Minister’s Message
“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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