Saturday, September 25, 2004
Rev. Fred Durham's Frog Kissing Sermon
REV. FRED DURHAM, A NORTH TEXAS CONFERENCE (NTC) DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT IN THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH (UMC), IS GUEST PREACHER AT TINNEY CHAPEL UMC TOMORROW, SEPTEMBER 26, FOR OUR RURAL LIFE SUNDAY CELEBRATION. AT ONE TIME, FRED WAS MAYOR OF WINNSBORO, AND PASTORED TWO CHURCHES HERE, INCLUDING TINNEY CHAPEL. FRED IS A GIFTED STORYTELLER, AND FEW AT TINNEY CHAPEL WILL EVER FORGET HIS MEMORABLE SERMON, "GO OUT INTO THE WORLD AND KISS FROGS," PREACHED AT THE QUINTESSENTIAL COUNTRY CHURCH JUST FOUR YEARS AGO, ON OCTOBER 22, 2000. Photo: NTC Communications.
When Rev. Fred Durham returns to Tinney Chapel, it's always a special occasion! It's hard to say which is most powerful: Fred's love for this church or the love of this church for Fred. Four years ago at Tinney Chapel, Fred (then Pastor at Tyler Street UMC in Dallas) prefaced his powerful plea to "kiss more frogs" by introducing a friend from far away who had accompanied him to the quintessential country church that revival evening: "I brought my friend along so he could see what a real church is like," Fred confessed. "I'd rather be here, in Winnsboro, Texas, at Tinney Chapel, than anywhere in the world. It's the place of my fondest memories. It's where I feel whole again. "
"Fred Durham is the best preacher I have ever heard, bar none," declares Ronny Ellison, a long-time Tinney Chapel member who has held virtually every leadership position here and who is still our most effective evangelist for introducing newcomers to this church.
Those who heard Fred's "frog kissing" sermon would likely agree. It began as if Fred might be telling a fairy tale about a princess in a castle. Her father was a great king, and the princess enjoyed visiting the surrounding countryside. On this occasion, she encountered a dismal, dark, dank pond where she saw a frog. The frog, ugly and ashamed, tried to escape by hopping away, self-conscious in the glow of the radiant beauty and love of the fair princess. When the princess begged the ugly frog to stay, he asked her why: "Because I want to give you the kiss of love," she replied.
The frog was confused, and again asked why: "Because I know you are meant to be a prince, and not an ugly frog," she told him, and the frog agreed to experience the kiss of love. Afterwards, the frog was slowly transformed into a prince, and asked the princess how she knew this would happen. "My father told me there are no frogs in the world; only princes and princesses," she explained. "But most have been frogs so long they have forgotten who they were born to be." The grateful prince responded: "How lucky it is that you came!"
Thus, Fred Durham established his sermon's theme with unforgettable drama, and quickly moved the frog versus prince analogy to our mission as Christians.
"That's our Father's first call on us: Go ye into all the world and kiss frogs: All the frogs we can. It's our job! And, guess what: I used to be a frog, too. So did we all, although some forget they were once frogs and don't even want to go near frogs anymore, much less kiss them.
When Jesus first saw Levi, he was an ugly green frog until The Master bent to kiss him. Then Levi got up, no longer a frog, and invited Jesus to his house for a great feast. A lot of frogs attended that feast, and some self-righteous folks wondered why Jesus hung out with frogs. Jesus told them that princes did not need Him: He came to kiss frogs!
After His resurrection, Jesus returned to Levi and the other Disciples: He told them to go out into the world and kiss frogs. What we have received, we are to give. His death on the cross was the kiss of love! As Christians, our first task is not to sing hymns, build buildings or hold covered dish dinners: It's to kiss frogs. We are The Church because we are former frogs.
Some frogs are uglier than others, Fred told us, and those frogs may need to be kissed more than once, perhaps every day for 20 years, before the change takes place and becomes visible! Fred challenged each of us to think of some frog in our own lives: Some frog who is not yet a prince, and who is without hope or help.
At this point, Fred mentioned his own granddaughter, who was born and who died on the same day: September 25, 1999, not quite a year before the sermon he was then delivering so eloquently. Fred, along with the whole family, had been devastated. They grieved. They still do.
"But Paul did not say we would be without grief," Fred explained. "He did say that Christians are not like those without hope or help." This was Fred's way of reminding us that lives are constantly being turned dark and bitter, causing some to be more like frogs than princes: "And you are the only ones who can do anything about it," he declared. "Get up. Get out. Kiss frogs for all those Jesus died for: That's everyone in this world!
How do we kiss frogs? Fred asked the question, then provided the answer: "Don't tell them what's wrong. Get to know them, love them, invite them, then share your story, as I have done tonight. If you can't do that, bring them here, to this church. Remember the number-one thing Jesus told us: I want you to go into all the world and kiss all the frogs you can!
Tomorrow, September 26, Fred's message, "Please Talk To Strangers," (from Deuteronomy, Matthew and Hebrews) will be different, but one thing will not change: We will be nourished by the experience! And so will he.
