Resurrection
Stories
These Will Preach!
Stories and Metaphors for the Pulpit
Object:
Sam Donaldson on the ABC news told of Yellowstone Park, which burned last summer. It is now covered with a foot of snow. Underneath grass is starting to take root and seventy percent of the trees will survive. The heat of fire provides a gum which protects the pinecones. Two weeks later there is a shower of seeds that will start new pine trees. This is called "nature's fire insurance." It's new life out of destruction. A lived-out resurrection!
***
From Margaret in Forest City, Iowa:
A woman died and went to heaven, which was more beautiful than she'd ever expected. She couldn't wait to show it to her husband when he arrived, because he was an eternal pessimist.
A year later her husband joined her, and she took him on a tour. "The sky, the flowers, the music, the people -- heaven is truly heaven, isn't it?" she explained. He surveyed Paradise briefly, then said, "Sure. And if it weren't for you and your darned oat bran, we'd have been here five years sooner!"
Could it be we avoid death too much? If paradise is really paradise, what is it we so fear?
***
August 7, 1994, Dean and Ruth Fardahl dropped off their lunch partners at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Sun City West and headed home. A few blocks from home, Dean's heart stopped and he ran the car across the boulevard, into a yard, and into the side of a garage. Ruth was all right with some bruises. They rushed Dean to the hospital where the doctor told me that the airbag had opened and slammed into Dean's chest and started his heart again. I visited him the next day in Boswell Hospital in Sun City, where he was sitting up on the side of the bed dangling his feet.
Oh, to start the dead hearts again -- inside and outside our congregations. It's an Easter story.
***
From my study window I can see the orange reflection of the sun in the morning in the windows of an insurance building long before it actually comes over the horizon to be seen. Easter is like seeing in Jesus' resurrection our own security long before we can view the physical proof of God's infinite care at our death or the death of our loved ones.
***
At the funeral of Ruth Walthall, Pastor William Zimman told of falling asleep on a trip as a child and waking up the next morning in his own bed. Heaven must be a similar experience.
***
I noticed today a bean sprout which had grown through the window (crack in the sill). It was beginning to die. I think it was now too far from its roots. It also had grown outside the sunshine's reach.
It's a warning for us. We must keep in contact with our roots and always where the light of Christ can nourish our being.
***
There are several scenes in the movie Cocoon which speak of new life. Bernie tries to take his dead wife into the pool and Walter says: "It's too late, Bernie, the life is gone." Sin is pictured when one regressed into being unfaithful to his wife again. Life in the water -- a beautiful picture of baptism and the new life we have in Christ.
***
In the Batak culture of Sumatra, Indonesia, there is a strong custom of tugu. After ten years the family must build an elaborate tomb and move the dead bones of their ancestors to it. The ceremony is expensive and costly to the families of the poor. To apply our resurrection theology to this custom, Christian families gather at the tugu on Easter eve, stay all night, and then gather in their churches early Easter morning to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Somehow their actions say that a tomb, no matter how elaborate, will not do it. It's the promise of Easter which takes us through. Bataks also have a saying: Ndang marimba tano hamatean. Translated this means: "Any burial place in the world is acceptable." Our dwelling place shall be in heaven. The tugu is empty.
***
From Margaret in Forest City, Iowa:
A woman died and went to heaven, which was more beautiful than she'd ever expected. She couldn't wait to show it to her husband when he arrived, because he was an eternal pessimist.
A year later her husband joined her, and she took him on a tour. "The sky, the flowers, the music, the people -- heaven is truly heaven, isn't it?" she explained. He surveyed Paradise briefly, then said, "Sure. And if it weren't for you and your darned oat bran, we'd have been here five years sooner!"
Could it be we avoid death too much? If paradise is really paradise, what is it we so fear?
***
August 7, 1994, Dean and Ruth Fardahl dropped off their lunch partners at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Sun City West and headed home. A few blocks from home, Dean's heart stopped and he ran the car across the boulevard, into a yard, and into the side of a garage. Ruth was all right with some bruises. They rushed Dean to the hospital where the doctor told me that the airbag had opened and slammed into Dean's chest and started his heart again. I visited him the next day in Boswell Hospital in Sun City, where he was sitting up on the side of the bed dangling his feet.
Oh, to start the dead hearts again -- inside and outside our congregations. It's an Easter story.
***
From my study window I can see the orange reflection of the sun in the morning in the windows of an insurance building long before it actually comes over the horizon to be seen. Easter is like seeing in Jesus' resurrection our own security long before we can view the physical proof of God's infinite care at our death or the death of our loved ones.
***
At the funeral of Ruth Walthall, Pastor William Zimman told of falling asleep on a trip as a child and waking up the next morning in his own bed. Heaven must be a similar experience.
***
I noticed today a bean sprout which had grown through the window (crack in the sill). It was beginning to die. I think it was now too far from its roots. It also had grown outside the sunshine's reach.
It's a warning for us. We must keep in contact with our roots and always where the light of Christ can nourish our being.
***
There are several scenes in the movie Cocoon which speak of new life. Bernie tries to take his dead wife into the pool and Walter says: "It's too late, Bernie, the life is gone." Sin is pictured when one regressed into being unfaithful to his wife again. Life in the water -- a beautiful picture of baptism and the new life we have in Christ.
***
In the Batak culture of Sumatra, Indonesia, there is a strong custom of tugu. After ten years the family must build an elaborate tomb and move the dead bones of their ancestors to it. The ceremony is expensive and costly to the families of the poor. To apply our resurrection theology to this custom, Christian families gather at the tugu on Easter eve, stay all night, and then gather in their churches early Easter morning to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Somehow their actions say that a tomb, no matter how elaborate, will not do it. It's the promise of Easter which takes us through. Bataks also have a saying: Ndang marimba tano hamatean. Translated this means: "Any burial place in the world is acceptable." Our dwelling place shall be in heaven. The tugu is empty.
