BIBLETELLING
Below is the Narrative Lectionary passage for the coming week. It is followed by Bruce’s notes on the text which aim at a general understanding of the text and some notes on the structures and techniques used by the Biblical storytellers.
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?1 Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”4
Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”5 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Galatians 3:1-9
Before the coming of this faith,6 we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God7 through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves8 with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.9 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.10
Galatians 3:23-29
THREE STORIES
The following three stories pair well with the Narrative Lectionary passage for the coming week. They are followed by Danny’s sermontelling footnotes which explore the stories’ theological connection to the passage as well as insights into craft and performance. Our advice is to read the story first before digging into the footnotes.
Righty & Lefty
You’ve no doubt heard of natural selection. Sometimes nature will produce a strange new creature and only time and adversity will tell if this new creature will be destined to become a species, or if it is a one off.11
For instance, one time nature produced a toucan with a lead beak. On paper, this was a wonderful idea. This toucan could snap anything it wanted and eat it. No predator would mess with it for fear of its mighty jaw. The lead-beaked toucan seemed destined for the biology books until it attempted to fly and the lead beak was literally its downfall.
Then there was the glow-in-the-dark gazelle. She gracefully pranced across the African Savanna at night in dazzling neon glory. Nature never produced a more beautiful creature or a better midnight snack for hungry lions. Naturally, the glow in the dark gazelle didn’t get selected by nature either.12
One animal that came awfully close to becoming a species was the two-headed monkey. This monkey emerged from genetic confusion with two independent brains. This creature had so much going for it. One head could focus on swinging from vine to vine while the other kept watch for predators and food. With twice the computing power of one-headed primates, they were able to design tools, set traps, and they even developed a language between them.
They gave eachother names too. The right head controlled the right limbs and so was called, “righty.” And the other head was called “lefty” because it controlled the left limbs.
So why isn’t this superior species around today, you ask? Well, it goes like this:
Righty was always in charge of looking forward and swinging from branch to branch with its right leg and arm, while lefty would snatch bananas with the left leg and foot and eat them.
One day, they got into an argument about this,
“Why do you always get to taste the sweet fruit?” Righty asked.
“Because it’s my job. I eat. You swing,” Lefty said.
“What if we switch, then? You swing for awhile and I’ll taste?”13
Lefty thought about this.
“Well you’re better at swinging and I’m better at spotting fruit. You were made to swing and I was made to taste. Besides: What does it matter? We share a stomache. We’re both satisfied. We both get the energy and the nourishment. It’s a win-win.”
Righty protested. “You just don’t want me to taste any of the sweet fruit. You want to hog it all for yourself.”
“How ungrateful of you!” Lefty countered, “I let you decide where we go all day, every day, and I never once complain. You don’t think I’d like to be in charge? But I keep us both fed and if my reward is a little sweetness on my tongue well you should give that gladly.”
“Ungrateful! How dare you,” said Righty. “From now on I refuse to swing until you share the bananas.”
“I would rather die than give you a taste of the bananas after the way you’ve treated me.” Lefty said.
Lefty grabbed a banana and started to put it in his mouth when Righty swatted it to the ground and stomped on it. Next, Righty tried to grab a banana and Lefty did the same thing.
Now their argument hardened into a grudge. Neither would budge. They both refused to hep the other climb and neither would be responsible for the swinging so they stayed on the ground where there were few bananas. When they did spot one, each refused to let the other eat it.
The more their stomach growled the more each despised the other for putting them in this predicament. Eventually they died of starvation, each proud that they had stood their ground to the end.
So naturally, the two headed monkey was not selected. For what species can survive which puts the desires and resentments of individual parts above the common need of the whole?14
~ My own parable
“Get Up, John!”
Around the turn of the last century there was an unusual funeral in Georgia.15
See, there was a man named John16 who was born to a well to-do family. His mother died when he was very young and his father hired a black woman, named Mandy, to take care of him.
Mandy raised John and was like a mother to him. One of his fondest memories growing up was hearing her voice from the bottom of the stairs calling, "Get up, John! God's beautiful morning has come!"17
That's how he started every day, without fail. On days when he was excited to greet the day and on days when he'd rather stay in bed, Mandy's voice would call from the bottom of the stairs, "Get up, John! God's beautiful morning has come!"
When John grew up, he made a name for himself and became a pillar in the community. But he never forgot Mandy. So when she passed, and her family asked John if he would give the eulogy, he agreed.
What was odd about this funeral is that the town had one big cemetery on a hill with a fence that ran straight down the middle. The tombstones of white folk were on one side and the tombstones of black folk were on the other. So that Sunday afternoon, John, one of the leading dignitaries in that town, was delivering the eulogy on the black side of the cemetery to a congregation of black folk. It was an unusual sight in southern Georgia.
John spoke movingly about Mandy's love for him growing up and how much she had meant to him. He recalled the memory that every morning, she would call up to him from the bottom of the stairs, "Get up, John! God's beautiful morning has come!"
And he also shared that there were times later in life when he was going through grief or depression, or he had experienced failure and didn't want to face people he had let down, when he din't feel like getting out of bed. And in those moments, he would hear Mandy's words in the back of his head, "Get up, John! God's beautiful morning has come!"
Several years later, when it was John's turn to die, he called his family to his side and gave his last will and testament. One of his final requests was to be buried on the hill. But he wanted to buried on the other side of the fence next to Mandy.
Now John's family were a little embarrassed by this request. After all, he was a pillar of the community. How would it look for him to be buried in the less well kept colored graveyard? No white person in Georgia had ever been buried in a colored graveyard before. They told John that it was a really lovely sentiment but asked him if he was really sure that's what he wanted to do.
"Oh yes," he said.
They asked him why it was so important to him.
He said, "Because at the resurrection, when the trumpet sounds, and Christ descends, the first voice I want to hear is the voice of Mandy saying, "Get up, John! God's beautiful morning has come!"18
~ My telling of an old preacher story
The Work Bench
Once upon a time, a long time ago, in a little village in a far northern country, there was a carpenter's workshop.19 One day, when the carpenter was away for a while, a mighty quarrel broke out on the workbench, among the tools. The dispute went on and on, and became more and more embittered. The argument was about the need to exclude certain tools from the community.
"We really have to exclude Sister Saw," one of the tools began. "She bites, and she grinds her teeth. She has the most peevish character anyone could imagine."
"We absolutely can't keep Brother Plane among us any longer," another tool chimed in. "He has a cruel nature, scraping at everything he touches."
"As for Brother Hammer," a third insisted, "I find him such a bore, and rowdy with it. He thumps away all the time and gets on all our nerves. Let's get rid of him."
"And what about the nails?" asked a fourth. "How can we be expected to live alongside such sharp characters? They're a positive hazard to us all. And the file and the rasp as well. Living with them is one constant cause of friction! And, while we're about it, we should send the sandpaper away, because she seems to be the reason why this workshop is in such a fractious mood."
And the whole dispute rapidly became a battleground of all the tools, each one trying to out-shout the others. History doesn't record whether it was the hammer who accused the saw, or the plane who objected to the nails, but the outcome of the melee was that all the tools found themselves excluded!
The fracas came to a sudden end, however, on the return of the carpenter to his workshop. All the tools fell silent when they saw him approaching.
He picked up a plank of wood, and cut it with the biting Sister Saw. He smoothed it down with cruel, scraping Brother Plane. With boring, rowdy Brother Hammer he drove in the sharp, hazardous nails. Using rough-natured Brother File and abrasive Sister Sandpaper he made a velvet finish on the wood.
Not a single one of the tools was left out as the carpenter went about his task of creating ... a cradle!20
A cradle to receive a little child.
A cradle to receive Life.
~ Retelling of a Swedish folktale from 100 MORE WISDOM STORIES by Margaret Silf
SERMONTELLING NOTES:
Paul’s letter to the Galatians is punctuated by emotional outbursts such as this one: “I am astonished…” 1:6, “You foolish Galatians…” 3:1, “I plead with you, brothers and sisters…” 4:12, “Mark my words!” 5:2, “I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” 5:12, “See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!” 6:11. Paul is passionate about the message he shares in this letter.
In context, Paul is likely referring to his own suffering in the midst of the Galatians. Paul’s persecution for the faith resonates with the sacrifice of Jesus portrayed in his gospel.
A rhetorical question. Clearly what the Galatians have received to date has been by the grace of God poured out in the Holy Spirit, and not gained through their righteous acts. Paul makes a distinction here between the message of the Torah and the the requirements made by the Torah’s commandments.
The key issue facing the church in Galatia is the requirement being imposed by some that new believers submit to circumcision. The command of circumcision was given by God to Abraham (Genesis 17:10). Paul also defends his position by appealing to the story of Abraham. He points out that Abraham is declared righteous long before he obeyed the commandment of circumcision because of his trust in God’s promise (Genesis 15:6).
God promises Abraham three times that he will be a blessing to “all nations” (Genesis 12:1-4, 18:18, and 22:18). Paul sees this blessing as being extended because of Abraham’s faith, quite apart from the issue of circumcision.
The lectionary skips 14 verses, here. In those 14 verses Paul does a lot of work. In verses 3:10-14, He lays out a theory of atonement (founded in a series of passages from the Hebrew Bible) in which Jesus bears the covenant curse intended for Israel. In 3:15-18 he points out that God’s promise preceded the commandments of the Law, and thus takes precedence. Using the same Hebrew scripture passage, he argues that God promises Abraham a singular “seed,’ rather than multiple “seeds.’ In other words Abraham is not promised two families, but one united family. 1n 3:18-22, he affirms that righteousness comes to all—Jew and Gentile alike—through faith in God’s promise.
A major theme in the story of Abraham was his struggle to produce an heir. Paul picks up on this plot conflict suggesting that the family of those who inherit God’s promise through faith in Jesus become the promised numerous offspring of Abraham.
Clothing in the Ancient Near East was a clear indication of the status accorded an individual. To be “clothed in Christ” is to share in his status as a child of God.
Traditional markers of status (Jew, Gentil, slave, free, male, female) no longer apply within God’s family as all are granted status as children of God.”
See note 7 above. Notice again how Paul lifts the meaning the story of Torah over obedience to the detailed requirements of any of the commandments Torah contains. The plot conflict in Abraham’s narrative is not the struggle between obedience and disobedience to religious ordinances, but the struggle Abraham endures in becoming a father and the surprising way in which God fulfills his promise by giving Abraham a huge family of righteous heirs who will become a blessing to the world around them.
Righty & Lefty
I am aware that this is a very looney tunes version of how natural selection works. In fact, in my head this parable is being drawn by Tex Avery.
This parable uses a storytelling technique I like to call mickey ears. You know how the classic mickey silhouette consists of two small circles and a big circle? Mickey ears is when you tell two short little stories that set a pattern before telling a longer one that either fulfills the pattern or subverts it in some interesting way. Jesus uses the mickey ears technique in Luke 15.
It’s a great way to start a sermon too. You can hook people with two short satisfying stories before launching into a third longer one. For instance you could tell two short stories about being too busy to stop and help someone stuck by the side of the road, and then tell a third longer story about being stuck by the side of the road and someone stopping to help you. This is an example of subverting the pattern. The beauty is that when you begin the third story, the hearer expects it will be about you passing a third person (or maybe stopping this time) and may be genuinely surprised when you are on the other side of the equation.
Storyteller Matthew Dicks suggests that when using this formula, the funniest of the two short stories should be second.
Normally, I have given advice on pitching your voice slightly to suggest different voices when doing dialogue. Having one character slightly higher and the other slightly lower than your natural telling voice, helps the hearer ‘keep track’ of the characters (audiences cannot handle more than two characters speaking in a scene). You can do this with Righty and Lefty even thought they would have very similar voices. Another technique is turning your head in a different direction depending on who is talking. In the case of Righty and Lefty, that might be particularly effective.
This is of course the negative version of the Vulcan rule: ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.’
“Get Up, John!”
I have no idea whether the following story is true or not. It is one of those stories that is found in old sermon illustration books. Attempts to trace it back were unsuccessful. It has all the trappings of a folk tale. That is to say, if it actually happened to a historical person in particular place, it has since shaken free of its context and lives in the folk tradition of preachers. This does not mean it’s a story worth telling. It certainly is because it beautifully illustrates how the distinctions we put between ourselves and others are meaningless in Christ. The story’s rhetorical power rests in it being told as a true story so I wouldn’t hem and haw about its provenance in a sermon. However, if someone comes up to you later and wants to know more details about it, you can simply say, “It’s one of those stories that I don’t know exactly where it comes from. I know it’s true and I hope it actually happened.”
I gave the character in this story the name John. The version I heard calls him ‘a man from Georgia throughout. I did this because I think the name makes the relationship more personal. And because I like the way “Get up, John” sounds musically.
Other versions of this story have, “Get up! God’s beautiful mornin’ is come.” As a white pastor who preaches in multicultural contexts, I err on the side of extreme caution. I wouldn’t want to even risk a congregant being offended by the perception that I was affecting a black dialect. Especially, when there is little to be gained. My rule is: no accents and dialects that are not authentic to your own culture.
This is a powerful line. Slow down and say it with some gravity and conviction. People will be moved if this is told well.
The Work Bench
I love this little folktale. It comes from the second volume of one of my favorite parable collections, 100 MORE WISDOM STORIES by Margaret Silf.
This Sunday for United Methodists is Communion Sunday. I would be very tempted to change the ending to make the thing the tools create together a table. I love the idea of being able to kick off from that and talk about how as a church we are called to put aside our differences and create new tables where oneness is possible.