Saloon Storytelling

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

We had a chance to go up to Silver Dollar City recently. First time I’ve been up there since Covid-19 struck the world. One of the highlights for us on this trip back in time was to go visit the old Saloon show down at the bottom of that steep steep hill. Anyone else ever been to the saloon?

Well, the show hasn’t changed much over the last 30 years. The character names are the same. Ms. Tilly’s ding-a-ling laugh is pretty much the same… even though it’s a different Ms. Tilly now. And Mean Murphy still wears the same black suit and metal noseguard that I remember him wearing when I was just 5 years old.

Different actors tell the same story as the same characters that were told 30 years ago. 4-5 times a day, they tell the same story. Charlie tries to hit it off with one of the ladies. Ms. Tilly swoons over the cowboy. The saloon girls get ready to break into the full show when Mean Murphy pushes into the building and starts causing trouble. Eventually it all comes to a big fight scene where one of the Saloon girls gets the best of Mean Murphy. And Mean Murphy decides to try having some good clean fun for a change. I’ve probably watched that particular show 20+ times… probably a good deal more than that. And yet every time I laugh at the same old jokes. I laughed so hard this last time that I had tears in my eyes. I could just about quote some of their punch lines before they got to them. Even though the story is very familiar… I find that I love it just as much this time as I did the first time. Maybe even more so.

Now, what does this have to do with our texts today? Listen to how Jesus begins our Gospel reading for today Jesus prayed, “I ask not only on behalf of these, (meaning his disciples that he was standing with), but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.” John 17:20 As Jesus prays this blessing over his disciples, he tells them that this prayer is not just for them… but for those who will come after them… who will believe because they, the disciples, have shared the story that he has given them.

In other words, Jesus is telling them that there will be people who come to believe the Good News that he has brought of God’s promises because these disciples will tell the story… the same story… again and again and again. Now again… he’s not telling them that “if” they tell the story that people will believe… he’s flat out praying for the people who will come to believe because the disciples will tell the story. They’re getting voluntold to spread the good news. But what precisely is it that Jesus wants the people to come to believe? His blessing prayer upon his followers and those who will become his followers is wonderfully complex and yet extraordinarily simple: “The glory you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:22-23) There is more to the blessing than this, but this is the part of the story that I think we need to hear today. Amid this very long sentence, we get all of the I in them and you in me language that sometimes can cause us to stumble a bit as we try to read through it… and there is can be a temptation to skip by to a slightly less philosophical sounding section. But what Christ’s hope for his followers in this sentence is something that we really shouldn’t miss. There are two pieces to it that we should really hear. The first is a call toward unity. “That they may become completely one” Jesus says. Even his disciples 2,000 years ago who walked beside and behind the one whom we call Messiah… even those disciples found themselves bickering with one another. While I think the church… meaning all of the denominations together… are getting a bit better at not fighting one another as we get smaller together… we certainly still find lines to draw. And while I wish we agreed on everything… we certainly don’t and likely never will. There are pastors around in the area that I strongly disagree with… and whom strongly disagree with me especially in regards to who is welcome at the table. And while we virtually all say that all are welcome… some put forth requirements that I don’t think are in line with what Jesus teaches. But there is the unity that we can seek out among our churches and within our families to see that we are in fact connected to one another even when we disagree with one another. Even as the disciples argued about who was the greatest… they were still all disciples of Christ. They were still all sitting at the table in the upper room together. They still all went out after that Pentecost Sunday and proclaimed the Good News of Christ to the world. And I’m sure that even as they proclaimed that Good News… that each of those earliest of disciples had their own way of telling the story. I mean… there’s a reason we have four different gospels that all tell the Good News but tell it in uniquely different ways from one another. And yet all four of these unique gospel books of the bible are held together… next to one another… lifting their varied voices as one and all proclaiming that Christ is the Messiah for the world. So finding unity with one another even in our differences… this is something Christ calls for. This means we must not only tell our story… but listen to how others tell theirs. And whether we’re talking religion or politics or anything else in life… we need to be listeners of the whole story that someone offers. Truly, earnestly listening to one another and seeing one another as fellow children of God… that is what brings us unity. Not bashing the other until they start acting like we do. As we see these shootings continue to be spurred on throughout our country… I think a big piece of that is that people don’t feel like they are listened to. They don’t feel like their voices are heard unless they use force to make them heard.

While politicians can go to war about gun laws and mental health laws… we as Christians can be actively engaged in helping people feel connected and heard. We can work toward reaching out to those who are on the sidelines of life… and invite them in.

And that brings us to the next thing that I wanted to lift up from our Gospel reading. Jesus’ hope is that through the retelling of his story… everything from his birth to him wandering around the temple as a child to his baptism in the Jordan to his 3 year ministry which ended in torture and death upon the cross… his hope is that his life story will be seen by the world that he was indeed sent by God. And why does he want the world to know that he was sent by God? Because through him… through the Christ… through the Messiah… through his own life… Jesus hoped that people would know that they are loved. Jesus hoped that people would know that if they ever met him on the street… that he would love them. And that if they knew that much… and they knew that he was sent by God… then that would tell us a little something about who God is for us.

Several months ago, I was able to visit a lady in the nursing home. She had been a very faithful church goer throughout her life. She loved God, she loved the church, she loved the people within the church. But on what would be my last visit with her, I remember sitting beside her with our masks on thanks to covid… and I remember her saying, “Tell me about God again.”

She wanted to hear the promise, one more time, about who God was and is and forever will be. The story that she had heard Sunday after Sunday through so much of her life… the story that she had retold herself… she wanted to hear it one more time.

And why? Because through that story we are reminded

that we are very much not alone in this mortal walk. We are reminded that while our own bodies will fail, that God’s promises do not. We are reminded that God’s promises are based not on how good we are… but how good God’s son is. And that through that son, whom God sent to live among us and even to die among us… we might indeed know that God loves us… God’s children. And that’s why we tell the story. That’s why we come to church year after… to be reminded of that promise. To hear once again that God’s promises are sure.

So know the blessing that Christ offered his disciples of 2,000 years ago and his disciples of today. Live into the hope of unity where all are welcome… where all are heard and seen… where all can hear the story and know of God’s love.

Peace be with you, children of God. You are loved.