Grace
Stories
These Will Preach!
Stories and Metaphors for the Pulpit
Object:
Because Dwaine Pittman was ill on the day we seven were examined before the confirmation, the questions Rev. Wessel had promised us were out of order. I gave the answers I had memorized anyway for each seventh question. Rev. Wessel never let on they were the wrong answers. What an example of grace he granted to us that day!
***
In 1719 the king offered what was called an "Act of Grace" to all pirates in the Caribbean. Calico Jack, one of the most notorious, took the offer. If they would give up their pirate's life, the king would give them amnesty and some land to settle on. It is an offer Jesus works on God's behalf from the cross.
***
A country song on radio has the line: "Somewhere between hell-raising and amazing grace." Perhaps that's a good description of where we humans live.
***
March 9, 1909, the city water tank in Des Moines collapsed and nearly washed away First Lutheran Church. After rebuilding, there was a foreclosure during the Depression and the congregation bought it back at a reduced price. It's now debt free. Our Baptismal water could have the power to move churches. Jesus has bought us back with a big price. We are debt free. All is forgiven.
***
I saw a Coptic priest, dressed all in traditional black, fall off a camel at the pyramids of Giza in Cairo, Egypt. Later I found out the camel's name was Grace. Even the best of clergy can fall from grace.
***
In an HBO movie Tell Me What You Want, Max Herschel's daughter tells him, as he tries to keep track of what his lover had done and was doing, "Don't keep books on people you love."
Like God's love for us, which is grace-filled, we accept the ones we love without demanding they live as we want. We accept them as they are.
***
I recall the first time I got a glimpse of the pyramids of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. I made the van driver stop so I could take a picture, but after a while as we got closer, I asked that he stop again for another shot. Several times we went through the same process as the three grand pyramids opened up before us. Grace is like that. It opens up wider and wider, grander and grander. Our first glimpse seems so small compared with now.
***
In a Christmas letter from a retired Denver pastor whose wife was seriously ill with cancer, the pastor quoted Frederick Buechner: "Listen to your life. See it as the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it -- no less than in the excitement and gladness -- touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."
***
In 1719 the king offered what was called an "Act of Grace" to all pirates in the Caribbean. Calico Jack, one of the most notorious, took the offer. If they would give up their pirate's life, the king would give them amnesty and some land to settle on. It is an offer Jesus works on God's behalf from the cross.
***
A country song on radio has the line: "Somewhere between hell-raising and amazing grace." Perhaps that's a good description of where we humans live.
***
March 9, 1909, the city water tank in Des Moines collapsed and nearly washed away First Lutheran Church. After rebuilding, there was a foreclosure during the Depression and the congregation bought it back at a reduced price. It's now debt free. Our Baptismal water could have the power to move churches. Jesus has bought us back with a big price. We are debt free. All is forgiven.
***
I saw a Coptic priest, dressed all in traditional black, fall off a camel at the pyramids of Giza in Cairo, Egypt. Later I found out the camel's name was Grace. Even the best of clergy can fall from grace.
***
In an HBO movie Tell Me What You Want, Max Herschel's daughter tells him, as he tries to keep track of what his lover had done and was doing, "Don't keep books on people you love."
Like God's love for us, which is grace-filled, we accept the ones we love without demanding they live as we want. We accept them as they are.
***
I recall the first time I got a glimpse of the pyramids of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. I made the van driver stop so I could take a picture, but after a while as we got closer, I asked that he stop again for another shot. Several times we went through the same process as the three grand pyramids opened up before us. Grace is like that. It opens up wider and wider, grander and grander. Our first glimpse seems so small compared with now.
***
In a Christmas letter from a retired Denver pastor whose wife was seriously ill with cancer, the pastor quoted Frederick Buechner: "Listen to your life. See it as the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it -- no less than in the excitement and gladness -- touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."
