From the Pulpit: ‘This is a story worth telling and retelling’

We tell lots of stories, knowing how they end. There is value in retelling stories, reimagining the characters and learning something new each time we tell it. 

We search for meaning in recreating the past.

It reminds me of a well-known story that has been retold over and over in TV shows and movies. 

More than 25 years ago, the movie Titanic was set to be released. At the anniversary of 100 years after the ship actually sank, the movie’s director, James Cameron, showed up in TV specials all over, remembering the making of the movie, the retelling of the story, and the critics who said the story would never sell. 

“We all know the ending of the story – the ship sinks!”, they would quip. Critics were convinced that no one would be interested in a story that had such a well-publicized ending. 

But, as James Cameron recalled, what the critics described as a weakness to the story was actually the beauty in the telling of the story. As the love story unfolds, audiences watched – knowing that the ship would sink and all would be destroyed. That knowledge gave the story a power that hadn’t been anticipated. 

As we retell the story of Jesus’ death on the cross, maybe we’re tempted to blow it off as the same old story that we already know the ending to. 

But that is the beauty of this story. We know what happens three days later – and so that should shape how we listen to the story. A story of death – all the while knowing that death will be destroyed. This is a story for the whole world – a story of redemption.

The story of the cross is about who God is – we know who the Creator is through the Son – and we know who God is by looking at Jesus – God hanging on a cross. For you. 

In fact, God is so for you and me that there is no place God will not go to be with you. Nothing separates you from the love of God in Jesus. 

This is a story worth telling and retelling. With our words and with our actions –  the beginning and the ending.