A folk tale for Good Friday and Better Days

In one of the famous sayings from the cross, Jesus turned to the thief crucified with him and declared, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).

The other day, I read a folk tale about paradise in Best-Loved Stories Told at the National Storytelling Festival.  Steve Sanfield's story is entitled "Could This Be Paradise?".  The basic story is that a man set out from home in search of paradise.  He got rather far from home and settled down to sleep for the night, but before doing so, he pointed his shoes in the direction that we was heading.  During the night, someone or something full of mischief, turned those shoes in the opposite direction.  The man walked all the next day and arrived at a place that seemed so familiar right down to a vary familiar looking house and the family who dwelt there.  He spent the rest of his days wondering if he truly had found paradise.

Here is a link to the tale, but you might also find it in your local library or book store:

"Could This Be Paradise?"

Of course, I can't just give you the tale and that be it.  A little commentary and preaching must accompany it.  Is anything really free?

As a minister, I have encountered a number of people who have definite opinions about heaven.  They are so definite that it would offend them to hear that I've used the word "opinion" regarding what they hold dearly as absolute truth.  Among this group are those who are biding their time just waiting to go to heaven.  They occupy a pew on Sunday morning, but do little else.  Some of their colleagues are a little more dangerous.  They seem to me to be folks who will be rather disappointed with heaven if some people don't go to hell.

Now don't get me wrong.  I'm not here to tell you there isn't a heaven, though it might be easy to imagine.  No, I believe what the old creed says, "I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting."  I don't think I would even venture to tell you there is no hell, but I know a good joke about it that was told to me by a 90 year old Gideon, so it's been blessed for your hearing.

The pastor of a Unitarian Universalist congregation was studying away one morning when he became convinced that hell did not exist.  He beat a hasty path to the sign in front of his church and changed the message to read, "THERE AIN'T NO HELL".  Well, the pastor of the Baptist church down the street happened to be driving by while the sign was being changed.  He hurried to his church and changed his sign to say, "THE HELL THERE AIN'T!"

We are in a season at the movie theaters where some of the conversation is about God, Jesus and even Heaven.  For some the movies might even prove decent ammunition to win some argument about the existence of God.  Let me, however, leap quickly to a point: offering a convincing apologetic, winning an argument, about the reality of heaven is a pointless victory if you fail to do anything about the hell your neighbors experience on earth.

Jesus didn't talk a lot about heaven, but he did teach about the kingdom.  In one of his lessons he said, 

"The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'there it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17:20-21).

Which brings me back to our folk tale.  Before we set off in pursuit of heaven, we have to seek the kingdom.  We have to see the tremendous potential of paradise in the here and now even if that means being crucified with Christ for the sake of others.

Sharing our stories

A couple of my Facebook friends shared the following video on their pages.  Please give it a look.

lifeasweknow.it

"Life As We Know It" (no, not the Katherine Heigl movie) looks like a it could be a very useful resource. I can already imagine a number of possibilities for it.  Chiefly, I would like to see how this would work in parts of congregational life.

Churches have several small groups, whether they're Sunday School classes, Bible study groups, prayer gatherings, choirs, committees, etc.  I bet each of these groups could benefit from sharing their stories with each other.  Just because some folks have sat in the same room with each other every Sunday since the flood doesn't necessarily mean they know a whole lot about each other.

There have been many a Sunday morning where I have seen the same people show up, sit in the same place and leave through the same door they entered.  Sometimes I wondered if they would change.  Other times I wondered if they would ever make the effort to get to know someone who sits across the sanctuary from them.  Wouldn't that be great?

I might try putting together several story sharing groups.  I think I'd hold something of an NFL draft to put specific people in their places (no pun intended--I think).  I wonder what stories and what relationships might come from getting people together whose only common ground might be that they could pick each other out of a lineup of possible members of the same congregation.

One message I am trying to push is the viability of the local story.  It is real.  It is significant, and it should not be dismissed as unimportant.  It must not be forgotten.  If we lose the story, we run the risk of ceasing to exist altogether.  Perhaps this curriculum (sorry, can't think of a better word) could be very helpful in collecting stories in a congregation.  It could spur further storytelling and story collecting, and before too long the oral history of a community is being shared, recorded and maybe even presented in celebration.

Here's one I'm definitely going to do one day.  I would love to lead intergenerational story sharing groups.  Sure, we disconnect across the aisles in church but even more so across the generations.  We can only blame ourselves.  We might have invented age segregation when we started sending everyone to their very own groups.  Granted, age-graded curriculum is a useful tool in faith development, but it cannot be the end-all/be-all of spiritual formation.  Let's add to it with conversation.  Get a teenager talking with a senior adult and a 30-something and see what shakes out.  I think it would contribute to better disciple making, helping establish bonds between believers which could bless them to share the story of faith because they will know how to share their story.

Of course, there are many ways "Life As We Know It" or something similar could prove useful.  What would you do to help people share their stories?  And hey, if you can add the Katherine Heigl movie to the discussion, you deserve extra points.