“Then Peter stood up with the other eleven
apostles and in a loud voice began to speak to the
crowd...”
Acts 2:14
Recently I was reminded of an old hymn I learned at Sunday school, as
I guess many of us did: “Tell me the old, old story of Jesus and his
love..........”. Telling stories - the art of storytelling - is a universal skill,
spanning all cultures, which most of us experience for the first time in
childhood and continue to enjoy as we grow older. We love to be told
stories, and to hear other people’s stories, don’t we, whatever age we
are? And personal stories are the most interesting & often the most
moving.
At BUC we recently ran a course for people wanting to grow in their
Christian faith and it was a great opportunity to hear and share stories
about our journey with Jesus and how we’d experienced God’s love
and guidance in our lives.
As a minister my work often involves hearing and sharing stories with
other people, something I consider a privilege and usually find
humbling & moving. At funerals people often say what a shame it is
that we only get to hear the full story of someone’s life after they’ve
died, rather than while they were still with us.
At Easter we celebrate the wonder and joy of Jesus’ Resurrection. A
few weeks later at Pentecost, we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit
promised by Jesus, and the amazing accounts of how the disciples (&
others)’ lives were transformed in a dramatic and supernatural way by
his arrival. That change enabled them to do what Jesus asked them to
do - to go and tell the world that the transforming power of God’s love is
still at work in hearts and minds, and our lives are meant to be lived in
Jesus’ ways of love and grace. Just imagine how different the world
would be if we could all learn to follow God’s ways of love and
forgiveness, as lived out by Jesus!
I’m a great fan of happy endings, maybe because I’m an optimist by
nature, but also because as Christians, we know that everybody’s story
can have a happy ending, because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for
us, his victory over death & the power of evil, his resurrection, and his
promise of new & eternal life when we invite him into our hearts and
lives as our Saviour.
The current trend in our society is to sell your story, especially if it
involves someone famous. What a contrast with our calling as followers
of Jesus to tell our story, for free, especially as it involves the most
important person who ever lived!
Jesus sent his disciples out to share the good news of God’s saving
love and he calls his church (that’s us by the way!) to do the same.
There’ve been some depressing statistics about declining numbers of
people attending churches and yet research shows that increasing
numbers of people say they pray regularly, and are exploring
spirituality. Surely the best way (and the one Jesus suggested!) for
them to find out more about Jesus’ ways of love and grace is for us to
share our stories of what a difference it makes to us to know Jesus,
and about where & how we’ve experienced God’s presence in our
everyday lives.
We might be tempted to think our story isn't important or interesting
enough to be told, but God’s given each of us our own individual story
to tell, so we can share with others how His love and grace has been at
work in our lives.
Hymnwriter Brian Wren put it like this: “Lose your shyness, find your
tongue, tell the world what God has done: God in Christ has come to
stay; we can see his power today.”
So perhaps when someone asks you about your faith, or why you go to
church, you can share your personal story of Jesus and his love? After
all, no one else can really do that for you!
Jane
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