Chickens vs. Rubies... and the importance of telling One Story

Chickens are a part of everyday life here in northern Mozambique.  Their behavior really is puzzling.  I never fully understood the origins of jokes made at their expense until I began living among them and had to learn to dodge them with our car (“Why did the chicken cross the road?”).  They wander all over the place, pecking here, scratching there, obtaining seemingly insignificant bites to eat as they scramble haphazardly around.  It often seems to me that they must expend more energy rushing around looking for food than they actually consume...

Digging for rubies, on the other hand, is a process that looks very different.  Rubies were discovered not that far from our town and the methods that independent miners use for locating and acquiring them is something that our friends are very familiar with.  It involves picking a spot, digging deep, painstakingly transporting the dirt, and diligently sifting through that dirt to find something of value.

We work with mostly first-generation Christians here in Mozambique and a common trap for preachers is attempting to try to say too much and/or try to use too many biblical texts in one sermon.  I teach the Preaching class at the Theological Institute here in Montepuez.  So, I often reference this comparison between the way chickens eat vs. digging for rubies to encourage the students to pick just ONE BIBLICAL TEXT and ONE IDEA to share with the church.  We talk about the importance of not preaching like a chicken (wandering from biblical text to biblical text, from idea to idea, picking here, pecking there in a futile attempt to feed on God’s word).  Instead we focus on learning how to encourage the church to follow the preacher in, using the right tools, digging deep into God’s Word and finding beautiful, life-changing rubies.      

Another example that illustrates this dynamic well, in my mind, comes from “Phineas and Ferb.” Unfortunately, our Mozambican friends have yet to discover this amazing show(!)… so this example would be lost on them… but I will share it with you.  In the episode, “Norm Unleashed,” our heroes have created nanobots and have used them to do one amazing thing after another. Their sister Candace, who in every episode is doing her best to catch her brothers in the act of inventing or doing something incredible, corners their Mom, attempting to tattle on the boys: 

Candace: MOM! MOM! Phineas and Ferb are making a giant tape dispenser, but it's also a faucet, and a rowboat, a baseball hat, and gingerbread man with a fist for a head, and a pig face -- 

Linda: Stop. Okay, your stories are always full of holes, but it's usually just one story. Here, let me demonstrate. I'll be the "Candace" and you will be the "beautiful mother". (Clears throat)(Imitating Candace) Mom, Phineas and Ferb have brought Genghis Khan back from the past and he's teaching the neighbors to throw hatchets from horseback. (Normal voice) You see? One story. 

Candace: (long pause) They'll probably do that, you know.

One story!  Candace’s Mom gets this right.  This key is telling one story… digging deep into one text.  That is how you share a message that is meaningful and powerful and resonates with hearers.

Instead of teaching and preaching that wanders around like a chicken, powerful preaching looks more like digging for rubies and focuses on One Story, inviting the church along in the discovery process to find life-sustaining treasures.

Grace and Peace,

Alan