Wayside Pulpit

Stories of the story

What is a story? A story has a plot, characters and a setting. It also has readers, a writer, and some reason for its existence. Even if that reason is simply for pure entertainment.

It is beyond pedestrian (mundane actually) to talk about the gospels being "stories." Their narrative quality is so obvious that even children can tell you the story of Jesus-and-this or Jesus-and-that. So, is there really anything else to say about the fact that the gospels are stories?

I think probably not.

Yet, I do think that there is something to be said about the stories we make of stories. We hear a story (really any story) and off we go making a story about that story. In a sense we cannot ever really hold onto just a story. We are inclined to make it our own by telling something about it. This telling is an aggregation of our opinions, thoughts, feelings, and even imagination.

I am sure you see where I am going with this.

So, I really do not care much any more about the stories of Jesus and his band of not-so-merry followers. What I do find interesting are the stories today's Christians tell about the stories regarding Jesus.

If you, or I, really care about The Feeding of the Five-thousand, it makes much more sense to care about that caring than the story itself. The story never changes, I can go read it right now and guess what? The plot, the setting, and the characters will be exactly the same as it was when I was only eight. And you? If you go read it right now, you'll experience the same thing.

Yet, when I make my own story about the story, THAT is something to hang a hat on; something you and I could really dual about. We could even learn a bit about each other from our stories of that story.

I am for a new gospel: a gospel of the people that is meant to change daily, a gospel that strives to take that which is "something old" and make it "something new." I am not referring to just retelling (that happens on too many Sundays from lazy pulpits); rather, I want a recreated gospel where, us, the people of today, tell the story of the story.

The True Story

My seven year old daughter just returned from a week at summer camp. She, and the other children her age, were told the story of Smokey Bear and given a lesson in wilderness fire safety. In her stack of stuff that she brought home was a comic book titled, "The True Story of Smokey Bear." The title gave me pause because I know there is never just one true story about anything.

History is filled with true stories, but each true story, when examined from a variety of different angles begins to reveal all sorts of discrepancies. Therefore, I know that there can never be one true way to see anything in both the past and the present. Each of us brings a different set of lenses and perspectives to our experiences of history and our daily lives. Reality, or what is true, is like light shining through a prism and reflecting colors on a wall.

This is one of the reasons that I believe that the Bible is not the Word of God. It is, in all its beauty and complexity, a collection of dancing prism lights reflecting years of attempts to understand the world theologically. It is also not just a, "collection of stories," rather it is a set of tales, poetry, legal writings, satire and even epics, each influenced by spirituality, history and political maneuverings. The bible is living document; it is continually recreated as each generation of Christians reinterpret and make the text their own.

I believe the Bible, like many books, provides clues as to how our souls can become closer to God, humanity and the creation that supports us all. Yet, the Bible’s clues are more directed to who we are, rather than to who God is. Once we get this, the truth becomes clear, that the story painted by Christianity is not there to just exult God, Christ or Jesus. Rather it is there to provide clues on how we can become more compassionate and actualized human beings.