The Gospel as Story
"John the baptizer appeared... preaching repentance... saying,
'after me comes
one who is mightier than I..."
That's the BEGINNING of the story of Christmas. And it IS a STORY... it has all the characteristics of a story: It has an author, a plot, a place and characters. It has a promise that something is going to happen; it has suspense. And if you think about it, that's what Christianity is! Christianity is a STORY! If we peel away the layers of DOCTRINE; if we chip away the veneer of PIETY; if we wade through the various DENOMINATIONAL EXPRESSIONS; that's exactly what we finally get to... A STORY!
Even the greatest preacher... even the most sophisticated theologian... even the most learned professor... must finally take off her spectacles... lean back in her chair... run her fingers through her hair, and declare, "Once upon a time..." Once upon a time... a rather bizarre man named John appeared in the wilderness preaching, "REPENT," saying "there is one coming who is mightier than I."
And everybody leans forward in their chair, and starts to listen, "Why?" Because, even though our high-tech culture has lost touch, I believe, with the art and practice of story-telling, we still love a good story!
One of the things I came to appreciate about the Alaskan native peoples the years we lived there, I mean the real Alaskan Natives - the Inupiats, the Athabaskans, the Aleuts, the Yupiks, the Haidas, and the Tlingets was they are story-tellers. It is the responsibility of the elders of the community to see that the sacred stories of the culture got passed on to the younger generations. And they have a story about everything, for every situation - and instead of facing the circumstances of their lives with doctrines, or laws, or formulas, or raw principles, they often use stories as the means of communicating their values.
An example: Here's a simple story that has implications for all sorts of things; you decide what?
One Autumn the Geese asked the raven if he wanted to be their
brother-in-law. The raven enthusiastically said "Yes!"
The raven really wanted to be a brother-in-law to the geese. He was so excited
that he started showing off for the geese. He tumbled and twirled around just
the way a raven flies. Now as the geese were getting ready to fly south for the
winter, they explained to the raven that if he was going to come along as one of
them - as their brother-in-law he was going to have fly like them; he would need
to be like them -- that is fly slowly, and consistently and smartly conserving
his energy. But when they started out on their long journey the raven flew out
ahead of them and began ecstatically tumbling and twirling around; climbing high
and diving low. They geese laughed at his antics and admonished him and told him
to get back in formation and fly like them because it was long way to their
destination. But the raven paid no attention! Before long the raven got very
weak and very tired. And the raven fell to the ground. And as the geese passed
him by they sarcastically honked saying, "We told you! But you
wouldn't listen." And that is why ravens stay in Alaska in
the wintertime.
Just a story? Hardly! We could probably take the next half
hour and reflect on that story and it's meaning because it has multiple
meanings. But, I first heard that story told in the context of an Inupiat elder
talking to the younger generation about resisting being absorbed into the white
culture to the extent of surrendering their native identity and roots.
Stories have ENORMOUS POWER for us... for at least a COUPLE of reasons:
ONE, stories make us want to know what is coming next -- and not just out of idle curiosity. If it's a good story, we really want to know -- almost passionately so! There is nothing worse than not hearing the end of a good story!
Not long ago I was watching one a favorite T.V. program, and just as it was coming to an exciting, thrilling, conclusion... the phone rang and I missed the end! What a bummer!
And even more curious is, if it's a story that really speaks to me, I will sit through it time and time again, even if I've seen it before. WHY IS THAT? Why do I do that? What is there for me to find out that I don't already know? (pause) I think it's because I want to experience all over again that little piece of whatever it was, that first touched me and stirred my heart and moved me in a certain direction? I don't want to let go of it... because some how and in some way, the story left its mark and left me a little different than before!
And that brings me to a SECOND thing. Stories beg an important question, and the question is, "Is the story true?" And I don't mean the facts of who, what, where, when, and how... I don't mean literally true so much as I mean, "Does the story contain some truth... some energy... some power... for the living of my life that can make a difference?"
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of energy Christian's use trying to PROVE the facts of the story of our faith to a doubting world... PROVE whether or not there was an ark... or whether Jonah was swallowed by a whale... or whether the earth was created in 6 days. Or we dwell so heavily on proper doctrine, or reduced our faith to principles - all that left brain stuff; RATHER THAN...
...immersing ourselves in the deeper truth of the story, letting the story claim us... getting so swept up in the story that we become a part of it... allowing the story then to change us... and then letting our changed lives be the "proof" of the validity of our faith to a doubting world.
Every story-teller, whether it's Shakespear telling about Hamlet... or Mark telling about John... ...or an Inupiat telling about ravens and geese... or Matthew and Luke telling about Mary and Joseph... looks out at the world, much like you and I look out at the world... and sees things happening out there... people being born; people growing up; people choosing certain paths to follow; people working, loving, struggling, laughing, crying, suffering, dying. And then the story-teller takes these events and molds and shapes them into a story... gives them form and direction, and in the process of doing so makes a CLAIM -- MAKES A CLAIM about life and the nature of life; makes a claim about God and the nature of God. Are the stories they tell true? Is this Christmas story that we are about to tell again for the um-teenth time, true?
A few years during Advent, a Sunday School child came up to me and said,(and I quote) "Pastor, why do we have to do this Christmas program every year. It's the same old story every year."
Yes, it is! It's the same old story every year!
The Gospel writers, like Mark, don't talk about doctrine, don't talk about piety, don't talk about denominational expression... Don't talk about principles; but rather they tell a story... and in THE STORY they make the incredible claim, in the face of so much evidence to the contrary, that life really does have a meaning to it... that life really does have a purpose to it... and a part of that purpose is that you are very, very, very, important and valuable... that this earth is no unconscious accident... but rather is the magnificent expression of a Creator God... and that this Creator God draws intimately close to you and to me, and to us together... and is encouraging us to move not just haphazardly through life, but to move and live in the direction shaped by the GREATER PURPOSE of this Creator's love!
Is it really true? Is it? Or is it the figment of the story- teller's incredibly vivid imagination? All I know is, if it is true, it's a truth that cannot be proven by scientific and historical methodology, but rather it's a truth that can only be known... and experienced in LETTING THE STORY CLAIM YOU... in making the story YOUR OWN STORY... in being SWEPT UP and CARRIED AWAY by the story!
And John, this rather bizarre character who seems more like somebody out of a Saturday morning cartoon, comes along and introduces the story. And the question is do we hear him? Do we really hear him... hear not only what he says with his words, but who he is with his rummage sale clothes and his starvation diet? Do we hear what he is saying to us, because if we don't... if we don't hear John... we'll miss the story... if we don't hear John, we'll miss the power of the story... and the energy of the story... and the truth of the story... and most importantly, we'll miss the person and the presence who comes with the story.
John tells us that there is something that WE NEED TO DO for the story to get to us and for us to get to the story... and what we need to do is REPENT. But what does that mean? That's one of those old fashioned religious words that conjures up images of beating our chests and groveling before God. Well, I'm not so sure! I believe John's dress and John's diet, at least in part, give us a clue.
You see, repentance means creating some space... making some room in the inn... moving out some the stuff that is so tightly crammed into our lives that it prevents anything new from getting in. "Like what stuff, you may ask?"
John lived on the rather simple and austere diet of locusts and wild honey... but we feast and are over-indulgent, living on the high calorie diet of a million forms of security that insulate us from so much of life going on around us... and prevents anything or anybody new from coming in... from getting in.
John wore the very modest apparel of rough camel's hair... but we cloak ourselves in the fine garments of status, influence and power... ...and live with the idea that only certain people are important in this world... the ones most like us!
John lived in the simplicity of the wilderness, that incredible place where he was vulnerable... and had to be open to new things, new challenges, new ideas... that place where it was impossible to get in a rut and live life sort of "half-conscious." But we are well-housed, living behind our warm walls of old loyalties and old ruts, behind our powers of reasons and logic that keep anything different or potentially threatening "out there" where they belong. Repentance is the courageous and the sometimes gut-wrenching act of stepping back from all of that stuff... of loosening it's tight grip just long enough so we can consider the truth and the potential of this story... and THE ONE WHO COMES with it!
Dear friends, it's Advent... we are on the threshold... we are leaning over the edge to see and to hear, once again! And I believe, if we listen with an attitude of repentance... we just may hear an incredible story... we may hear the voice of an angel coming with an astounding announcement to a frightened, scared young women... frightened because something radically new was about to break into her life. Something new was about to break into something old. Her life was being shaken to the very foundations. Her life was never going to be the same again! Something was trying to be born... and if the new thing was going to be born, then the old thing was going to have to
move out of the way.
That's the way it always is when God is born into the world... and born into the world of your life and mine. That's what John is trying to say. God can't come in until you have made some room, and moved some stuff out... maybe even some of your most precious stuff.
When I was a kid, my cousin lived with us for a couple of months. And I remember, at first, how excited I was at the prospect, until, I learned I had to share my room with him... and I had to move out some of my stuff to make space for him... I remember how hard that was, because I had to make some tough decisions about what to move out, and what to keep... but when I got past all of that, I remember what a great two months it was... and how enriched my life became... and how unimportant my "stuff" really was!
Advent means that God wants to happen... God wants to come about in extraordinary way in your life. God wants to be born all over again in your heart... and in our community.
The birth of God in us is always a virgin birth because it's a birth that we cannot bring about on our own... but WE CAN make some room... WE CAN create some space... WE CAN clear out some of our stuff... and then wait... sitting on the edge of our chair... with great expectation... for the story is about to be begin again... God is about to be born! The story is about to claim us again! It's so exciting!
Once upon a time...
"John appeared... preaching repentance... saying, 'after me, comes one who is mightier than I..."
Amen!
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The Website of Pastor Joseph Holub
Aurora & Buena Vista, Colorado