It is the Story that Counts
One of our problems today is that our theology has become so focussed on words, that it has largely betrayed the power of the Word (in its original Aramaic, dabbar, meaning creative energy), as Matthew Fox noted.In our attempts to reach a rational understanding of mystery, we have often lost sight of the story which sustains and nourishes theological discourse. We have neglected the story as story with the result that over centuries we have turned stories into ideological statements, giving literal meaning to something that was never meant to be taken literally. We have forgotten that story is the most dynamic and versatile tool available to us humans for the discovery of meaning and mystery.
Norman O. Brown once claimed that meaning is not in things but in between, It’s not in the events, nor in objects, nor even in proven discoveries that ultimate truth lies, but in the process of searching, seeking, experimenting, and discovering.
Over time, teachings taken from stories, parables and lives have assumed the ideological proportions of dogma and Right Teaching. Then stories that invited wonder and awe and insight, initially offering hope, new life and liberation became millstones, burdens that no longer inspire but instead stifle and stultify.
All the major religions today, --and theology in general -- suffer from narrative starvation and privation. Even when the original myths are still narrated, they are so couched in rationalistic, legalistic or devotional framings that inhibit and even prevent the story from being dynamically retold in today’s context.
The entire bible , as well as the sacred texts of other wisdom traditions, is primarily a story, and not a record of facts and events. In a faith context, what brings meaning and integration to experience, facts are secondary, always secondary. . "It is the story (and not the facts) tha grips the imagination, impregnates the heart, and animates the spirit from within, empowering. Jesus did not preach in any formal sense, nor did he theologize, nor attempt to establish anything like what we have today as church.
Jesus told stories, the best remembered of these being parables, some 39. These have an archetypal, primordial significance: They are not just ordinary stories. In fact, there is no such thing as an "ordinary" story, because none of us are ordinary. The parables belong to a vein of prophetic discourse aiming to disturb and challenge the hearers, and to motivate them to move into a very different way of envisioning the world and themselves.
Bausch (1984) delineates the marks of the New Testament parables. They uncover:
Our competitiveness and envy & invite us to brotherhood and sisterhood instead.
Our wrong centering and invite us to a right centering
Our need to hoard and exclude and invite us to share and include.
Our assumptions and challenge us to turn them around
Our timidity and invite us to risk all for the sake of God’s Reign
Our self-centered despair and distrust and invite us to hope.
What is the role of Church in all of this? Jesus showed little concern for church and no concern whatever for its organization, as "church" is mentioned only once in the four Gospels, in a single text whose historicity is doubtful. Church is meant, we suggest, to be the community that continues the stories, both the servant and the herald of the exciting news of the New Reign of God in the world now. The main function of church is create and nourish disciples who are empowered to renew the world. We do that by gathering the people and telling the stories that proclaim the Good News. All else is secondary. That includes ritual, tradition, orthodoxy, and canon law.
Most Christian churches today have betrayed the reason for their existence. The major crisis facing many churches is not the drop in numbers, failure to organize, insufficient programs, shortage of ordained clergy, or lack of financial support. The major problem is that they have lost touch with the Reign of God agenda, that is, they no longer tell the stories in a way that speaks to the modern heart and mind, in a way that can create disciples. Churches, I suggest, have lost their souls. They have forgotten that the Spirit calls each one from within, singularly, usually by a story or sharing often through some personal crisis. The institutional churches instead try to fit people into ideologies, rituals, programs, traditions, or literal interpretations with no understanding that context influences everything. Most churches today are inward looking, concerned with what is deemed necessary for their survival, and sometimes or too frequently what is necessary for the survival of the current power structures.
So far astray are most churches that any group that meets in order to tell the stories, even to tell their own stories, in a setting where personal faith is valued, is likely to be more engaged spiritually, more encouraged, more accepted, more deeply moved, more vulnerable, with more incentive to personal change than in an hour of preaching or Eucharistic celebration. For example, there is often more spirituality in a 12th step AA meeting than occurs in most religious services. (Note: This is what we have been doing in The Spiritual Growth Network of Kentucky for 15+ years, see web site www.lexpages.com/sgn.
Without vulnerability, personal change is unlikely. "Church" or the realization of the Reign of God already amongst us, happens whenever there is this kind of vulnerable sharing, this kind of listening to the uniqueness of Another’s journey. Whenever we respond to each other in a caring way, "ministry" happens, inadvertent ministry, the priestliness of us all is affirmed, and the Story of this mystery we call Emmanuel is implicitly recognized and welcomed. And we are continuing the stories...Note here that hospitality to the Stranger is one of the most common threads of all Wisdom traditions.
In order for people to authenticate their journey, they need a sacred and safe space in which to tell their stories, and to ask all sorts of questions concerning their journeys. We introduce you today to a method or technique that allows each to do this, at their own pace, with respect for the individual and in a manner that helps create community among the participants. Story, or parable, as Jesus used it, allows each person to respond from within. It is also a way of hiding the truth from those who are not ready for it.
Now I will tell you a story, perhaps even some stories . . .
Give you some questions about it,
and ask you to share in small groups.
You will learn this process,
and can lead it elsewhere
when you are ready.
"When the student is ready
the teacher will appear."
Zen saying.
Presentation to a church conference in 2000, by Paschal Baute
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