Telling the Truth

A sermon arises out of silence, preacher and writer Frederick Buechner reminds us, and that silence is both an opportunity and a warning. An audience sits in the pews waiting and each of those who sits there brings with them a long and complicated history. How will you reach them? How will you awaken them? "Tell them the truth" Buechner says in this brief and powerful book. The Gospel begins here, out of this silence: "it is life with the sound turned off so that for a moment or two you can experience it not in terms of the words you make it bearable by but for the unutterable mystery that it is". Out of this silence, he writes, the "real news comes, which is sad news before it is glad news and that is fairy tale last of all".

This series of lectures explores these three ways of seeing the Gospel: first as tragedy, as honest sorrow and suffering--this must be faced before anything else becomes possible. From this comes the comedy of new life: a child born to Abraham and Sarah in old age, Lazarus raised from the dead. This is the folly of the Gospel--what Buechner will ultimately call the fairy tale. Drawing deeply from the well of The Wizard of Oz and other stories, he reminds us in this final chapter that "there is a child in all of us", a child in touch with a truth deeper than the logic of tragedy. --Doug Thorpe

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A most amazing representation of God's grace - Rated
A book that talks about sin without being judgemental; about grace without being cheap. If everyone would read and take to heart the Gospel as presented by Buechner, perhaps the Christians would be easier to live with and grace would be more accessible.

A gospel that gathers all in, worthy of many readings. - Rated
Buechner presents a liveable gospel that hugs humanity. Absent is rigidity and polarization. It is uplifting and worthy of many readings.

The only book of its kind, I've ever read more than once - Rated

"The preacher climbs the stairs to the pulpit and pulls the chain, turning on the light. He deals out his note cards like a riverboat gambler. The stakes have never been higher."

An excellent book on preaching the gospel.

Beuchner presents Pilate, Abraham and Sarah, and others as if they were living today. Tremendous insights.

It is the only book of its kind I've ever read more than once. I've read this one five times.