Storyteller's World

Once again I'm amazed and humbled by the power of the Story, and the privilege that it is, to be called to tell it. The Celebration Praise event at Woodstock went really well, (thank you, all of you who prayed), taking the form of an extended Eucharist - extended, that is, over the whole day, with the first part up to the Gospel (part 1) before the keynote speakers and workshops, and then the second part from the Gospel (part 2) through the Eucharistic Prayer and communion. It wouldn't have been my favourite conditions for telling: huge sports hall of a secondary school, big audience, no clip-on radio mike, but only a clunky hand-held on a lead; yet nevertheless there were people who were impressed by the power and immediacy of the Road to Emmaus told.

In the two workshops, too, participants were captured by the power of someone just telling the biblical story in the plain, unadulterated words of the text, and became excited by the thought that this is doable, and they could do it.

And yet it's so low-tech, so fragile, so weak, so unimpressive by the standards of this world and all its expensive flashy gimmickry and gadgetry. That's how I know it's from God, because it so truly models the Incarnation: the power and true nature of God taking material form in a human, fleshly body.