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Memorable Lines and Great Stories |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogMid-Week Missive |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 12/13/2007 1:45 PM | I read scripture the same way I watch movies. Sometimes the breadth and the depth of the story is so wonderful that I may not be able to recount a single line of dialogue but the point is so clearly and beautifully made that I will never forget it. For me, “Sophie’s Choice” was such a movie. I don’t recall any scenes or speeches, but the agony of “the choice” haunts me to this day.
Sometimes, a movie is great and has some lines that are just as memorable as the story…remember any of these? “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid”…”God made me fast, and when I run, I feel God’s pleasure”…”You ask me why I am crying. I’m crying because I don’t know if I love you anymore, and I don’t know if I can go on without that.” (If you can identify all three of those great movies, let me know and you will have my unending respect!)
Occasionally, the story is not that great or even awful, but a memorable line will never leave my psyche. Who knows this line and can tell me what bad movie it is from? “Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?”
Well, scripture sometimes strikes me the same way. Some scripture passages are powerful stories in their own right, yet I couldn’t quote a line of it if you paid me. How about the extended David and Bathsheba story? An extremely powerful lesson about power and responsibility, but any memorable lines? Not for me.
Then of course, there are so many great stories in the Bible with oh-so-memorable line…”Jesus wept”…”This scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”…”Consider the Lillies of the Field…” “…and God saw that it was good”…”See, I am doing a new thing.” I could go on and on.
But what about those odd lines that pop out, even if you don’t remember the rest of the story? Yes, it happens for me in our Holy Scriptures, too. For example, in Zechariah’s visions of the Old Testament, there is a discourse about the very improbable rebuilding of the temple, right in the middle of apocalyptic scenes that I have a very hard time comprehending. In the midst of this achingly difficult passage is a line that leaps out at me: “For whoever has despised the day of small beginnings will rejoice…” It speaks to me in my life, in my ministry, in my philosophy of life: Hey, you gotta start somewhere and even if the start is small and inauspicious, that does not mean that great things cannot come from it.”
We await the celebration of the coming of the Messiah. The first time that the Messiah came, he came as a baby, small, unassuming, weak, beautiful. Who could have guessed what world changing power could be contained in such a tiny beginning? At the “Praise on Peachtree” service this month, Rev. Jennifer exhorted us to look deep inside and change the way we deal with Advent. It doesn’t need to start big…in fact, we might even be more successful if we take it slow, starting small and working our way to substantial change. In fact, I find this scriptural advice so very important in everything I do: small beginnings often yield big results.
So, some movies are memorable for lines spoken, but the story might be completely forgettable. Some movies are great stories and I couldn’t tell you a line if my life depended on it. But I love both kinds. So I keep going to the movies.
Some scriptural stories feed me because of the wonderful and complex lessons they convey. Some scriptural stories leave me shaking my head, but then a single line will grab my attention and not let go. And I love both kinds. So, I keep reading scripture, because the Bible is “like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.” (I didn’t really write that, did I?)
Announcements:
Don’t forget the Christmas Cantata “One Small Child” presented by the Chancel Choir this Sunday December 16 at 11:00 a.m. Come and worship; come and be fed; come and prepare for the coming of the Lord.
If you took an “Angel Tree” ornament, please bring the presents, unwrapped, this Sunday and put them under the tree in the Narthex. Please attach the ornament or the number from the ornament to your packages.
Sunday December 23rd at 9:45 a.m. we will gather in the fellowship hall for an All Sunday School All Ages Fellowship Pot Luck Breakfast. Come enjoy the season and the fellowship of friends and neighbors…and some good food. This pot luck is in place of the normal third Sunday pot luck luncheon…we will resume the luncheons in January.
I hope you will all be able to join us as we celebrate the Third Sunday in Advent: Joy Sunday with the beautiful sounds of the Christmas Cantata during worship at 11:00 a.m. Have a great rest of the week!
Be peaceful,
Brad
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