension into heaven. Jesus takes his disciples outside of Jerusalem to one of the suburbs (Bethany), tells them to wait in the city until they have been clothed with power from on high, and then they watch as he is carried up into heaven.
There are only two accounts of Jesus' ascension in the scriptures. Both of them are written by Luke -- one in his Gospel, and the account in the book of Acts. The Acts version is more descriptive and has more detail:
Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and as they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)
Jesus was gone forever. This was the last good-bye. That's why they were looking up, gawking. He had left them alone with instructions to wait, to be witnesses to all nations, and with a promise to return. Now, what to do in the meantime, in the in-between time?
William Barclay writes in his commentary on this passage that "the ascension must always remain a mystery, for it attempts to put into words what is beyond words and to describe what is beyond description." Barclay says, "There had to come a day of dividing when the Jesus of earth became the Christ of heaven." He adds, "Surely it is the most precious thing of all to know that in heaven there awaits that self-same Jesus who, on earth, was wondrous kind. To die is not to go out into the dark, it is to go to him."
There is hope for us in this life with all of its hardships and suffering. Jesus is with us in spirit, and there is hope for us after death. Jesus has gone before us.
This was a favorite theme of Fanny Crosby, the great gospel hymnwriter of the 19th century, who wrote over 8,000 hymns, including such favorites as "Blessed Assurance," "To God Be the Glory," "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross," "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior," "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," "I Am Thine, O Lord," "Rescue the Perishing," "Jesus Is Tenderly Calling," and "Safe In the Arms of Jesus."
Samuel Trevena Jackson tells this story about the impact of another one of Fanny's power-filled compositions:
"The year is 1910. The place is Perth Amboy, New Jersey. A hackman stops to pick up two passengers. One is a middle-aged clergyman; the other is a withered old crone, apparently blind, ravaged, and wasted beyond belief, bent nearly double with age. But as the coach jolts along en route to the railroad depot, the hackman becomes aware that there is something unusual about this ancient woman.... She is speaking to the clergyman. Her voice is not dry and quavering as one might be led by her appearance to expect, but it is clear and high and mellow and young. Far from senility that one might expect in one so venerable [Fanny was 90 years old], the lady's mind is as fresh and young as her voice. She evidently is a woman of great intellect and refinement. She and the clergyman are discussing some point in theology. The coachman listens intently to the wit and wisdom the old lady displays. When it becomes obvious that the driver is paying more attention to what she is saying than to the road, the minister speaks up.
" 'This is Fanny Crosby, the hymnwriter,' he says. The hackman is stunned. He stops his horse, takes off his hat, and weeps openly. Getting himself together, he proceeds to the depot, where he searches for a policeman and finds one. He introduces the old woman to him. 'This is Miss Fanny Crosby that wrote "Safe In the Arms of Jesus." I want you to help this young man get her safely to the train.'
"The cop is stunned. 'I sure will,' he says. Then he says falteringly to the little old lady, 'We sang your hymn "Safe In the Arms of Jesus" last week -- at my little girl's funeral.'
"As he looks at the ground with reddened and shining eyes, 'Aunt Fanny' takes his enormous arm in her skinny hands and says, with great feeling and tenderness, 'My boy -- I call all policemen and railroad men "my boys," they take such good care of me wherever I go -- God bless your dear heart! You shall have my prayers! And tell your dear wife that your dear little girl is Safe In the Arms of Jesus.' With these words, the constable broke down and wept openly." (Fanny Crosby's Story of Ninety-Four Years, Fleming H. Revell, 1915, p. 119)
Excerpts from a sermon preached at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, May 11, 1997.
**********************************************
Rosmarie Trapp of the famed von Trapp Family Singers will be joining John June 5-9 for a series of "Vision Story" events in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Sheboygan, and Richland Center, Wisconsin.
Vision Stories in the Bible and Today
Author and storyteller John Sumwalt will tell stories from his book Sharing Visions and lead a workshop on "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today" at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee on Saturday, June 5, from 10:00 - 2:00 p.m.
A number of authors from the three "Visions" books will be present to tell their stories, including Rosmarie Trapp of the famed von Trapp Family Singers (Rosmarie is the oldest daughter of the Captain and Maria). She will tell her vision stories and sing songs from The Sound of Music.
Phone reservations to 414-453-0700 or e-mail jsumwalt@naspa.net. A $15.00 registration fee is payable at the door and includes a sub sandwich lunch. Motel information is available upon request.
John will tell biblical vision stories as well as vision stories by Pope Pius XII, Harry Truman, Abraham Lincoln, and several ordinary persons of our time who have had extraordinary visions. The Bible is filled with many familiar vision stories, but people didn't stop having visions after biblical times. We just don't talk about them as much for fear people will think we are crazy.
John and Rosmarie will be also be offering one hour Vision Stories programs at the following Wisconsin Churches:
*Willow Valley United Methodist Church, rural Richland Center, Monday, June 7, 7:30 p.m.
*Immanuel United Methodist, Kenosha, Tuesday, June 8, 7:00 p.m.
*St. Luke's United Methodist, Sheboygan, Wednesday, June 9, 7:00 p.m.
There is no registration fee at the Kenosha and Sheboygan events. A free will offering will be received.
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Looking for just the right story for this Sunday's sermon or Sunday School class? There is a large selection of stories on the StoryShare website (http://www.csspub.com/story.lasso). Click on "samples" to see two of our weekly editions.
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The second volume in the vision series, Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences, is available from CSS Publishing Company. For more information about the book visit the CSS website at http://www.csspub.com. You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
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StoryShare, May 23, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
