Story

Søren Kierkegaard hit home regarding my view of story when he said that “people held in the grip of an illusion cannot be directly reasoned with. One must assault them with appealing but apparently absurd stories and even contradictions in the desperate hope that indirect communication can accomplish what direct communication cannot.”

As valuable as direct, unhindered truth is, it is often missed, unaccepted, or misunderstood. Story, among a number of things, is a means to break through the preconceptions and presuppositions that hinder our minds from seeing different perspectives and truths. Our tremendous capacity is limited by packed-in, “received” knowledge.  Story disarms us and allows the assault of counter-grain views and visions. This is often the meaning of story in the scriptures. But our proclivity looks for facts and twists the story into science and western concepts of history thereby missing the intent and spender of the affect of story which is often called myth.

I plan to further examine these preliminary thoughts in my ongoing doctoral studies dedicating a chapter to its understanding and application.  Yes, I know whole books have been dedicated to this study, but unless the subject of my PhD is modified a chapter will have to suffice. Thoughts? Resources? Discussion?

Communion in God's Communion

Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communio. One cannot, however, have a self-enclosed communion with the Triune God- a "foursome," as it were-- for the Christian God is not a private deity. Communion with this God is at once also communion with those others who have entrusted themselves in faith to the same God. Hence one and the same act of faith places a person into a new relationship both with God and with all others who stand in communion with God.--Miroslav Volf (After Our Likeness: The Church As the Image of the Trinity)

Tired, Poor, Huddled, Refuse, And Homeless

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!--Emma Lazarus, @ the foot of the Statue of Liberty

Many enjoy hailing the earlier days of this country and yet fail to recognize its failings to live up to its spoken vision. What do such words mean in light of the present issues with immigration, gender struggles, and the poor, disenfranchised, outcast—basically the "huddled masses"?

Understanding

The average effort to understanding is wholly inadequate, and it screams ignorance, bigotry, xenophobia, hate, self-serving, and darkness.

Factual Goodness

Character assassination and general ad hominem attacks do not negate the factual goodness of what one may have spoken or accomplished. The rhetoric that often passes as reasonable argument is a tragic display of the misuse of the intellect and of one another. Sadly, this behavior is often a misguided response to fear, lack of understanding, and hate.

Lables

To be labeled by someone who does not claim the same designation is often to have been defined as something pejorative in the mind of the one attaching the label: liberal, conservative, gay, fundamentalist, atheist, Christian, homosexual, white, feminist, progressive, Muslim, emergent, agnostic, politician, minority, socialist. . . . The list is as long as varying opinions. Our image and feelings about these labels, and those labeled, is usually, spontaneously driven by where we stand on the continuum of their definitions, their goodness, and the condition of our hearts.

Lavishly Inclusive

To be inclusive is to reflect God’s heart. He didn’t only die for your house and clan or mine. He died for the house and clan you and I might marginalize for their differences, their “bad” theology and company, their different cultural expressions, and their different orientation. Lay your head on Christ’s bosom and be mindful for whom he was and is available: the prostitute, the thief, the adulterer, the murderer, the disenfranchised, . . . and you and me. If we would stay there, then we must also be availably and lavishly inclusive.