Picturing the resurrection

Our brains have a tremendous ability to imagine and to visualize.

When a speaker or a teacher enables you to use that ability he or she is using a powerful teaching technique.

Whenever a person uses words to paint on the canvas of our minds we are invited to imagine how something looks, or perhaps how it appeared.

Dr. Peter Marshall, a well-known minister in America in the 1930s and 40s, and chaplain of the U.S. Senate in 1947 and 1948, was especially gifted with this ability.

Marshall was born in Scotland in 1902 and from a young age he felt God wanted him to be in church ministry. He came to the United States when he was 24.

America was good to Marshall and he always appreciated the opportunities that opened up to him. One can tell from Marshall's life and from his sermons that he became an extremely proud American who profoundly cherished his country.

As the pastor of different Presbyterian churches in America he captivated listeners with his voice and diction during messages. His Scottish accent seemed to help keep everyone attentive.

His wife Catherine wrote after his death of how congregations always marveled at how he read the scriptures.

"He could take the most difficult Pauline passage," she wrote, "and read it with such understanding and lucidity that it sprang into life."

He became very well-known as the pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., from 1937-1949. He was in a unique position in the nation's capital during World War II, and many turned to his messages for guidance and inspiration during those difficult times.

Marshall humbly welcomed that role, always conveying a prayerful understanding of the times as he preached to a congregation in need of encouragement. He fostered a deeper love of country, speaking of America's trials and of her need to rely on God throughout the war and throughout all of the circumstances of life.

He used word painting during his sermons so that he might "turn the ear into an eye." He gave highly descriptive narratives of biblical stories and scenes, a characteristic that became known as "sanctified imagination."

And hundreds and hundreds listened intently during each message.

After his death, Dr. Marshall's wife wrote in his biography, "Pictorial preaching is the most effective because it is easier to get at the average mind by a picture than by an idea."

In his message entitled "The Saint of the Rank and File," Marshall told of the biblical account of Andrew, how he earned a living on the fishing boat, and how his life was influenced by Christ: "The waves lapping against the boat seemed to be saying over and over, the things he had heard Him say. His voice was in the wind. His face was in the sunlight dancing on the waves."

In the same message, Marshall told of how Christ came to Peter and Andrew as the two fishermen were working: "Then came the never-to-be-forgotten day... when, as Simon and Andrew bent over their nets spread across their knees, His shadow fell upon them and they both looked up. And Andrew's heart beat faster, for it was He--the Face, the Voice... Again He talked of that 'Kingdom of God'..."

In a message about Christ's resurrection called "The Grave in the Garden" he provided another highly descriptive scene:

"...Then came Sunday morning. The first rays of the early morning sun cast a great light that caused the dew drops on the flowers to sparkle like diamonds. The atmosphere of the garden was changed...It was the same garden...yet strangely different. The heaviness of despair was gone, and there was a new note in the singing of the birds."

"Suddenly, at a certain hour between sunset and dawn, in that new tomb which had belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, there was a strange stirring, a fluttering of unseen forces...a whirring of angel wings, the rustle as of the breath of God moving through the garden."

"Strong, immeasurable forces poured life back into the dead body they had laid upon the cold stone slab; and the dead man rose up, came out of the grave clothes, walked to the threshold of the tomb, stood swaying for a moment on His wounded feet, and walked out into the moonlit garden."

Good speakers, like good teachers, can transport our minds to another place and time.

This Sunday is the central component of the Christian faith and an important time for Christian believers. We can be grateful that it is also a time for renewal and new beginnings.

And we can also be thankful that Dr. Marshall--being a skilled word-painter and an extremely effective teacher--helps us see the detail and the significance of the biblical account.

The story is from 2000 years ago and Dr. Marshall's sermon is almost 70 years old. But the descriptive scene can be fresh in our minds just as its impact resonates in our spirit.

-- David Wilson, EdD, of Springdale, is a writer, consultant and presenter, who grew up in Arkansas but worked 27 years in education in Missouri. You may e-mail him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

Editorial on 04/12/2017