Too Good to be Anything but True
Day 27
Beginning a new chapter, ‘Holy Moments’, Buechner tells the story of the sermon that awakened his faith and changed his life.
“And then there came this one particular Sunday, which I've often written about like everything else, but I'll tell you about it again. It was the year, 1953, that Elizabeth became the queen, and that was sort of the theme, I think, underlying what Buttrick was talking about. He mentioned the coronation of Elizabeth in Westminster Abbey, and then he said, "Of course, Jesus was offered a crown by Satan on that hill when Satan said, ‘If only you will do this and that, all the kingdom of the earth will be yours.’" He said that unlike Elizabeth, Jesus turned down that crown. "But," said Buttrick - and up to this point it was just a regular sermon, seemed to me - "though he used the crown that was offered to him by Satan, he nonetheless is crowned again and again in the hearts of people who believe in him." And even up to that point it seemed to me nothing one would not expect from a sermon, but Buttrick continued, "Jesus is crowned again and again in the hearts of those who believe in him amidst confession and tears and great laughter." When the phrase "great laughter" came out, Jesus crowned amidst confession, tears, and great laughter, some wall inside me crumbled. I remember I was just bowled over I remember tears springing from my eyes. Laughter at the coronation of Christ.
“I think from that day to this I've never known altogether what that laughter is all about. It's laughter of incredulity, I think. It should be true, maybe it's true, maybe he was who we think he was. The laughter of Abraham and Sarah when they were going to have a child - they laughed so hard in Genesis. Maybe it's true, maybe it's all too good to be anything but true that brings with it the laughter of relief and release. Yes, it's true, and what a difference that makes.”
Frederick Buechner, The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, pp84-85.
To help you reflect…
What if what you most deeply longed to be true really is true because it’s “too good to be anything but true”? Imagine awakening to the joy of that. Imagine the relief and release. Imagine the laughter.
May it be so for you today.
😉