What's Your Story?
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Two friends were having lunch at a sidewalk café on a beautiful autumn afternoon. Down the street they noticed a woman coming toward them. One looked at the other and said, “I bet there’s a story there!”
You’ve heard me say so many times that there are so many stories in this congregation – stories of faith, stories of sacrifice, stories of courage, stories of overcoming adversities.
Periodically we feature testimonials in worship so that we all get to hear more of the story that is All God’s Children because indeed your story and my story is part of “our story.”
You and I are writing our stories each day at a time, chapter by chapter. And as much as we would like to go back at times and edit some of the previous chapters of our lives, they are over. We either let any painful or embarrassing moments paralyze us or we gain wisdom from those experiences as we set our eyes on the future.
The chapters that are yet to unfold are also ours to write. Paul Shepherd, author of More Like Not Running Away, is on the faculty at Florida State University, talked about this in an interview recently: To get from where you are now to where you could be " …takes someone seeing their own life as a story they’re writing instead of one that’s being written for them” God has given each of us a unique and compelling story and you don’t have to let past mistakes or someone else’s heterosexism or an unequal legal system or your childhood pastor or anyone else be the editor of your story. It is your story.
So what’s your story? How do you tell it? Rev. Russ Noland of First United Methodist Church in Sachse, Texas once noted that we have three ways we usually tell stories: 1) Once upon a time… 2) It was a dark and stormy night… 3) We set out on our journey… How you tell your story can determine a great deal about what kind of story you have.
Today we join Metropolitan Community Churches around the world as we celebrate the founding of our movement. We call this “Fellowship Sunday.” On October 6th, 1968 the first worship service of Metropolitan Community Church was held in Los Angeles, CA. From that small gathering of 12 people, a world-wide movement sprung up touching lives in more than twenty-five nations. Just in the last few years we have seen an explosion of groups forming in Latin America – particularly Brazil, which now has 13 groups scattered across the country. Our DUO offering today will go to support this work in nine Latin American countries to train local leaders and fund the 2008 Latin American Conference that will draw congregations, leaders and prospective new groups together for worship, dialogue and planning. When it comes time for our offering, I hope you will be generous to the green can that funds this outreach as well as the gold plate offering that funds the local ministry of this church.
You also received in your newsletter a sheet from our denomination listing the various ministries and mission work that we as a larger movement support. Last week we passed out more detailed explanations of each of these. This week we are asking that you tell us which one or two would be most meaningful for All God’s Children to support in 2008. The Board will use this information in its budget planning. I ask that you drop off the sheet with your recommendations at the Information Desk in the narthex following worship.
Several years ago during the height of the AIDS health crisis, a slogan became popular. It said simply, “Silence = death.” That phrase motivated a generation of people to speak the truth of their lives – even when that truth was painful, ugly or hard – because in the act of sharing one’s story, community happens. Bonds of shared experience or empathy or fascination connect story to story woven into a tapestry of beautiful and amazing details. I am alive today because those who went before me as HIV advocates refused to shut up. We have drugs, therapies and options that would not have been there if HIV+ people remained silent. This coming December will mark my 10th year of living with HIV. Bill has been positive for more than half his life. There are many, many others like us in this congregation. That is a powerful story. It is one of many. Our stories continue because we became part of the larger story that was happening in our world.
What your story and my story include is up to us. Our stories can have chapters about us helping people in other lands. They can have chapters on how we dealt with adversity, overcame obstacles, lived faithfully, and rose to the challenges that life presents by blessing others because we are blessed. As our reading from 1 Timothy reminds us, “We brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it.” How our story unfolds is up to us. The pen is in your hand. The page is before you. So, what’s your story?
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com It’s No Secret, September 2007.
http://www.jazzconnectionmag.com/sjj_women_in_purple_and_green_dress_2005_small.jpg
http://www.abstractdynamics.org/archives/silencedeath.jpg