So Long For Now
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week: "So Long For Now" by John & Jo Sumwalt
Stories to Live By: "A Thanksgiving Story" / "A Stewardship Story"
Shining Moments: "An Overpowering Light" by Karen Steineke
Sermon Starters: "For I Was Hungry" / "For I Was Thirsty"
Scrap Pile: "Where the Story Never Ends" by John Sumwalt
What's Up This Week
So Long For Now
by John & Jo Sumwalt
With this Christ the King edition, we are ending our three-year run as editors of StoryShare. This e-zine will continue in the capable hands of CSS Publishing and Brian Bucher. We wish them well and hope they have as much fun doing this as we have.
We have enjoyed writing and editing StoryShare each week. There will be a hole in our lives for a while as we adjust to a new way of being. What will we do with all those stories we find which are too good not to share? No doubt we will be sending some of them to StoryShare, as we know you will continue to do. Your contributions and support make this unique preaching and teaching resource possible. We hope you will continue in partnership with the good folks at CSS to keep the stories coming for many years.
After editing 159 editions over the three-year lectionary cycle (that's more than 600 stories, illustrations, sermons, and other pieces), we felt it was time to move on to other writing projects. We will also be promoting our most recent book, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives. And we plan to devote more time to developing our visions seminars and retreat ministries.
Vision Seminar
John will be appearing at First Presbyterian Church in Wausau, Wisconsin on Saturday, January 14, where he will be leading a Vision Seminar from 10:30 a.m - 2:30 p.m., and preaching on visions at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, January 15. First Presbyterian Church is located at 406 Grant St., Wausau, Wisconsin 54403. To register for the seminar, phone 715-842-2116 or write to Marilyn Paulson at Mpaulson@firstpreswausau.org.
Stories to Live By
A Thanksgiving Story
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.
Luke 17:15
During the Second World War a mother in Cincinnati received a letter from her son who was a paratrooper. In his letter he spoke of a woman in a small town in Normandy who had taken him into her home when he was wounded, and hidden him from the Germans. Later on the boy was killed in battle.
His mother could not let go of this event. She saved up for two years to go to Normandy. She crossed the Atlantic and went to the village named in her son's letter. She found the woman who had sheltered her son -- the wife of an impoverished farmer. Then she pressed a package into this woman's hand. It was the gold wristwatch her son had received on his graduation, the only object of real value the boy had ever possessed. The mother's act of gratitude so touched people's hearts that it has become something of a legend in and around this small village in Normandy.
A Stewardship Story
Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:7
There was a man who had been listening to his pastor's requests for pledges in church, and he knew in his heart that he wanted to give, but he was in such dire straights financially that he felt it was too risky to pledge. He was afraid that he couldn't afford to give even $10 a week without risking that another bill wouldn't be fully paid. So he decided to talk to his pastor about it. After listening to the man's fears about giving, the pastor said to him, "What if you decided to give $10 each week, and I held onto it? If at any time you need it back, you can trust me to hand it over to you." The man was really happy about this; he finally felt like he could give without risking anything. He was about to thank his pastor and go out the door when the pastor asked him quietly, "Why would you trust me with that and not God?"
Shining Moments
An Overpowering Light
by Karen Steineke
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him...
Ephesians 1:17
It seems like a lifetime ago, because it nearly is. When I was 21, my husband and I chose to become members of the Wauwatosa Avenue Methodist Church. Neither of us had been members of a church growing up, only going occasionally with friends. For me that was extremely rare. I only went a few times. Our minister, Dr. Francis Kerns, suggested that I be baptized, since I had no memory or record of having been baptized as a baby.
We set a date, and I remember being quite nervous, having no idea what it would be like in spite of the pastor's description of the ceremony. At that time, the chapel was a recent addition to the main building, along with Sunday school rooms. It was so like a dream, remembering it now, but one I recall totally.
As the pastor was performing the rite, I began to feel an all-encompassing warmth, with everything around me suffused and without form. I looked up to see the form of Jesus, with an overpowering light surrounding him, over the choir section and behind the altar. For what seemed like minutes, I was suspended in time and space. I felt such love and awe. I remember my tears, and as we left the chapel I tried to hide them from my husband because I was so overcome with a feeling one cannot describe.
Until years later I never did tell anyone, but it has always been such a comfort to me, knowing that He is with me. I know that many others have had similar experiences, but I feel so honored that it happened in my own life. I have shared it with close friends and family, but only those with a relationship with Jesus are receptive and seem to believe. Perhaps the others are just unable to respond to such an amazing experience.
Karen Steineke resided in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, from 1960 until 1989, where she, her husband Ed, and their four children attended Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church. Karen and Ed now divide their time between Surprise, Arizona, and Wautoma, Wisconsin, and attend United Methodist churches in both places. Her story appeared in Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives edited by John E. Sumwalt (CSS Publishing, 2004), pp. 179-180. (Click on the title to get more information.)
Sermon Starters
For I Was Hungry
"Then he will say to those on his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food...' "
Matthew 25:41-42a
The Ann Arbor News reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 a.m., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. Frustrated, the man walked away...
For I Was Thirsty
"...I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink..."
Matthew 25:42b
After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for three days.
*****
Seems a guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious -- the liquor store window was made of plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.
Scrap Pile
Where the Story Never Ends
by John Sumwalt
I have been creating and telling stories for almost 25 years. Until recently I wrote mostly short fiction, parable-like stories which were published by CSS in a series of books called Lectionary Stories and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit.
For the past 15 years I have been doing what I call "story concerts" at churches, schools, and civic clubs. Very often people come up to me afterwards and ask about a particular story. The most common question: "Is that a true story?" I hear it so much that I have developed a stock reply: "All of my stories are true... and some of them really happened." Fred Craddock's response is "Happens all the time."
Since the release of the three Vision Stories books I have been wearing two storytelling hats. Along with stories I have written, I tell some of my own vision stories, and a number of favorites I have collected like Karen Steineke's touching personal account above. Now I receive a different kind of response. Almost always someone takes me aside and says, "I had an experience like that once." They tell it to me in a quiet voice so that no one else can hear. And then they say with a sense of relief, "I've never told that to anyone before." This happens over and over again. I have come to understand that sharing visions is a much-needed ministry. It lets people who have had these powerful, life-changing experiences know that they are not alone.
Our next book will be an anthology of "best stories." We are seeking personal stories of ways that God has been present, called, led, guided, cajoled, dragged, knocked upside the head, or healed. We are also looking for fictional parable-like stories based on biblical and theological themes. Is anyone out there writing short fiction for the church these days?
We will be offering two $100 prizes in December of 2006, one for short fiction (as described above) and the second for personal "really happened stories" of visions or other kinds of experiences of the holy. We will send out the top two stories in each category in our quarterly Visions Newsletter and invite our readers to vote for their favorites. To subscribe to our free Visions Newsletter or to send us a story for the next book, write to us at jsumwalt@naspa.net, fax to 414-453-0702, or phone 414-257-1228.
I leave you with one of my favorite stories, which I wrote for our first book with CSS Publishing Company in 1990. It is the story that I always tell at the end of my story concerts.
Where the Story Never Ends
An old man lay dying. His children and grandchildren were gathered all around. One by one he bid them each farewell, leaving each one with his blessing and love. When he came at last to the youngest grandchild, he said, "Now, where is my little one?"
"Here I am," the little boy called as he jumped out of his mother's arms, climbed up onto the bed, and plopped himself down beside the old man. "I'm right here, Grandpa."
Neither of them said anything at first. The little boy took hold of one of the old man's tired hands, and as he had often done in their play together, he tugged at the gold ring on his third finger. After a while, without lifting his eyes from the ring, he said, "Are you going to heaven, Grandpa?"
"Yes, little one," the old man replied, "I'm going to be with Grandma in that place that Jesus prepared for us."
There was a long silence as the little boy pondered what the old man had said. Then he raised himself up, and this time, looking deep into his grandfather's eyes, he asked, "Grandpa, where is heaven?"
The old man smiled and playfully ran his fingers through the little boy's curly brown hair. "Do you remember how you used to sit on my lap and beg me to tell you a story? You would say, 'Tell me a long, long one, Grandpa. I want it to go on and on forever.' "
The little boy's eyes were shining now, and he said, "Yes, yes, I remember."
"Well," the old man sighed, "heaven is like that. Heaven is where the story never ends."
(from Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B by John E. Sumwalt, CSS Publishing Company, 1990, pp. 89-90)
**********************************************
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.
**********************************************
StoryShare, November 20, 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: "So Long For Now" by John & Jo Sumwalt
Stories to Live By: "A Thanksgiving Story" / "A Stewardship Story"
Shining Moments: "An Overpowering Light" by Karen Steineke
Sermon Starters: "For I Was Hungry" / "For I Was Thirsty"
Scrap Pile: "Where the Story Never Ends" by John Sumwalt
What's Up This Week
So Long For Now
by John & Jo Sumwalt
With this Christ the King edition, we are ending our three-year run as editors of StoryShare. This e-zine will continue in the capable hands of CSS Publishing and Brian Bucher. We wish them well and hope they have as much fun doing this as we have.
We have enjoyed writing and editing StoryShare each week. There will be a hole in our lives for a while as we adjust to a new way of being. What will we do with all those stories we find which are too good not to share? No doubt we will be sending some of them to StoryShare, as we know you will continue to do. Your contributions and support make this unique preaching and teaching resource possible. We hope you will continue in partnership with the good folks at CSS to keep the stories coming for many years.
After editing 159 editions over the three-year lectionary cycle (that's more than 600 stories, illustrations, sermons, and other pieces), we felt it was time to move on to other writing projects. We will also be promoting our most recent book, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives. And we plan to devote more time to developing our visions seminars and retreat ministries.
Vision Seminar
John will be appearing at First Presbyterian Church in Wausau, Wisconsin on Saturday, January 14, where he will be leading a Vision Seminar from 10:30 a.m - 2:30 p.m., and preaching on visions at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, January 15. First Presbyterian Church is located at 406 Grant St., Wausau, Wisconsin 54403. To register for the seminar, phone 715-842-2116 or write to Marilyn Paulson at Mpaulson@firstpreswausau.org.
Stories to Live By
A Thanksgiving Story
Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.
Luke 17:15
During the Second World War a mother in Cincinnati received a letter from her son who was a paratrooper. In his letter he spoke of a woman in a small town in Normandy who had taken him into her home when he was wounded, and hidden him from the Germans. Later on the boy was killed in battle.
His mother could not let go of this event. She saved up for two years to go to Normandy. She crossed the Atlantic and went to the village named in her son's letter. She found the woman who had sheltered her son -- the wife of an impoverished farmer. Then she pressed a package into this woman's hand. It was the gold wristwatch her son had received on his graduation, the only object of real value the boy had ever possessed. The mother's act of gratitude so touched people's hearts that it has become something of a legend in and around this small village in Normandy.
A Stewardship Story
Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:7
There was a man who had been listening to his pastor's requests for pledges in church, and he knew in his heart that he wanted to give, but he was in such dire straights financially that he felt it was too risky to pledge. He was afraid that he couldn't afford to give even $10 a week without risking that another bill wouldn't be fully paid. So he decided to talk to his pastor about it. After listening to the man's fears about giving, the pastor said to him, "What if you decided to give $10 each week, and I held onto it? If at any time you need it back, you can trust me to hand it over to you." The man was really happy about this; he finally felt like he could give without risking anything. He was about to thank his pastor and go out the door when the pastor asked him quietly, "Why would you trust me with that and not God?"
Shining Moments
An Overpowering Light
by Karen Steineke
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him...
Ephesians 1:17
It seems like a lifetime ago, because it nearly is. When I was 21, my husband and I chose to become members of the Wauwatosa Avenue Methodist Church. Neither of us had been members of a church growing up, only going occasionally with friends. For me that was extremely rare. I only went a few times. Our minister, Dr. Francis Kerns, suggested that I be baptized, since I had no memory or record of having been baptized as a baby.
We set a date, and I remember being quite nervous, having no idea what it would be like in spite of the pastor's description of the ceremony. At that time, the chapel was a recent addition to the main building, along with Sunday school rooms. It was so like a dream, remembering it now, but one I recall totally.
As the pastor was performing the rite, I began to feel an all-encompassing warmth, with everything around me suffused and without form. I looked up to see the form of Jesus, with an overpowering light surrounding him, over the choir section and behind the altar. For what seemed like minutes, I was suspended in time and space. I felt such love and awe. I remember my tears, and as we left the chapel I tried to hide them from my husband because I was so overcome with a feeling one cannot describe.
Until years later I never did tell anyone, but it has always been such a comfort to me, knowing that He is with me. I know that many others have had similar experiences, but I feel so honored that it happened in my own life. I have shared it with close friends and family, but only those with a relationship with Jesus are receptive and seem to believe. Perhaps the others are just unable to respond to such an amazing experience.
Karen Steineke resided in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, from 1960 until 1989, where she, her husband Ed, and their four children attended Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church. Karen and Ed now divide their time between Surprise, Arizona, and Wautoma, Wisconsin, and attend United Methodist churches in both places. Her story appeared in Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives edited by John E. Sumwalt (CSS Publishing, 2004), pp. 179-180. (Click on the title to get more information.)
Sermon Starters
For I Was Hungry
"Then he will say to those on his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food...' "
Matthew 25:41-42a
The Ann Arbor News reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan, at 5 a.m., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. Frustrated, the man walked away...
For I Was Thirsty
"...I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink..."
Matthew 25:42b
After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for three days.
*****
Seems a guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious -- the liquor store window was made of plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.
Scrap Pile
Where the Story Never Ends
by John Sumwalt
I have been creating and telling stories for almost 25 years. Until recently I wrote mostly short fiction, parable-like stories which were published by CSS in a series of books called Lectionary Stories and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit.
For the past 15 years I have been doing what I call "story concerts" at churches, schools, and civic clubs. Very often people come up to me afterwards and ask about a particular story. The most common question: "Is that a true story?" I hear it so much that I have developed a stock reply: "All of my stories are true... and some of them really happened." Fred Craddock's response is "Happens all the time."
Since the release of the three Vision Stories books I have been wearing two storytelling hats. Along with stories I have written, I tell some of my own vision stories, and a number of favorites I have collected like Karen Steineke's touching personal account above. Now I receive a different kind of response. Almost always someone takes me aside and says, "I had an experience like that once." They tell it to me in a quiet voice so that no one else can hear. And then they say with a sense of relief, "I've never told that to anyone before." This happens over and over again. I have come to understand that sharing visions is a much-needed ministry. It lets people who have had these powerful, life-changing experiences know that they are not alone.
Our next book will be an anthology of "best stories." We are seeking personal stories of ways that God has been present, called, led, guided, cajoled, dragged, knocked upside the head, or healed. We are also looking for fictional parable-like stories based on biblical and theological themes. Is anyone out there writing short fiction for the church these days?
We will be offering two $100 prizes in December of 2006, one for short fiction (as described above) and the second for personal "really happened stories" of visions or other kinds of experiences of the holy. We will send out the top two stories in each category in our quarterly Visions Newsletter and invite our readers to vote for their favorites. To subscribe to our free Visions Newsletter or to send us a story for the next book, write to us at jsumwalt@naspa.net, fax to 414-453-0702, or phone 414-257-1228.
I leave you with one of my favorite stories, which I wrote for our first book with CSS Publishing Company in 1990. It is the story that I always tell at the end of my story concerts.
Where the Story Never Ends
An old man lay dying. His children and grandchildren were gathered all around. One by one he bid them each farewell, leaving each one with his blessing and love. When he came at last to the youngest grandchild, he said, "Now, where is my little one?"
"Here I am," the little boy called as he jumped out of his mother's arms, climbed up onto the bed, and plopped himself down beside the old man. "I'm right here, Grandpa."
Neither of them said anything at first. The little boy took hold of one of the old man's tired hands, and as he had often done in their play together, he tugged at the gold ring on his third finger. After a while, without lifting his eyes from the ring, he said, "Are you going to heaven, Grandpa?"
"Yes, little one," the old man replied, "I'm going to be with Grandma in that place that Jesus prepared for us."
There was a long silence as the little boy pondered what the old man had said. Then he raised himself up, and this time, looking deep into his grandfather's eyes, he asked, "Grandpa, where is heaven?"
The old man smiled and playfully ran his fingers through the little boy's curly brown hair. "Do you remember how you used to sit on my lap and beg me to tell you a story? You would say, 'Tell me a long, long one, Grandpa. I want it to go on and on forever.' "
The little boy's eyes were shining now, and he said, "Yes, yes, I remember."
"Well," the old man sighed, "heaven is like that. Heaven is where the story never ends."
(from Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B by John E. Sumwalt, CSS Publishing Company, 1990, pp. 89-90)
**********************************************
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.
**********************************************
StoryShare, November 20, 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.
