The Middle Wife
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "The Middle Wife"
Shining Moments: "Doing Righteousness"
Sermon Starters: "Who May Come To The Banquet?" / "Rejoice Always?"
Scrap Pile: "Time for a Change" by Mark Hornickel
What's Up This Week
More and more mainline Christians are attending worship less and less these days. Perhaps it is time to do what Jesus recommends in his parable of the wedding feast. Check out "Who May Come To the Banquet?" in Sermon Starters. Look in the Scrap Pile for Mark Hornickel's report on the life of a former Chicago gang member, one of those not-so-respectable types that Jesus has invited to the banquet. "The Middle Wife" in A Story to Live By is a "hoot" that's sure to get a chuckle when you tell it on Sunday morning -- it is one of those stories you can be certain will be told around the water cooler on Monday.
Our next book will be an anthology of "best stories" from preachers and Christian educators about experiences of God's presence. All of us who work in the church have powerful personal stories of the ways that God has called, led, guided, cajoled, dragged, knocked upside the head, and healed. If you are willing to share one of your stories or if you know of someone who has a story that is just too good not to share, write to us at jsumwalt@naspa.net.
A Story to Live By
The Middle Wife
(by an anonymous second grade teacher)
Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord, or declare all his praise?
Psalm 106:1-2
I've been teaching now for about 15 years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade classroom a few years back.
When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell -- so I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness, and usually show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it to school and talk about it, they're welcome.
Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant and says: "This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday. First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord."
She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh. The kids are watching her in amazement. "Then, about two Saturdays ago, my mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, oh, oh!' " Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. "She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!' " Now the kid's doing this hysterical duck walk, holding her back and groaning.
"My dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my mom to lie down in bed like this." Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall. "And then, pop! My mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!" Erica has her legs spread, and with her little hands she's miming water flowing away. It was too much!
"Then the middle wife starts saying, 'Push, push,' and 'Breathe, breathe.' They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff -- they all said was from Mom's play-center, so there must be a lot of stuff inside there."
Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow, and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, if it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another Erica comes along!
(This story can be found on the web at http://www.hugsandsmiles.com/middlewife/)
Shining Moments
Doing Righteousness
Happy are those who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people; help me when you deliver them...
Psalm 106:3-4
During his college years, Sherman Rogers, author of Foremen: Leaders or Drivers?, spent a summer in an Idaho logging camp. When the superintendent had to leave for a few days, he put Rogers in charge.
"What if the men refuse to follow my orders?" Rogers asked. He thought of Tony, an immigrant worker who grumbled and growled all day, giving the other men a hard time.
"Fire them," the superintendent said. Then, as if reading Rogers' mind, he added, "I suppose you think you are going to fire Tony if you get the chance. I'd feel badly about that. I have been logging for 40 years. Tony is the most reliable worker I've ever had. I know he is a grouch and that he hates everybody and everything. But he comes in first and leaves last. There has not been an accident for eight years on the hill where he works."
Rogers took over the next day. He went to Tony and spoke to him. "Tony, do you know I'm in charge here today?" Tony grunted. "I was going to fire you the first time we tangled, but I want you to know I'm not," he told Tony, adding what the superintendent had said.
When he finished, Tony dropped the shovelful of sand he had held and tears streamed down his face. "Why he no tell me dat eight years ago?" he said.
That day Tony worked harder than ever before -- and he smiled! He later said to Rogers, "I told Maria you first foreman in deese country who ever say, 'Good work, Tony,' and it make Maria feel like Christmas."
Rogers went back to school after that summer. Twelve years later he met Tony again. He was superintendent for railroad construction for one of the largest logging companies in the West. Rogers asked him how he came to California and happened to have such success.
Tony replied, "If it not be for the one minute you talk to me back in Idaho, I keel somebody someday. One minute, she change my whole life."
(Sherman Rogers, Foremen: Leaders or Drivers?, Van Hemert Publications)
Sermon Starters
Who May Come To The Banquet?
by John Sumwalt
" 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests."
Matthew 22:8b-10
How many of you would pick this parable as your favorite Bible story? Is it anyone's favorite parable? It doesn't even make the top ten, does it?
Did you notice that this parable about a wedding banquet is different from the parable of the great banquet which is found in Luke? That's the one we sing the song about...
I cannot come to the banquet, don't bother me now,
I have married a wife, I have bought me a cow.
I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum.
Pray hold me excused, I cannot come.
That's the one we like! The invited guests won't come, and so the host sends the servants out into the streets and lanes of the city to bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame, but none of those who were invited are allowed to taste the banquet. It appeals to our sense of justice. We can imagine ourselves among those who have previously been excluded from great banquets finally getting our rightful place at the table.
But this parable of the wedding banquet is different. Those invited to the banquet not only refuse to come, they make light of the invitation and they kill the slaves who delivered it. So the king sends his soldiers (his terminators) and has them destroyed. Then he sends his slaves out into the streets to invite everyone else they can find. And the slaves go out and bring in both the good and the bad, until the wedding hall is filled. So far, so good: except this one gets a PG-13 rating for violence. (Close your eyes, kids, don't look. It gets worse.) When the king comes in to see the guests, he notices this one poor working stiff who isn't wearing a coat and tie. And he says, "How did you get in here without a coat and tie?" And the poor slob is speechless! How was he supposed to know there was a dress code? And where was he going to get a coat and tie on short notice? They said come, there's gonna be a party and free food, so he had come! The king shows no mercy. He says to his terminators: "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Jonathan Edwards must have liked to quote this text when he preached those "sinners in the hands of an angry God" sermons: "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
I wonder how people responded when Jesus first told this story? Did they stay to hear more stories? I wonder how we would respond if he told it here, to us?
There is a large segment of our right-brained, academic, scientific, business-oriented, corporate America that doesn't like stories very much -- some who are downright hostile to stories and storytellers.
When I tell people I am a storyteller, they always assume I tell stories to children. (Which is true, I do tell stories to children.) But when I tell them that most of my stories are for adults, they don't know how to respond. We have been taught, in this age of science and reason, that stories are for kids. Don't tell me any stories, we say. Tell me the truth! "Don't story me." Especially not in church! We want to hear real Bible-preaching when we come to church. We want real preaching, like Jesus did. "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him onto the outer darkness...."
We don't like this story very much. It offends our sense of fairness and justice, like some of those other stories he told -- "The Laborers in the Vineyard" and "The Unjust Steward." Judgment and condemnation are not what we want to hear, especially at a service of Holy Communion. We want to hear about love and forgiveness and "Amazing Grace" and "The Bread of Life for All is Broken." It is, isn't it? That's what we've always believed. That's why we are here.
So what are we to do with this story?
Frankly, if it had been up to me, I wouldn't have selected it for this service today. I didn't want to preach on it. I did everything I could do to avoid it, and I have, until now. But here it is, and it is in the Bible, after all -- and Jesus did tell it, so what are we going to do? We might as well live with it.
If we are to believe Jesus here, it would seem that God is very particular about who comes to the banquet. But then, so are we particular, not only about who may be served at the banquet table, but who we will allow to serve.
Is everyone welcome at the banquet table in the church where you worship? How about little children? There are a great many Christian churches where children are not permitted to come to the Lord's table until they are old enough to understand what communion means.
My Uncle Max was retarded, and he lived to be 58 years old. He never became "old enough" to understand the meaning of communion. I doubt that he was ever confirmed. But I think he probably had a better sense of the holy -- a discernment of the body of Christ, as Paul calls it -- than many of the rest of us in the family who matured beyond the seven-year-old mentality he attained.
Excerpt from a sermon John delivered at the national convocation of United Methodists in Worship, Music, and the Other Arts at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, on July 18, 1991. An audio version was produced for the Circuit Rider Sermon Series and is available from Cokesbury.
Rejoice Always?
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Philippians 4:4
If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
...Then you are probably the family dog!
(Author Unknown)
Scrap Pile
Time for a Change
by Mark Hornickel
The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:5b-7
Seven years ago, operating a day care and owning a home were hardly dreams in Stephanie Shepard's mind. Back then, her only goal was finding a better life for herself and her children.
Now the 35-year-old mother of four children (ages 13, 12, 10, and 3) and foster mother of two more (ages 10 and 7), is on the verge of owning a home. Her children, meanwhile, have become honor roll students, she says proudly, thumbing through a file folder that's overflowing with grade reports, certificates, drawings, and other school projects.
"Being here has been the biggest blessing for me and my children I've ever had in my life," Shepard said, unable to hold back the tears as she begins to talk about leaving her crime-ridden Chicago neighborhood and coming to Kenosha.
By the fall of 1998, having just divorced her husband of five years and mourning the death of her grandmother, Shepard had had enough of the Chicago streets. A former gang member herself, she longed for a safer environment to raise the three children she had at that time.
Then, she recalled an earlier visit to Kenosha and said God spoke to her.
"I drove through here and I liked it, and it stayed in my heart," she said with a wide-eyed smile. "So when I heard 'get your children and go,' because it was beautiful to me, this was the first place I came."
Shepard, with her children in tow and $550 in her pocket, boarded a Greyhound bus on a cold November night. In Kenosha, they stepped from the bus and Shepard asked the first person she encountered, "Where's the shelter?"
For three nights the family moved among churches participating in the community's INNS program. The family spent 10 more days living at the Shalom Center, before the organization came to their aid and helped them move into an apartment. The Shalom Center outfitted the family with everything from toothbrushes to a Thanksgiving meal and Christmas gifts, Shepard recalled.
"I had no one, and then me and my children came here to Wisconsin and they opened their arms to us by the grace of God," she said. "The Shalom Center was a blessing for us. They helped us in every way possible."
Reaching her goals
But Shepard still had a long way to go to attain the life she hoped for.
Via an employment service, Shepard worked stints at Wisconsin Electric and Jockey, and she worked at the CYC, trying to educate youth about gangs. With the help of a subsidy, the family was living on about $410 a month, Shepard said.
Then, in 2001, Shepard enrolled in the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program, an effort by the Kenosha Housing Authority to support low-income housing recipients who are willing to establish and achieve goals related to self-sufficiency. By earning a monthly wage and achieving their goals, participants also may have access to a special savings account.
For some single mothers raising four children, it might have been too tall a task. But Shepard persevered, said Cyndi Zarletti, Housing to Work Coordinator for the city's Housing Authority.
"She was kind of down and out and had a lot of responsibility," Zarletti said of Shepard's arrival to the program. "She wasn't working. She started taking baby steps and went back to school and continued to meet her monthly goals each month. She got more strict and more serious."
With about 80 people in the program at a time, Zarletti said about half the participants complete their goals within the preferred five-year span.
And the goals that Shepard set for herself weren't exactly easy. She set out to clear up her horrible credit, purchase a car, start her own day care, and become a homeowner.
"Some of the goals aren't as extravagant as hers," Zarletti said. "The homeownership and certification for day care, that's pretty extreme. Hers weren't little. These were substantial, life-changing goals."
Shepard's inspiration to start her own day care came from an experience she had with her then 3-year-old daughter. Having spent all of their lives in Chicago's predominantly black neighborhoods, Shepard said her children were "culturally stagnated."
"So when I first brought them here, I had to put them in a daycare center -- and my daughter, she couldn't take it," Shepard said. "She had a hissy fit everywhere because we just weren't used to it. It was a challenge."
Until one day when Shepard's daughter screamed so much and tried to run from the day care that staff called Shepard away from work. As a result, Shepard couldn't find another day care and lost her job.
"I said, 'You know what, I'll relieve this. I'll start my own day care and stay at home with my own children,' " Shepard said. "I wanted to teach them work ethic; it was important to me they would have work ethic."
Not giving up
Shepard attended classes at Gateway for about 2 1/2 hours, twice a week, in addition to all-day Saturday seminars at the Kenosha Job Center to learn about business planning and home-buying. She learned how to set up a budget for her family's expenses and she outlined policies for her planned day care.
"I felt like giving up a hundred times," Shepard said. "I took part in every seminar I could -- however, wherever. I was determined. I didn't want to let those people down."
And she didn't let them down. Shepard launched her Christian-themed day care, Chozen Daycare, and took its name from a Bible verse, Matthew 22:14, which reads, "Many are called, but few are chosen."
She started by caring for a family of three kids. Now, Shepard is caring for as many as a dozen kids over two shifts. Some weeks Shepard puts in 80 to 90 hours caring for the children.
"She just accepts and welcomes everybody," said Shepard's cousin, Latricia White. "It's not about just your household. It's about the community. She definitely fosters that, the value of community and helping others. She is definitely a person who wants everybody to make it. It's not just about her."
This summer, Shepard reached her final goal and became pre-approved for a home loan. She had completed the FSS program faster than most clients and her special savings account accrued enough money for her to pay some bills and someday put a down payment on a home.
"This is an unbelievable situation, because we're talking Shalom Center to home ownership," Zarletti said.
Now Shepard has her sights set on a few more goals -- like earning a college degree and finding that perfect home.
"I'm looking hard because there's not a lot of large houses here, and with my having all these children and my day care too, I really need a large house," she said.
(Mark Hornickel, The Kenosha News, September 8, 2005. Reprinted with the permission of the Kenosha News.)
Mark Hornickel is a features reporter at the Kenosha News, where he's worked since 2002, including 2 1/2 years reporting on the police and rescue beat. Prior to that he worked at the LaSalle News-Tribune in LaSalle-Peru, Illinois. He is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University, where he worked on the student newspaper, The Northwest Missourian, and served two years as editor-in-chief. Mark is an avid baseball fan and is married to Kati Hornickel, daughter of the StoryShare editors.
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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 e-mail the story to us.
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StoryShare, October 9, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 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.
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "The Middle Wife"
Shining Moments: "Doing Righteousness"
Sermon Starters: "Who May Come To The Banquet?" / "Rejoice Always?"
Scrap Pile: "Time for a Change" by Mark Hornickel
What's Up This Week
More and more mainline Christians are attending worship less and less these days. Perhaps it is time to do what Jesus recommends in his parable of the wedding feast. Check out "Who May Come To the Banquet?" in Sermon Starters. Look in the Scrap Pile for Mark Hornickel's report on the life of a former Chicago gang member, one of those not-so-respectable types that Jesus has invited to the banquet. "The Middle Wife" in A Story to Live By is a "hoot" that's sure to get a chuckle when you tell it on Sunday morning -- it is one of those stories you can be certain will be told around the water cooler on Monday.
Our next book will be an anthology of "best stories" from preachers and Christian educators about experiences of God's presence. All of us who work in the church have powerful personal stories of the ways that God has called, led, guided, cajoled, dragged, knocked upside the head, and healed. If you are willing to share one of your stories or if you know of someone who has a story that is just too good not to share, write to us at jsumwalt@naspa.net.
A Story to Live By
The Middle Wife
(by an anonymous second grade teacher)
Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. Who can utter the mighty doings of the Lord, or declare all his praise?
Psalm 106:1-2
I've been teaching now for about 15 years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade classroom a few years back.
When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell -- so I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness, and usually show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it to school and talk about it, they're welcome.
Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant and says: "This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday. First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord."
She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh. The kids are watching her in amazement. "Then, about two Saturdays ago, my mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, oh, oh!' " Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. "She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!' " Now the kid's doing this hysterical duck walk, holding her back and groaning.
"My dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my mom to lie down in bed like this." Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall. "And then, pop! My mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!" Erica has her legs spread, and with her little hands she's miming water flowing away. It was too much!
"Then the middle wife starts saying, 'Push, push,' and 'Breathe, breathe.' They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff -- they all said was from Mom's play-center, so there must be a lot of stuff inside there."
Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow, and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, if it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another Erica comes along!
(This story can be found on the web at http://www.hugsandsmiles.com/middlewife/)
Shining Moments
Doing Righteousness
Happy are those who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people; help me when you deliver them...
Psalm 106:3-4
During his college years, Sherman Rogers, author of Foremen: Leaders or Drivers?, spent a summer in an Idaho logging camp. When the superintendent had to leave for a few days, he put Rogers in charge.
"What if the men refuse to follow my orders?" Rogers asked. He thought of Tony, an immigrant worker who grumbled and growled all day, giving the other men a hard time.
"Fire them," the superintendent said. Then, as if reading Rogers' mind, he added, "I suppose you think you are going to fire Tony if you get the chance. I'd feel badly about that. I have been logging for 40 years. Tony is the most reliable worker I've ever had. I know he is a grouch and that he hates everybody and everything. But he comes in first and leaves last. There has not been an accident for eight years on the hill where he works."
Rogers took over the next day. He went to Tony and spoke to him. "Tony, do you know I'm in charge here today?" Tony grunted. "I was going to fire you the first time we tangled, but I want you to know I'm not," he told Tony, adding what the superintendent had said.
When he finished, Tony dropped the shovelful of sand he had held and tears streamed down his face. "Why he no tell me dat eight years ago?" he said.
That day Tony worked harder than ever before -- and he smiled! He later said to Rogers, "I told Maria you first foreman in deese country who ever say, 'Good work, Tony,' and it make Maria feel like Christmas."
Rogers went back to school after that summer. Twelve years later he met Tony again. He was superintendent for railroad construction for one of the largest logging companies in the West. Rogers asked him how he came to California and happened to have such success.
Tony replied, "If it not be for the one minute you talk to me back in Idaho, I keel somebody someday. One minute, she change my whole life."
(Sherman Rogers, Foremen: Leaders or Drivers?, Van Hemert Publications)
Sermon Starters
Who May Come To The Banquet?
by John Sumwalt
" 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests."
Matthew 22:8b-10
How many of you would pick this parable as your favorite Bible story? Is it anyone's favorite parable? It doesn't even make the top ten, does it?
Did you notice that this parable about a wedding banquet is different from the parable of the great banquet which is found in Luke? That's the one we sing the song about...
I cannot come to the banquet, don't bother me now,
I have married a wife, I have bought me a cow.
I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum.
Pray hold me excused, I cannot come.
That's the one we like! The invited guests won't come, and so the host sends the servants out into the streets and lanes of the city to bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame, but none of those who were invited are allowed to taste the banquet. It appeals to our sense of justice. We can imagine ourselves among those who have previously been excluded from great banquets finally getting our rightful place at the table.
But this parable of the wedding banquet is different. Those invited to the banquet not only refuse to come, they make light of the invitation and they kill the slaves who delivered it. So the king sends his soldiers (his terminators) and has them destroyed. Then he sends his slaves out into the streets to invite everyone else they can find. And the slaves go out and bring in both the good and the bad, until the wedding hall is filled. So far, so good: except this one gets a PG-13 rating for violence. (Close your eyes, kids, don't look. It gets worse.) When the king comes in to see the guests, he notices this one poor working stiff who isn't wearing a coat and tie. And he says, "How did you get in here without a coat and tie?" And the poor slob is speechless! How was he supposed to know there was a dress code? And where was he going to get a coat and tie on short notice? They said come, there's gonna be a party and free food, so he had come! The king shows no mercy. He says to his terminators: "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Jonathan Edwards must have liked to quote this text when he preached those "sinners in the hands of an angry God" sermons: "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
I wonder how people responded when Jesus first told this story? Did they stay to hear more stories? I wonder how we would respond if he told it here, to us?
There is a large segment of our right-brained, academic, scientific, business-oriented, corporate America that doesn't like stories very much -- some who are downright hostile to stories and storytellers.
When I tell people I am a storyteller, they always assume I tell stories to children. (Which is true, I do tell stories to children.) But when I tell them that most of my stories are for adults, they don't know how to respond. We have been taught, in this age of science and reason, that stories are for kids. Don't tell me any stories, we say. Tell me the truth! "Don't story me." Especially not in church! We want to hear real Bible-preaching when we come to church. We want real preaching, like Jesus did. "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him onto the outer darkness...."
We don't like this story very much. It offends our sense of fairness and justice, like some of those other stories he told -- "The Laborers in the Vineyard" and "The Unjust Steward." Judgment and condemnation are not what we want to hear, especially at a service of Holy Communion. We want to hear about love and forgiveness and "Amazing Grace" and "The Bread of Life for All is Broken." It is, isn't it? That's what we've always believed. That's why we are here.
So what are we to do with this story?
Frankly, if it had been up to me, I wouldn't have selected it for this service today. I didn't want to preach on it. I did everything I could do to avoid it, and I have, until now. But here it is, and it is in the Bible, after all -- and Jesus did tell it, so what are we going to do? We might as well live with it.
If we are to believe Jesus here, it would seem that God is very particular about who comes to the banquet. But then, so are we particular, not only about who may be served at the banquet table, but who we will allow to serve.
Is everyone welcome at the banquet table in the church where you worship? How about little children? There are a great many Christian churches where children are not permitted to come to the Lord's table until they are old enough to understand what communion means.
My Uncle Max was retarded, and he lived to be 58 years old. He never became "old enough" to understand the meaning of communion. I doubt that he was ever confirmed. But I think he probably had a better sense of the holy -- a discernment of the body of Christ, as Paul calls it -- than many of the rest of us in the family who matured beyond the seven-year-old mentality he attained.
Excerpt from a sermon John delivered at the national convocation of United Methodists in Worship, Music, and the Other Arts at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, on July 18, 1991. An audio version was produced for the Circuit Rider Sermon Series and is available from Cokesbury.
Rejoice Always?
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Philippians 4:4
If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
...Then you are probably the family dog!
(Author Unknown)
Scrap Pile
Time for a Change
by Mark Hornickel
The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:5b-7
Seven years ago, operating a day care and owning a home were hardly dreams in Stephanie Shepard's mind. Back then, her only goal was finding a better life for herself and her children.
Now the 35-year-old mother of four children (ages 13, 12, 10, and 3) and foster mother of two more (ages 10 and 7), is on the verge of owning a home. Her children, meanwhile, have become honor roll students, she says proudly, thumbing through a file folder that's overflowing with grade reports, certificates, drawings, and other school projects.
"Being here has been the biggest blessing for me and my children I've ever had in my life," Shepard said, unable to hold back the tears as she begins to talk about leaving her crime-ridden Chicago neighborhood and coming to Kenosha.
By the fall of 1998, having just divorced her husband of five years and mourning the death of her grandmother, Shepard had had enough of the Chicago streets. A former gang member herself, she longed for a safer environment to raise the three children she had at that time.
Then, she recalled an earlier visit to Kenosha and said God spoke to her.
"I drove through here and I liked it, and it stayed in my heart," she said with a wide-eyed smile. "So when I heard 'get your children and go,' because it was beautiful to me, this was the first place I came."
Shepard, with her children in tow and $550 in her pocket, boarded a Greyhound bus on a cold November night. In Kenosha, they stepped from the bus and Shepard asked the first person she encountered, "Where's the shelter?"
For three nights the family moved among churches participating in the community's INNS program. The family spent 10 more days living at the Shalom Center, before the organization came to their aid and helped them move into an apartment. The Shalom Center outfitted the family with everything from toothbrushes to a Thanksgiving meal and Christmas gifts, Shepard recalled.
"I had no one, and then me and my children came here to Wisconsin and they opened their arms to us by the grace of God," she said. "The Shalom Center was a blessing for us. They helped us in every way possible."
Reaching her goals
But Shepard still had a long way to go to attain the life she hoped for.
Via an employment service, Shepard worked stints at Wisconsin Electric and Jockey, and she worked at the CYC, trying to educate youth about gangs. With the help of a subsidy, the family was living on about $410 a month, Shepard said.
Then, in 2001, Shepard enrolled in the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program, an effort by the Kenosha Housing Authority to support low-income housing recipients who are willing to establish and achieve goals related to self-sufficiency. By earning a monthly wage and achieving their goals, participants also may have access to a special savings account.
For some single mothers raising four children, it might have been too tall a task. But Shepard persevered, said Cyndi Zarletti, Housing to Work Coordinator for the city's Housing Authority.
"She was kind of down and out and had a lot of responsibility," Zarletti said of Shepard's arrival to the program. "She wasn't working. She started taking baby steps and went back to school and continued to meet her monthly goals each month. She got more strict and more serious."
With about 80 people in the program at a time, Zarletti said about half the participants complete their goals within the preferred five-year span.
And the goals that Shepard set for herself weren't exactly easy. She set out to clear up her horrible credit, purchase a car, start her own day care, and become a homeowner.
"Some of the goals aren't as extravagant as hers," Zarletti said. "The homeownership and certification for day care, that's pretty extreme. Hers weren't little. These were substantial, life-changing goals."
Shepard's inspiration to start her own day care came from an experience she had with her then 3-year-old daughter. Having spent all of their lives in Chicago's predominantly black neighborhoods, Shepard said her children were "culturally stagnated."
"So when I first brought them here, I had to put them in a daycare center -- and my daughter, she couldn't take it," Shepard said. "She had a hissy fit everywhere because we just weren't used to it. It was a challenge."
Until one day when Shepard's daughter screamed so much and tried to run from the day care that staff called Shepard away from work. As a result, Shepard couldn't find another day care and lost her job.
"I said, 'You know what, I'll relieve this. I'll start my own day care and stay at home with my own children,' " Shepard said. "I wanted to teach them work ethic; it was important to me they would have work ethic."
Not giving up
Shepard attended classes at Gateway for about 2 1/2 hours, twice a week, in addition to all-day Saturday seminars at the Kenosha Job Center to learn about business planning and home-buying. She learned how to set up a budget for her family's expenses and she outlined policies for her planned day care.
"I felt like giving up a hundred times," Shepard said. "I took part in every seminar I could -- however, wherever. I was determined. I didn't want to let those people down."
And she didn't let them down. Shepard launched her Christian-themed day care, Chozen Daycare, and took its name from a Bible verse, Matthew 22:14, which reads, "Many are called, but few are chosen."
She started by caring for a family of three kids. Now, Shepard is caring for as many as a dozen kids over two shifts. Some weeks Shepard puts in 80 to 90 hours caring for the children.
"She just accepts and welcomes everybody," said Shepard's cousin, Latricia White. "It's not about just your household. It's about the community. She definitely fosters that, the value of community and helping others. She is definitely a person who wants everybody to make it. It's not just about her."
This summer, Shepard reached her final goal and became pre-approved for a home loan. She had completed the FSS program faster than most clients and her special savings account accrued enough money for her to pay some bills and someday put a down payment on a home.
"This is an unbelievable situation, because we're talking Shalom Center to home ownership," Zarletti said.
Now Shepard has her sights set on a few more goals -- like earning a college degree and finding that perfect home.
"I'm looking hard because there's not a lot of large houses here, and with my having all these children and my day care too, I really need a large house," she said.
(Mark Hornickel, The Kenosha News, September 8, 2005. Reprinted with the permission of the Kenosha News.)
Mark Hornickel is a features reporter at the Kenosha News, where he's worked since 2002, including 2 1/2 years reporting on the police and rescue beat. Prior to that he worked at the LaSalle News-Tribune in LaSalle-Peru, Illinois. He is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University, where he worked on the student newspaper, The Northwest Missourian, and served two years as editor-in-chief. Mark is an avid baseball fan and is married to Kati Hornickel, daughter of the StoryShare editors.
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StoryShare, October 9, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 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.
