Here is the story most of us remember, once upon a time there was a nomadic family,
Abraham and Sarah wandering the desert in search of God’s promised land. Sarah was barren and in order to give her
husband a son she told him to lie with her handmaiden, Hagar, a Bedouin
slave. Hagar bore Abraham a son who she
named Ishmael. In time, Sarah grew
jealous of Hagar and had Abraham banish her and her young son to the desert to
die. Hagar and Ishmael did not die but
were saved by God and went off to found the tribes of Arabia, the ancestors of
Islam. Sarah gave birth to her own son Isaac
who inherited his father’s blessing and became the father of the Israelites.
This story, a compilation of Jewish and Muslim traditions,
is in large part the histo-cultural reason for the millennia old conflict
between Arabs and Israelis. Any one who
tells you that “it’s just a story” is not appreciating the power the stories
have to tell. What if this story had a
different outcome? What if Sarah had not
had Hagar and Ishmael banished to the desert?
What if they had lived, as was the nomadic custom of the day, together
in a multi female household and Ishmael and Isaac had grown up as
brothers? Would the outcome be any
different? I believe it would.
Stories do more than just entertain. Stories speak to our values, in fact, the
oldest stories inform our values. Any of
the German fairy tales inform much of our American work ethic: the boy who
cried wolf, teaches us not to lie; the Jewish story about the Three Little Pigs
informs our work ethic; the tale of the frog prince, teaches us the virtue of
seeing the inner self. Stories are a
means to meaning, or as the author Roy Hedin puts it:
“Stories are the central means by which we demonstrate our
desire for a meaningful life. It is through stories that we convey our central
wishes, fears, and values. It is through stories—and through the sense of our
lives as a story, with a beginning, middle, and end—that we create a sense of
purpose and direction. It is through the stories we tell and the stories that
engage our interest that we reveal—and discover—where we are coming from and
where we are going. It is through telling our stories and listening to the
stories of others that we connect with them on the deepest level. And it is
through the reshaping of our stories that we reshape our sense of purpose and
direction in times of uncertainty, stress, and tragedy”. (From Roy Hedin www.meaningthroughstories.com)
No minister could convey to you the deeper questions and
answers to life without the use of the many stories we use. Stories are more than just a tool to giving
meaning they are a system by which meaning is conveyed most effectively. This is why stories are such a necessary part
of our worship celebration. You will
forget all the niceties of any well crafted theological argument, I can assure
you, but if I start and end with a story, you will remember that. In fact, better yet, you will retell the
story and there lies the real power.
Story telling is more than a recreation it is, in short, the
“art of meaning”. Theology, the system
of making meaning is simply not possible without stories.
Occasionally, I am asked if a story “really happened”. I smile that wily smile and reply “if it’s
not true it should be”. Such an answer
is akin to the best definition of a myth I ever heard from an eight year old:
myths are something that are false on the outside but true on the inside. Whether the story is true or not is not the
point. The story is the point. This is a church, not a court of law, our
search for truth and meaning, is not a Joe Friday “just the facts ma’m” endeavor;
it’s a meaning making endeavor. Most of
the stories I tell you are true in the factual sense, all the stories I tell
you are true in the mythic sense.
Myths are the cultural stories we tell to remind us of our
deepest values and meanings. And we are
so starved for myths these days. So
unable to feel and experience the heroic in our lives. How can we go beyond the facts and the spin
to the really important stories of our lives?
We can remember and retell the old stories first. The bible, for instance, is a treasure trove
of stories, as useful as any. Full of
tragedy, wrong, right, justice, love, hate, pathos. These and much more recent myths begin to
reanimate our lives with a different sense of meaning.
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Stories help us make sense of life. This is why we do well to learn how to tell
those stories. Better story tellers make
better story hearers. More importantly, start this new year with the most
important story of your life: yours.
Your story is the stuff of legend already. You have as many adventures as any preacher,
more so. I make to you today an
invitation: write down some of those
great stories from your own life and send them to me. I would love to read them. Let me know if I have your permission to use
them in a sermon with or without your name.
Share them with those who know you.
William Ellery Channing put it so well:
Let your life preach better than words.
