Originally posted Jan. 13, 2012, at Faith in Community. Republished with permission of the author.
When I was 9 or 10 years old, my Grandma Gummeson gave me a book called “Children of the Bible.” I didn’t have a lot of books that weren’t from the library, so this one was pretty fascinating to me.
It featured art pictures of children from the Bible (Who knew there were children in the Bible?) and the stories about their lives.
The book featured pictures of all of the children you would expect: Isaac, the baby Moses, David (well before he was a king), Jesus at 12, the little boy with the loaves and fishes.
There were also a few children whose stories surprised me: not just Moses, but his sister Miriam, who saved him. The little maid who served Naaman the general and told him who could cure his leprosy.
Rhoda, the servant girl who met Peter at the door when the angel sprang him out of prison but was so excited she forgot to let him in! I loved those stories.
Children of the Bible: It was a great secret, and it must mean that God loved the children, not just in a sentimental way, but enough to entrust God’s message to them, even them. I was not just a learner, but I could be a teacher, too. Children were part of the story.
The story of Samuel
Sunday we had the story of Samuel. It is one of my favorite Bible stories, which is why I always pause before I decide whether I am going to preach on Samuel’s call.
Am I just leaning this way because I like this story so much? Or is this the message my congregation really needs to hear?
Now that I am an adult, I like this story not just because it’s a story about a child receiving God’s message, but for so many other reasons.
The humor of Samuel hearing God and thinking that it is Eli. The old priest with dim eyes who, nonetheless, perceives the truth. The sadness of the message that Samuel must give to Eli, and his humility and grace in receiving it. The good news of the new thing that God will be doing among the people, beginning with Samuel.
As I told a few people who gathered that morning, we know this is a true story not just because it is in the Bible, but also because it has sad parts and happy parts, and every good and true story has both happy parts and sad parts.
“Speak, Lord, your servant is listening,” Samuel finally says. May we learn to say the same.
“Speak Lord, your servants are listening. Tell us a story, a good story, a story with sad parts and happy parts, with tears and with laughter, where we have adventures together, but where there is a happy ending. But most of all, Lord, tell us a story where we have a part, no matter how big we are, or how small, no matter how young or how old, no matter how wise or how foolish.”
It’s a true story, this story about God and about Jesus and about us. And we know it’s true because there are sad parts and there are happy parts, and because we are in it, too.
Find a link to Diane Roth’s blog Faith in Community at Lutheran Blogs.
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"we know this is a true story not just because it is in the Bible, but also because it has sad parts and happy parts, and every good and true story has both happy parts and sad parts."
This is some of the worst reasoning I have ever heard.
thank you for your post and I think it is good reasoning. Stories have a ring of truth when they contain both the happy and sad elements of life. They are true to us when they embrace the wholeness of life which includes both the happy and the sad elements in it. Continue to write and preach the good news Diane, don't let the naysayers get you down.
Dan,
I didn't have you pegged as a Creationist, which is one of the many positions that follows from the "good reasoning" you embrace.
As a better illustration of why that is terrible reasoning, consider a story. One where the 'happy parts' are about someone's good childhood, and the 'sad parts' about how they torture, abuse and kill homeless people, children and kittens. Then another 'happy part' when after 20 years of these atrocities, they finally decide to stop and start spending time serving at a local soup kitchen and in their churches. Now let's say this is actually the story of two men, who also carried on a bittersweet love affair with each other. These men are named Dan Bollerud and Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson. By the "good reasoning" above, I've just told a "true" story about you and the Presiding Bishop. It has "sad parts and happy parts".
Personally, I would never say that's truth, and instead call it slander. Truth has nothing to do with whether something has 'sad parts' or 'happy parts'.
Peter, I think you missed the point of the author by leaving out the last part of the final sentence of the post. We find the Bible true because it has sad parts and happy parts, "and because we are in it, too." All are included in this story, young and old alike. God's story, my story, your story, our story...we are all bound together. As Max Lucado writes, "Your story indwells God's."
while I appreciate your critique, Peter, I was thinking in particular about the Samuel story, and how we often like to read verses 1-10 about Samuel's call, without the rest of the story, and the judgment of Eli. Also, I can't think of any of our life stories that don't have some parts tragedy, and some parts comedy. The Bible doesn't 'edit out' the tragic parts of life. Certainly, it's more complicated than that.