On several different occasions, though not recently, I’ve been chastised for including personal stories in my sermons. There are those who believe a sermon should only be an exposition of Scripture and nothing more. From their perspective, the addition of experiential testimonies dilutes the integrity of the message and runs the risk of distracting people from the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They argue that a preacher should, “Just give me the gospel!” I wonder if the earliest Christians expressed similar sentiments to the apostles.
The personal aspects don’t distract us from the truth; they make it more approachable. They reveal the in-breaking of the divine into the everyday and ordinary and put us on alert for when and where God might show up in our own lives.
Have you ever thought about what the gospels are? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and I think it is fair to include Acts in there as well, given that Luke himself seems to consider it a continuation of his previous work, are collections of personal stories collected from the men and women who were there. Some of the details they chose to include are extremely personal. I particularly enjoy some of the personal details John chose to include in his gospel. Consider, for instance, his telling of the resurrection story. John 20:3-8 reads, “Peter and the other disciple (you gotta love John’s half-measure of humility) started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.”
John sees the empty tomb and evidence that Jesus had risen and he believes. We would all agree that this is the central truth of the story. It is evidence of divine action in the world; it is undeniably inspired. But, think about the other details John shares. He notes that he and Peter get into a footrace en route to the tomb and that he left Peter in his dust. Do you think anyone read John’s first draft of his gospel and said, “I love the truth about Jesus, but the personal details are a distraction. Just give me the gospel!” I’m sure Peter would have preferred for those details to have been left out, but they are value added for the rest of us. The personal aspects don’t distract us from the truth; they make it more approachable. They reveal the in-breaking of the divine into the everyday and ordinary and put us on alert for when and where God might show up in our own lives.
When we share stories of divine action in our lives in light of inspired Scripture, they can serve as valuable evidence of the existence of God and the validity of His Word.
I don’t at all mean to suggest that our personal stories and testimonies of how God works and moves in our lives are equal to divinely inspired Scripture, but I do believe they have power and serve a purpose. When we share stories of divine action in our lives in light of inspired Scripture, they can serve as valuable evidence of the existence of God and the validity of His Word. Jesus Himself indicated that His disciples would serve as His “witnesses.” We are expected and instructed to share our stories everywhere we go.
There is a popular paraphrase I love that is based on the words of John Stott. “Were it not for the Bible, I’d have nothing to talk about.” Stott isn’t saying that the Word of God renders our own stories irrelevant. Rather, it is the truth of Scripture that reveals value in our stories as it enables us to perceive and pursue the presence of the divine in our own lives. When we observe those moments of divine intervention and action, we have an obligation to share the stories of our experience.
