Tina's Sermon - Intro

"The Story" Kick-Off sermon by the Rev. Dr. Tina Hosler

UPPER STORY / LOWER STORY

Romans 8:28 

In one little Midwestern town, Miss Jones had the distinction of being the oldest resident in town. So when she died, the editor of the local paper wanted to print a little article remembering this dear old lady, except he couldn't think of anything to say when he sat down to write the article. Miss Jones had never done anything terribly wrong. She had never spent a night in jail or had ever been drunk. On the other hand, she had never done anything significant.

With this still on his mind, the editor went down to the local café, and there he ran into the local funeral director. He too was having the same trouble. He wanted to put something on Miss Jones' tombstone besides "Miss Nancy Jones, born such-and-such a date and died such-and-such a date," but he couldn't think of anything to write either.

The editor decided to go back to his office and assign the job of writing up a small article for both the paper and the tombstone to the first reporter he saw. When he got to the office, he ran into the sports editor, who got the assignment. So somewhere in some little community in the Midwest there is a tombstone which reads:   

Here lie the bones of Nancy Jones,  

For her life held no terrors.

She lived an old maid. She died an old maid.

No hits, no runs, no errors.

It’s sad to think that is the way many Christians live their lives. They've never done anything terribly wrong, but they never accomplish anything significant for the Lord.  (Sermon Central: From a sermon by C. Philip Green, Take a Risk, 5/25/2012)  

Many people think their life is all about them and that their life doesn’t mean much in the big scheme of things.  A lot of people never realize that their story is part of God’s greater story.

Maybe you’ve never thought much about that before, but every one of our stories are part of God’s story.  As we kick off “The Story” today, we are beginning an amazing journey together.  And along this journey you are going to be asked to think about your story and you are going to see how your story fits in God’s story.