Sermonstudio

Entering her office, the Reverend Ashley Baker-Campbell noticed her secretary was paging her: "Sally Greenfield wants to see you. She is sitting out here in my office. Shall I send her in?"

"Sure," said Ashley. Sally and Tom Greenfield were one of several young couples in her congregation who were quite active in worship and church school. Tom was a member of the board of trustees, and their two children were always in Sunday school.

"I'm glad you have a moment to talk with me," said Sally. She sat down in one of the chairs Pastor Ashley had placed in a convenient corner of her office, enabling her to get out from behind her desk when someone came in to talk with her. Sally continued, "I don't want to take much of your time, but I really must see you."

Ashley could tell by Sally's body language that this wasn't one of those awful crises often unloaded on her. These usually came from a terrible doctor's report, a husband down-sized out of his job, or someone dealing with emotional swings, nearly out of control. In her fifteen years of ordained pastoral ministry, Ashley had her share of these major crisis conversations. She wondered if she would ever get to the place where such moments didn't provoke a deep anxiety in her, fearing that she would have nothing to offer against the hurt and distress of such conversations. So she said, "Sally, what brings you here so early this morning?"

Sally looked a bit apologetic, as if her concern wasn't worthy of her pastor's time and energy. Nevertheless, Sally leaned forward and said, "Well, Tom and I are pleased that you are our pastor. Our concerns have nothing to do with you." As with all pastors, Ashley was relieved that she didn't have to listen to a challenge to her ministry. Sally continued, "Well, after the children have gone to bed Tom and I sit down and read a chapter from the Bible. Sometimes we split one of the longer ones, and discuss what it means to us. It's been part of the day that we have come to look forward to."

Pastor Ashley responded, "What a great thing. I wish I could get every couple in this congregation to do the same."

"Yes, it is a great thing," said Sally, "But Tom and I have also found that it brings up some of the differences in our biblical backgrounds, and I'm afraid that it's making for some real tension between us."

"How do you mean?" asked Ashley.

"Well, you're aware that Tom and I were reared in quite different religious traditions. My parents were members of First Church downtown. I was baptized there, attended Sunday school, and was confirmed when our class of ten-year-olds walked to the altar, down that long center aisle. Later, Tom and I were married at First Church. You may have heard of the Reverend Doctor Langley Trumbell, who was pastor there, before going off to the university. Doctor Trumbell's preaching was one of the highlights of our church. Even before we could understand his preaching, he seemed to radiate something of importance in our young lives. Later his sermons were often about making the Bible and Christian faith seem as contemporary as if they had our modern lives in mind."

"You seem very grateful for this experience," said Pastor Ashley.

"I am," Sally responded, "but the trouble is that Tom didn't grow up in a church like that."

"What is Tom's religious background?"

"Well, Tom's family was very much involved in church, like my family. They were members of Hillside Church, over on the east side of the city. The church is still there and sometimes we go back to Hillside Church to be with Tom's parents."

Sally went on, "Tom's church has always been much more conservative than First Church. At Hillside Church they take the scriptures much more rigidly than to what I'm used to. They understand the Bible literally, quite unlike your preaching, Pastor Ashley, and quite unlike what I learned as a child and youth at First Church. Some of the members of Tom's church do not believe in evolution. They expect the actual return of Jesus, and they accept all the New Testament miracles as historical in just the way the scriptures tell them. This is where our problem comes in."

"Tell me about it," said Ashley.

"Well," said Sally, "We were reading aloud chapter 6 of the Gospel of John a couple of nights ago. You know this chapter tells of Jesus miraculously feeding the 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Then the passage goes on tell that when the disciples were in a boat and a storm came up, Jesus walked across the water and guided them safely to shore. Of course you're familiar with this passage."

"Yes, it comes up as one of the lessons in Pentecost, once every three years." Pastor Ashley was beginning to sense Sally's distress, but wanted her to put it into her own words. "Why is all this so troubling to you and Tom?" she said.

"You see," said Sally, "unlike Tom, I just can't take such stories of miraculous happenings at face value. Not only do they not make any sense to me; I really doubt their importance. I can't figure why such passages are studied, sung about, and preached in the church. I was a physics major at the university and before our children were born, I worked at the Bennett research laboratory. Maybe this is why I'm having trouble. But Tom, coming out of his conservative Bible background thinks it's important to believe that these miracles really happened. And he is almost at the point of telling me that unless I believe in them, too, that I'm really not a serious Christian."

"I can see that you have a real issue here, Sally," said Ashley. Hoping she could make a bridge between these two extremes, she said, "Let me offer a couple of things for you to think about. One of them is that you and Tom may never resolve your differences by persuading the other that one is right and the other is wrong. Perhaps for the rest of your lives, you will continue to doubt that the miracles actually happened in a literal way, and Tom will believe they did. I don't hold much hope if you think that either of you will give up your different ways of understanding the miracle stories."

Sally, shifting in her chair and leaning forward said, "That sounds as if the best we can do is agree to disagree."

"No," replied Pastor Ashley, "there's more. I think you and Tom can find common ground if you try to sense what the miracle stories tell about the lives of those who followed Jesus."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Sally.

"Well, let's take the miracle of the loaves and fish. If we agree to set aside the question of whether or not Jesus miraculously multiplied that little bit of food so that it fed 5,000 people, we can still ask if the story, on another level, is suggesting how Jesus prompts us to care about each other." Pastor Ashley was welcoming this opportunity to share an understanding of the miracles that was not bogged down with tense discussions of whether they really happened or not; some insisting on literal affirmation and others dismissing the story as hopelessly out of touch with our modern world.

"Tell me more," said Sally, "I'm very interested in what you're saying."

"The feeding of the 5,000," said Pastor Ashley, "may not be so much of what did or didn't really happen to those loaves and fish. What no one can doubt is that Jesus fed their spiritual needs -- the most important needs we have. He must have made them feel God's love as being much larger than the unloving lives they may have been leading. He inspired them to think that God is on the side of justice and peace, and that history is driving toward the reality of the kingdom of God on earth. He provoked them to set aside their personal selfishness and to care for others, especially the oppressed and the helpless. And what is really miraculous for both you and Tom is that Jesus continues to do this today. Whatever happened with those loaves and fish, the real truth is how Jesus changed those people, and how he changes us today."

"I see what you're saying," said Sally, "but how can this help Tom and me?"

"Sally, both you and Tom can believe in what I just said about this miracle story. You can avoid the question of historical happening and concentrate on the story as a testimony about how Jesus can change our lives. My guess is Tom, even though holding to his belief in the literal version of story, would agree it is important to go beyond your disagreement and join in considering how Jesus changes our lives -- gives us hope and calls us to live out this hope in caring for others."

"Okay, I think you're right. But let's go on to the second story in this chapter where Jesus walks on the water. How would you treat this in your style?" asked Sally.

"Pretty much in the same way," said Pastor Ashley. "If you eliminate any concentration on the miraculous part of the story -- whether or not it really happened that way -- I think you and Tom can find yourselves coming together on its central point."

Sally said, "How would that be?"

"Well, Sally, the story is really about how Jesus calms our fears. The disciples were caught in that frightening storm. Then Jesus comes across the water to them. Isn't this how it often is? We get caught in some sort of storm -- sickness, a career gone sour, a friend or mate disappoints us, an accident intrudes horribly, the forces of reaction gain control, the city falls into crime and chaos, religious leaders become corrupt, then finally we are faced with death. Any or all of these thrust us into profound anxiety. We become as frightened disciples in the boat."

"And so Jesus comes to calm us," said Sally excitedly.

Ashley opened her arms in a gesture of delight. "You've got it, Sally. Jesus, or if you prefer, the Holy Spirit, comes and tells us that none of these things can take us beyond God's gracious love. We cannot say that Jesus will take the painful circumstances away. Instead, Jesus enables us to ride out whatever storm is assaulting us. Like Paul once said, we can have a peace that goes beyond all understanding. The storms may be raging, but Jesus empowers us to stay steady and calm, for we know that none of these can ever put us beyond God's loving care."

"I think Tom and I could come together on this way of looking at the scriptures," responded Sally. "Do you think that both of us could come in and talk more about this possibility? I really do think we would find this helpful."

"Sure, Sally. This is really a part of my ministry -- helping people find the meaning of the scriptures." Ashley continued, "I believe that this is one of the ways that we can bridge the gap between traditional and the more modern understandings of the Bible. We may not ever agree on the literal details of many of these passages, but I think we can find a common meaning when we try to discover what these stories are all about on a different level. We can search out what was happening in the lives of the people in those stories, then try to see if these stories are wonderfully about us and our lives, too."

"Great! When could we come back?"

"Why don't we try next Tuesday evening," said Ashley. "How would 7:30 be?"

"I'll talk to Tom and I hope he'll come. Thanks for all of this," said Sally as she got up, shook Pastor Ashley's hand and headed for the door.