ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
July 11, 2025
Some of you are old enough to remember Tony Orlando and Dawn’s hit song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” from 1973. In 1974 or 1975, my music teacher at May Morely Elementary School would do all school sing-alongs, where we’d sing popular songs, including “Tie a Yellow Ribbon.” Of course, those were the days when the words were on a transparency placed on the overhead projector. Our music teacher changed the words from, “Now the whole damned bus is cheerin” to “Now the whole darn bus is cheering,” though my friends and I had heard the song on the radio and when we got to that word, we ever so quietly said the not-so-good word. We thought ourselves to be quite the rebels, even though our giggling was much louder than the word we said.
I share this long introduction as a way of giving some context to my history with the song, and so when it came on the radio the other day, I immediately started to sing along. I know that I’ve heard it on the radio a few times since those days at May Morely Elementary some fifty years ago, but I don’t think I’ve heard it more than once or twice in the last twenty. But as I sang along a few days ago, I don’t believe I missed even one word. There is no question that music helps with recall, and I’m certain it helped in this case, but I am a person who remembers stories much better than I remember most anything else. I am absolutely the worst when it comes to playing a matching game where you have to remember where you last saw that match for the card you just turned over. But I remember stories, and as strange as it may sound, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” is a story of someone hoping he’ll be welcomed home after spending three long years in prison.
Now many people have much better memories than I do when it comes to playing quick recall games or even remembering a phone number they just heard, yet there is something about stories that sticks with most all of us. In the ancient world, where a significant portion of Jesus’ followers were illiterate, oral storytelling held immense importance for transmitting family values and fostering a sense of community. People told stories because people remembered stories, and because stories often shared truths not easily communicated in other ways. Today, things are different, but I sort of wonder if the art of storytelling is a skill that would enrich our culture, and possibly give new life to the task of sharing the Gospel in a time when Christianity seems to be more about rules and dogma. Jesus spent a lot of time with people who were rather committed to the rules and dogma, yet he never got pulled into their games. Instead, he told a story.
Continue to center me, Holy Spirit, in the stories about Jesus and the stories Jesus told. The message of your love comes alive as we learn of Jesus interacting with his disciples, a Pharisee, or a person marginalized because of illness. Suddenly, the Gospel is more than a set of ideas, but a story that we are being invited to live. May it be so! Amen.
