Is It True?
Stories
Contents
What's Up This Week
"Is It True?" by David Leininger
"Rich And Poor Alike?" by David O. Bales
What's Up This Week
How do we know what to believe? We hear so many different stories every day. We must look inside ourselves. Everyone must look into their own heart. What does your heart believe? We must let go of ourselves and let our heart lead us. The wellness of our soul has a lot to do with the wellness of our heart.
Is It True?
David Leininger
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Karl Barth was probably the very best theologian of the twentieth century -- he was a deep thinker, but eminently down-to-earth. Barth once wrote that people come to church on Sunday with only one question in their minds: Is it true? The providence of God, the saving power of Jesus Christ, the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection -- Is it true? Perhaps that is your question today. "I want to believe, but is it true?"
"I passed on to you as of FIRST IMPORTANCE" writes Paul, "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3). First importance indeed. Right from the beginning, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was regarded as THE most central belief of the Christian church. Christians deliberately chose to worship on Sunday rather than Saturday as a reminder that every Sunday is a mini-Easter, a celebration of Christ's resurrection.
But the concept of resurrection is something that is foreign to normal experience. Indeed, people were beginning to raise questions about it within 25 years of the end of the Lord's earthly ministry. There were those in the early church who had even begun to deny that resurrection was possible at all, and if someone were to claim that such a thing might be, they had better be ready to explain just how.
Well, the apostle Paul was ready. This whole fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is his answer to critics' questions. He began by saying, "Look, this whole thing about resurrection is something you have been taught from the beginning. It has been taught as a fact because it is so well attested as a fact. The risen Lord has been SEEN by too many people to be denied, including one appearance to over 500 at once."
Then Paul shifts gears and plays devil's advocate. "Okay, you say no resurrection? Fine. But realize the consequences of that position. First of all, Jesus is still in the grave, because no resurrection would mean no exceptions. His body is rotting there just like every other that has gone before. That also means that God is not all GOD is cracked up to be because no resurrection means that this problem of death is something that is a little too much for God to handle.
"Let's be practical about this," he goes on. "If this life is all there is, it makes no sense for me to put myself through the troubles I've had or to ask anyone else to undergo any persecution or even the slightest difficulty for the sake of the Gospel... or for the sake of ANYTHING for that matter. Why shouldn't we just look out for number one and let everybody do as they please. There is no justice in the universe. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die... and we will never have to account for anything we do because once you're dead, you're dead! No resurrection. Case closed. Pretty lousy, huh?"
But the church DOES believe in the resurrection. When the leaders of the church began to formulate creeds to summarize the core teachings of our faith, they included Christ's resurrection and the hope of a bodily resurrection for us as well. In the church's most familiar affirmation we repeat the ancient words: "The third day he rose again from the dead... I believe in... the resurrection of the body..."
Anyone who thinks that the world's great religions are somehow alike and merely different paths to the same destination need only compare the deaths of their leaders. Moses, Buddha, Confucius, and Muhammad all died at a ripe, old age, successful despite many disappointments, in the midst of their disciples and supporters, their span of life completed. Moses died in sight of the promised land, 120 years old. Buddha died at the age of 80, peacefully, his disciples around him, after he had collected during his itinerant preaching a great community of monks, nuns, and lay supporters. Confucius returned in old age to Lu after he had spent his last years in training a group of mainly noble disciples, to preserve and continue his work. Muhammad, after he had thoroughly enjoyed the last years of his life as the political ruler of Arabia, died in the midst of his harem in the arms of his favorite wife.
Then we encounter Jesus. Only a bit over thirty years of age, expelled from society, betrayed, mocked and taunted, tortured and finally killed by the most atrocious method ever designed by humankind's ingenious cruelty. He was buried in a rock-hewn tomb that was sealed by a huge boulder and guarded by Roman legionnaires. But some 36 hours later, people started seeing Jesus alive again. WHOA!
Do you see how radically different is the life and death of Jesus? Do you understand the impact of his resurrection? It is the resurrection that transformed the disciples from cowering in the upper room to publicly proclaiming Christ crucified and risen. It is the resurrection that empowered Christians to spread the news beyond Palestine. It is the resurrection that provided the power for a fragile church to move out and change the world. It is the resurrection that sustains the church today.
Rich And Poor Alike?
By David O. Bales
Luke 6:17-26
Lalia nagged Corin for weeks, "Come to church with me Sunday night. It's wonderful."
Corin wasn't against religion. She'd just been busy for her first three years of college. She'd get around to it. But this week Lalia found the crack to slip the wedge in, "I know you don't have much going this Monday. My Volkswagen's fixed. So how about if we go to church Sunday night?"
"Okay," Corin said, without thinking about what she was agreeing to.
Lalia smiled broadly. Corin gave a half smile. "You'll love it," Lalia said. "I know you will."
Corin had the ability to think place by place and subject by subject without blurring the edges. When she studied biology, nothing else entered her mind. When she scrubbed tables at the Student Union, she never thought of school work. Consequently although she'd agreed to worship and hadn't forgotten it, Lalia's "It's Sunday night, time for worship" almost surprised her.
As they approached in Lalia's car, the church surprised her more. She'd heard it was large, but she'd simply multiplied her parents' church times four. However, Pastor Harvey's Worship Centre was as big as a warehouse and seemed to have a campus as large as her college.
On the shuttle bus from the distant parking lot Lalia perceived Corin's apprehension. She said, "You'll love Pastor Harvey."
After they'd navigated through the entry with its coffee kiosk, book store, and T-shirt shop, they stepped into the sanctuary. Corin gasped so loudly that a teenage boy near turned to her and chuckled. The auditorium could have held a basketball stadium. Opposite her she saw four students from her college wearing their colors of black and orange. They were so far away that, as they shuffled through the plush green seats, they looked like a caterpillar on a leaf.
An orchestra played. Images were projected on three colossal screens. Ushers circulated, offering brochures about Pastor Harvey's DVDs and advertising the congregation's seminars. In the middle of the stage a man with carefully groomed blond hair stepped up to lead the singing group of a dozen young and handsome men and women who glided down from the choir. Corin calculated that the choir was about as large as her parents' congregation.
The lights began to dim on the congregation. The worship minister welcomed all and began to lead them in songs that seemed to Corin like those at their college pep rallies. Only this was better. The sound seemed to enter Corin from every direction. Maybe 13 to 14 thousand people singing praise to God. It continued for 45 minutes. She was swept away by it, feeling herself moved, uplifted, shaken. In the pause after the last song she tried to compare it with anything she'd before experienced. She couldn't. No category she could name would fit this worship. It was the greatest thing she'd ever experienced -- until Pastor Harvey preached.
After worship, as Corin walked out through the happy crowd, Lalia looked at her with an upturned twist of her head that meant: Well, what do you think now? Corin said, "We don't have to take the shuttle to the car. I'll just float there." Lalia hugged her and their giggling in the shuttle didn't bother anyone, because everyone was happy.
All the next day no matter what Corin concentrated on -- chemistry lab, anatomy, or even during psychology class -- Sunday night's worship would seep into her consciousness. She'd hear Pastor Harvey's repeating, "You're a child of God. God wants the best for you. Pray for the best." When she remembered his long prayer, she thought of the debts she was accruing in college. She'd never considered that because she was God's child she should pray for a high paying job with good benefits -- as well as a nice house and new car.
During the week she and Lalia talked often about the Worship Centre. There was no question that they'd attend next Sunday -- until Thursday evening. Their phone rang. Lalia got it and mostly listened for two minutes, answering, "Yes... Sure I will... I can be there tomorrow night by eleven." It was her brother, asking her to watch their two children for the weekend as his wife recovered from surgery.
Corin was now without transportation to worship. For the first time in her life she was urgent to get to worship. She asked a few people who had cars, but found no one going to worship, at least not to the Worship Centre.
In chemistry class Friday afternoon she asked her lab partner Kenny. He said, "I've got a car, but why don't you come with me to my church Sunday." Corin realized this was her last chance and it would be impolite to insist on his worshiping where she wanted. She said, "Okay."
Sunday morning 11 a.m. The songs were older, slower hymns. Worship wasn't necessarily joyful. Quiet. Reverent, yes, but not moving. The pastor was a middle-aged woman with prematurely gray hair: Lena Jurry. The text for the sixth Sunday of Epiphany was Jesus' teaching in Luke 6:17-26.
The pastor encouraged worshipers to bring food for the food bank every Sunday. She urged them to join in building a Habitat for Humanity house. She directed them to sign a petition to the state legislature to raise the minimum wage. Especially Pastor Jurry emphasized Jesus' saying, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God," and "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation."
Corin was courteous to Kenny after worship but declined his offer of lunch. She needed to think and she needed to think hard because, the two churches weren't coming together. She couldn't find enough similarities to fit them into one group. Were they even the same religion?
**********************************************
How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and email the story to us.
**************
StoryShare, February 11, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 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., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
What's Up This Week
"Is It True?" by David Leininger
"Rich And Poor Alike?" by David O. Bales
What's Up This Week
How do we know what to believe? We hear so many different stories every day. We must look inside ourselves. Everyone must look into their own heart. What does your heart believe? We must let go of ourselves and let our heart lead us. The wellness of our soul has a lot to do with the wellness of our heart.
Is It True?
David Leininger
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Karl Barth was probably the very best theologian of the twentieth century -- he was a deep thinker, but eminently down-to-earth. Barth once wrote that people come to church on Sunday with only one question in their minds: Is it true? The providence of God, the saving power of Jesus Christ, the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection -- Is it true? Perhaps that is your question today. "I want to believe, but is it true?"
"I passed on to you as of FIRST IMPORTANCE" writes Paul, "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3). First importance indeed. Right from the beginning, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was regarded as THE most central belief of the Christian church. Christians deliberately chose to worship on Sunday rather than Saturday as a reminder that every Sunday is a mini-Easter, a celebration of Christ's resurrection.
But the concept of resurrection is something that is foreign to normal experience. Indeed, people were beginning to raise questions about it within 25 years of the end of the Lord's earthly ministry. There were those in the early church who had even begun to deny that resurrection was possible at all, and if someone were to claim that such a thing might be, they had better be ready to explain just how.
Well, the apostle Paul was ready. This whole fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is his answer to critics' questions. He began by saying, "Look, this whole thing about resurrection is something you have been taught from the beginning. It has been taught as a fact because it is so well attested as a fact. The risen Lord has been SEEN by too many people to be denied, including one appearance to over 500 at once."
Then Paul shifts gears and plays devil's advocate. "Okay, you say no resurrection? Fine. But realize the consequences of that position. First of all, Jesus is still in the grave, because no resurrection would mean no exceptions. His body is rotting there just like every other that has gone before. That also means that God is not all GOD is cracked up to be because no resurrection means that this problem of death is something that is a little too much for God to handle.
"Let's be practical about this," he goes on. "If this life is all there is, it makes no sense for me to put myself through the troubles I've had or to ask anyone else to undergo any persecution or even the slightest difficulty for the sake of the Gospel... or for the sake of ANYTHING for that matter. Why shouldn't we just look out for number one and let everybody do as they please. There is no justice in the universe. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die... and we will never have to account for anything we do because once you're dead, you're dead! No resurrection. Case closed. Pretty lousy, huh?"
But the church DOES believe in the resurrection. When the leaders of the church began to formulate creeds to summarize the core teachings of our faith, they included Christ's resurrection and the hope of a bodily resurrection for us as well. In the church's most familiar affirmation we repeat the ancient words: "The third day he rose again from the dead... I believe in... the resurrection of the body..."
Anyone who thinks that the world's great religions are somehow alike and merely different paths to the same destination need only compare the deaths of their leaders. Moses, Buddha, Confucius, and Muhammad all died at a ripe, old age, successful despite many disappointments, in the midst of their disciples and supporters, their span of life completed. Moses died in sight of the promised land, 120 years old. Buddha died at the age of 80, peacefully, his disciples around him, after he had collected during his itinerant preaching a great community of monks, nuns, and lay supporters. Confucius returned in old age to Lu after he had spent his last years in training a group of mainly noble disciples, to preserve and continue his work. Muhammad, after he had thoroughly enjoyed the last years of his life as the political ruler of Arabia, died in the midst of his harem in the arms of his favorite wife.
Then we encounter Jesus. Only a bit over thirty years of age, expelled from society, betrayed, mocked and taunted, tortured and finally killed by the most atrocious method ever designed by humankind's ingenious cruelty. He was buried in a rock-hewn tomb that was sealed by a huge boulder and guarded by Roman legionnaires. But some 36 hours later, people started seeing Jesus alive again. WHOA!
Do you see how radically different is the life and death of Jesus? Do you understand the impact of his resurrection? It is the resurrection that transformed the disciples from cowering in the upper room to publicly proclaiming Christ crucified and risen. It is the resurrection that empowered Christians to spread the news beyond Palestine. It is the resurrection that provided the power for a fragile church to move out and change the world. It is the resurrection that sustains the church today.
Rich And Poor Alike?
By David O. Bales
Luke 6:17-26
Lalia nagged Corin for weeks, "Come to church with me Sunday night. It's wonderful."
Corin wasn't against religion. She'd just been busy for her first three years of college. She'd get around to it. But this week Lalia found the crack to slip the wedge in, "I know you don't have much going this Monday. My Volkswagen's fixed. So how about if we go to church Sunday night?"
"Okay," Corin said, without thinking about what she was agreeing to.
Lalia smiled broadly. Corin gave a half smile. "You'll love it," Lalia said. "I know you will."
Corin had the ability to think place by place and subject by subject without blurring the edges. When she studied biology, nothing else entered her mind. When she scrubbed tables at the Student Union, she never thought of school work. Consequently although she'd agreed to worship and hadn't forgotten it, Lalia's "It's Sunday night, time for worship" almost surprised her.
As they approached in Lalia's car, the church surprised her more. She'd heard it was large, but she'd simply multiplied her parents' church times four. However, Pastor Harvey's Worship Centre was as big as a warehouse and seemed to have a campus as large as her college.
On the shuttle bus from the distant parking lot Lalia perceived Corin's apprehension. She said, "You'll love Pastor Harvey."
After they'd navigated through the entry with its coffee kiosk, book store, and T-shirt shop, they stepped into the sanctuary. Corin gasped so loudly that a teenage boy near turned to her and chuckled. The auditorium could have held a basketball stadium. Opposite her she saw four students from her college wearing their colors of black and orange. They were so far away that, as they shuffled through the plush green seats, they looked like a caterpillar on a leaf.
An orchestra played. Images were projected on three colossal screens. Ushers circulated, offering brochures about Pastor Harvey's DVDs and advertising the congregation's seminars. In the middle of the stage a man with carefully groomed blond hair stepped up to lead the singing group of a dozen young and handsome men and women who glided down from the choir. Corin calculated that the choir was about as large as her parents' congregation.
The lights began to dim on the congregation. The worship minister welcomed all and began to lead them in songs that seemed to Corin like those at their college pep rallies. Only this was better. The sound seemed to enter Corin from every direction. Maybe 13 to 14 thousand people singing praise to God. It continued for 45 minutes. She was swept away by it, feeling herself moved, uplifted, shaken. In the pause after the last song she tried to compare it with anything she'd before experienced. She couldn't. No category she could name would fit this worship. It was the greatest thing she'd ever experienced -- until Pastor Harvey preached.
After worship, as Corin walked out through the happy crowd, Lalia looked at her with an upturned twist of her head that meant: Well, what do you think now? Corin said, "We don't have to take the shuttle to the car. I'll just float there." Lalia hugged her and their giggling in the shuttle didn't bother anyone, because everyone was happy.
All the next day no matter what Corin concentrated on -- chemistry lab, anatomy, or even during psychology class -- Sunday night's worship would seep into her consciousness. She'd hear Pastor Harvey's repeating, "You're a child of God. God wants the best for you. Pray for the best." When she remembered his long prayer, she thought of the debts she was accruing in college. She'd never considered that because she was God's child she should pray for a high paying job with good benefits -- as well as a nice house and new car.
During the week she and Lalia talked often about the Worship Centre. There was no question that they'd attend next Sunday -- until Thursday evening. Their phone rang. Lalia got it and mostly listened for two minutes, answering, "Yes... Sure I will... I can be there tomorrow night by eleven." It was her brother, asking her to watch their two children for the weekend as his wife recovered from surgery.
Corin was now without transportation to worship. For the first time in her life she was urgent to get to worship. She asked a few people who had cars, but found no one going to worship, at least not to the Worship Centre.
In chemistry class Friday afternoon she asked her lab partner Kenny. He said, "I've got a car, but why don't you come with me to my church Sunday." Corin realized this was her last chance and it would be impolite to insist on his worshiping where she wanted. She said, "Okay."
Sunday morning 11 a.m. The songs were older, slower hymns. Worship wasn't necessarily joyful. Quiet. Reverent, yes, but not moving. The pastor was a middle-aged woman with prematurely gray hair: Lena Jurry. The text for the sixth Sunday of Epiphany was Jesus' teaching in Luke 6:17-26.
The pastor encouraged worshipers to bring food for the food bank every Sunday. She urged them to join in building a Habitat for Humanity house. She directed them to sign a petition to the state legislature to raise the minimum wage. Especially Pastor Jurry emphasized Jesus' saying, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God," and "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation."
Corin was courteous to Kenny after worship but declined his offer of lunch. She needed to think and she needed to think hard because, the two churches weren't coming together. She couldn't find enough similarities to fit them into one group. Were they even the same religion?
**********************************************
How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and email the story to us.
**************
StoryShare, February 11, 2007, issue.
Copyright 2007 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., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
