The first of three ruminations on Frederick Buechner’s, “Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, & Fairy Tale.”
The Gospel as Story
Only in embracing the full story of the Bible, can we fully discern the redemptive aspects of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The full story of the Gospel encompasses all manner of conflict – tragedy, comedy and fairytale – for each of these give a perspective of the Gospel that must be heard. For when we perceive only one aspect of the Gospel our understanding of truth is deficient; truth (like life) is a constant mixture of tragedy, comedy and fairly tale, and this is the fullness of the Gospel… the truth of life.
The Gospel as Tragedy
The Preaching of the Gospel is a telling of the truth or the putting of a sort of frame of words around the silence that is truth because truth in the sense of fullness, of the way things are, can at best be only pointed to by the language of poetry – of metaphor, image, symbol – as it is used in the prophets of the Old Testament and elsewhere. Before the Gospel is a word, it is a silence, a kind of presenting of life itself so that we see it not for what at various times we call it – meaningless or meaningful, absurd, beautiful – but for what it truly is in all its complexity, simplicity, mystery. The silence of Jesus in answer to Pilate’s question about truth seems such a presenting as does also in a way the silence of the television news with the sound turned off – the real news is what we see and feel, not what Walter Cronkite tells us – or the silence the Psalmist means when he says, “Be silent and know that I am God.” In each case it is a silence that demands to be heard because it is a presented silence, and the preacher must somehow himself present this silence and mystery of truth by speaking forth not only the light and the hope of it but the darkness as well, all of it, because the Gospel has to do with all of it.1
Most of us know well, life is tragedy… we have felt the sting of death, the sorrow of affliction, or the shock of calamity. Life is to know sorrow and loss. Though (as Christians) we sometimes fall into the trap of the Pharisee, thinking “if only” we were to be perfect would perfection come. Our message is subtle, it is cloaked in our “Christianese” dialogue and hard to separate from, it is in our tradition to speak to a non-believer or to a struggling backslider in a way that looks down on his present state, in subtle condemnation. “If only,” we say, “you were to embrace Christ, and turn away from your sinful ways… then you will live life anew, your yoke will be lifted and your burdens will be taken away. If only you were to discipline your life in prayer, daily (morning) reading and weekly church attendance. If you do these things you will experience joy, grace and countless blessings!”
And while there is a substance of truth in these words, they indirectly lead the newly converted to expect life to be much like a romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock, where things fall into place – financial burdens are solved, love is found, and a horse is ridden off into the sunset!
We do our faith a disservice by avoiding the darkness of life, as we speak of Jesus’ redemptive act, we misplace the climax of the story in the conversion of the sinner, as opposed to where it truly lies in death – the final act. In speaking truth about the Gospel (about life) we cannot continue to avoid the tragedy. It can no longer be overlooked as a postscript in our attempts to persuade someone to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. It must be boldly proclaimed, we must be transparent in our display of the broken life found in Christ. In this transparency truth is allowed to ruin our perception, and turn our tragic life into a beautiful stained glass window where brokenness and diversity come together to allow the glory of the Lord to shine through and illuminate the dreary day!
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Photo: © ISIK5
1. Buechner, Frederick; “Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale.” HaperCollins Publishers; 1977. pg 26-27.
