The Story We’re Living – 8.31.8
Dennis Mullen  - August 31, 2008

            While I was in Ohio last week, I listened to a recorded sermon by Brian McLaren – author of A Generous Orthodoxy, Everything Must Change – which he preached at Mars Hill Bible Church (Rob Bell’s) on August 17.  The sermon was about the stories that shape our lives.  Today I offer you my own version of his ideas.

McLaren says that people don’t take action based on reality so much as they do based on the STORIES they believe about reality.  If you have strong feelings about immigrants, for example, they probably aren’t based on statistics you saw on a chart in the News-Sentinel – more likely, your feelings grew out of a story you heard about an illegal immigrant down the street who broke into some cars, or maybe a story about an immigrant mother who works two full-time jobs and pays her bills but is mistreated by people because her English is poor.

Stories have power to inspire.  If you were an Israelite, I could tell you the FACT that when we’re on God’s side, nothing can stop us, or I can remind you of the true story of Daniel in the lion’s den, or David and Goliath. 

Stories can be very dangerous.  The Nazis told stories about Jews and Gypsies, and the Holocaust happened.  Whites tell stories about blacks, and blacks about whites.  Americans tell stories about Muslims in the Middle East, and Muslims about the Great Satan of the West. 

People have always told stories.  For instance, there’s the story about a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls.  There’s the story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.  Then one day he was shootin’ at some food, and up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude.  And of course there’s the tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.  The mate was a mighty sailing man, the skipper brave and sure.  Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour. 

A three hour tour.

Those stories aren’t very important, but some stories are so large that they shape nations.  Brian McLaren identifies six big stories that push our culture along, and which BTW conflict with another story, the story of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.  He says to picture our society as a machine and these stories as the engine and driveshaft that push us through history.

The Domination Story

The domination story says that the best way for the world to work is that WE be in control.  WE can be any group just as long as you and I are part of it – whites, blacks, Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Americans, young people, old people, management, labor.  Whomever WE are, things will be better if we are in control, and things will fall to pieces if THEY are in control.  This is precisely the theme of all the speeches at the political conventions right now.  “We can’t trust THEM.  It’s got to be US!”

Now Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for everything, and in the OT there was a time for God’s people to conquer and rule over the people in Canaan.  That was God’s command to them, and they would have been disobedient had they not done it (in fact they WERE disobedient at first when they said “It can’t be done.”) There was a time for the domination story.  But that wasn’t God’s ideal state of affairs for us.  It was a step along the journey, and Jesus came with a better story than domination, a story that more perfectly reflects the power and heart of God.

Even so, the domination story is consistently appealing.  “If only Bible-believing Christians could take this nation back for God and rule from Washington and from Nashville in a way that honors Him!”  But do you realize that some of the most secular parts of the world are those nations in Europe where church and state were blended and the government and the church became united?  It nearly ruined the church!  Like Tony Campolo says, when you mix ice cream and cow manure, it doesn’t hurt the cow manure, but the ice cream is never the same!

The Revolution Story

You might call this the Revenge story.  When you’re not in power, the story you tend to live by is that everything will be fine if we can overthrow THEM and get OUR people into power. 

During the ministry of Jesus there was a lot of revolutionary sentiment.  The people called the Zealots who appear every once in awhile (even among his disciples) were living the Revolution Story, and there was a lot of sympathy for them even among folks who, for the most part, were just going along with the Romans, working their farms, paying their taxes, etc.  Israelites didn’t like being subject to Rome.  I don’t blame them.  The taxes were too high, and the rules were unfair.  That’s why a teacher like Jesus who attracted large crowds would go on their watch list.  The Romans knew the danger of the Revolution Story, and they were always on guard for the next guy to come along and tell that story well.

But Jesus wasn’t telling a revolution story, not in the sense of overthrowing the government, nor even the religious government.  Given all the criticism Jesus had for the Pharisees and Sadducees, you might have expected him to say:  “Boy, if we could just get some of OUR people onto the Sanhedrin (the ruling council), and if we could just find a few boys that WE could train so that one day they could become priests, we could overthrow this corrupt system and clean up this town once and for all!” He never even suggested such a thing! 

The thing we call the radical Islamic agenda is the Revolution story.  Young men are raised up in the message that there is an evil power out there that has all the money and opportunity, and this power is crushing you and your people.  The only way to deal with it is to attack it, kill it, and since we can’t do it by military force, we do it by terror.  That’s the revolution story and of course the evil force is me and you. 

I’m tempted to think that the only answer to that is the Domination Story.  Bomb those people, hunt them down and kill them, or kill enough of them until the rest of them change their minds.  But there’s nothing of Jesus in that reaction.  Even if we think we have to defend our families and take military action, that isn’t the story Jesus brought.  Jesus offers a better, more perfect story than domination or revolution.

The Purification Story

            “Let’s eradicate the unclean among us.”  Was there a time when purification was the story for God’s people to live by?  Oh yeah!  Try reading through Leviticus and counting all the things you could be punished for, or killed for not doing, or that would cause you to be cut off from your people.  And I don’t mean to make light of the need for purity today, or the need to go to sisters and brothers who persist in sin and say to them:  “Look, Jesus calls us higher, and you’re living in the sin cage.”  Even Jesus talks about the purifying, the separating he will do at the last day when he divides the sheep from the goats or the wheat from the weeds.

            What I’m talking about with the Purification Story is the way we view the world’s problems and how to solve them.  In the 1920s, Adolf Hitler and his friends were living the Revolution Story.  The old Weimar Republic they saw as corrupt, weak, ineffective.  “If WE could take charge” they said, “a new day would dawn for Germany”.  In 1933, the Nazis took charge and moved from Revolution to Domination, but of course there were still lots of problems.  That’s when the Purification Story took center stage.  “Who is the cause of all the social and economic ills among us?  It’s the Jew.  He doesn’t honor Christ.  He steals your money when you shop in his store and when you put your money in his bank and especially when you borrow money from him.  He is getting rich by breaking your back!  And the Gypsy!  Shiftless vagabonds, suspect morals…did you notice how many of them are blacksmiths?  Gypsies fashioned the nails that pinned Christ to the cross.  We can’t have them among us!”

            The purification story is among the most dangerous in history.  It often results in persecution or murder.  Christians have often been the object of purification stories and still are in places like China.  We should be more wary than we are of using the purification story to raise money and rally the troops.  You never hear Jesus in the Gospels saying:  “You know, we need to get rid of THOSE people.  We can’t have them moving into our neighborhoods or setting up their businesses in our town.  It’s bad for our kids and our property values.”  That isn’t Jesus.

The Victimization Story

            “Most of the problems WE face would end if THEY would treat US fairly.”  Now there is real injustice in this world, and there are real victims.  The victimization story is a window through which we interpret life. 

            Thinking of yourself as a victim is paralyzing.  If all your problems are someone else’s fault, there isn’t much you can do about them, is there?  Your life stagnates.  Your forward motion stops.  If you see life in such a way that says that everything good goes to some clique that you aren’t part of, it lets you off the hook for your own self-discipline and hard work and education.  

            Jesus certainly never taught anyone to think that way.  But I think that a lot of our Christian activism in society has been driven by the victimization story.  “There’s a group out there that wants to do us in – Hollywood, or the media or the ALCU or Disney.  They’re stomping on us and we’d better stand up or they’ll crush us!”  The Victimization Story is a good fund-raising tool.  But Jesus certainly has a better story for us.

The Isolation Story

            This is where we decide that the only way to save ourselves is to withdraw from society and set up our own little camp.  Let me say right now that sometimes that’s a pretty good idea.  John the Baptist, for example, had to withdraw to the desert to prepare for his ministry (and I imagine myself being like him whenever I close the office door and shut off the phone).  Those images we have of early Christians hiding in the catacombs – those are real, and it was necessary for survival during a time of all-out persecution. 

            The problems come when we enter isolation mode too soon, or when we expect too much from it.  As far as TOO SOON:  Jesus told us that we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and he gave us a great commission to go and make disciples of all nations.  There isn’t any hint in his words that we can justify hiding out in the mountains till he returns.  We may have to flee there until some temporary madness passes, but our mission is in the world.

            And as for expecting TOO MUCH from isolation:  Many Christians have had the dream that if we could just take the purest among us and go off and start our own town or state or colony, we could build a Kingdom for God right here on earth.  What we forget is that, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, the line between good and evil runs right down the middle of every human heart, so even an isolated community of the redeemed isn’t going to be heaven on earth.

            A more common form of the isolation story is to try to lock in on our own Christian publishing and recording and radio so that we only listen to our own people.  This thinking says:  “You can’t listen to Dave Matthews.  Listen to Mac Powell.  Don’t watch Remember the Titans, watch Facing the Giants.  Don’t listen to Classic Rock 103.5, listen to Love 89.”  The isolation story may remove us from the world, but it probably won’t make us less worldly – a doubly negative result.  And the movement of Jesus was quite the opposite – he left his Father’s side and came down into the mess that is this world and engaged it.

The Accumulation Story

            …the hot car, the mansion….    
            Of course, not everyone has the same idea of what a MANSION is!

LK 12:16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, `What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. 

    LK 12:18 "Then he said, `This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

            That’s the most popular American story, I think.  I may not be able to dominate anyone, and I don’t want a revolution or isolation, and I’m not looking for some scapegoat to try to purify, and I’m not a victim…I just want a good life, which means a big house and nice toys and plenty of money to live on.  That’s what I’m all about. 

    LK 12:20 "But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'

LK 12:21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

            Jesus obviously gave no one any encouragement to live the accumulation story.  I don’t know why it’s so popular in a so-called Christian nation.

            Now all these stories were in operation in the first-century Roman world, and nearly all of them were being lived by people in the Gospels.  Rome's story was, of course, Domination - the only way for the world to work was the Pax Romana.  Then there were these Zealots who lived the revolution story, trying to get enough people together to overthrow the Romans and put the right people in charge.  The religious leaders were living the Purification story.  In fact, when Jesus turned the water into wine, where did he get the water?  It was in some clay pots used for ritual purification.  Jesus transformed it into something else, which was certainly symbolic of that purification story being replaced.  But their idea was to avoid outward sins and shame sinners till they wanted to repent and become like the Pharisees!

As for the victimization story, there were many Galilean farmers who were oppressed by unfair taxes and harsh conditions, for whom that became the thing that defined them.  And we don’t hear much about isolationists in the Gospels, but there were such people.  One group called the Essenes withdrew to the desert in Jesus’ time and decided to try holy living out there.  And as for accumulation, there was the Rich Young Ruler, and Herod Antipas and countless others. 

So all of these stories were alive and well in the first century, and they’re alive and well today.  But then and now, the story of Jesus is a different story to live by.

Jesus came not with a new religion but a new story.  He never said, “Judaism is SO over.   I’m starting Christianity today.  Who wants to be a charter member?”  Instead he came to proclaim through his teaching, his miracles and his behavior the Good News of the Kingdom of God. 

You can’t understand our faith without knowing the story of Jesus.  In fact, when someone asks to see our statement of faith, we really ought to say:  “Well it starts here on the first page of Matthew’s Gospel, and it runs through the end of John…and that’s just the introduction!”  Or to put it another way, whenever we ask the very legitimate question What Would Jesus Do?, the only way to know the answer is to know His story. 

The world offers you these stories by which to construct your life:  Domination.  Revolution.  Isolation.  Accumulation.  And the rest.  But there’s another story, a better one, the one you were made for.  It is, as Mark calls it at the start of his Gospel – the story of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

You have to hear the story or read the story to know the story, but we can say a few things about it:

It’s a story of love.  Jesus said that the two Greatest Commandments by which to order our behavior are these:  Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  And the best way to understand those commandments is to consider a STORY – such as the Good Samaritan, who helped a man who was supposed to be his enemy and didn’t worry about absorbing the cost.

There’s no us vs. them.  That’s one thing all the world’s stories have in common.  The world will be a much better place if WE can dominate THEM, or overthrow them, or just get rid of them or get away from them, or get them to treat us fairly, or maybe if we could just get enough money to they can’t threaten us any more.  THEY are my adversaries at best, and more likely my enemies.  Jesus erases that distinction with three words in the Sermon on the Mount:  “Love your enemies”.  My enemies still think of themselves as my enemies, but it’s one-sided.  Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, do good to those who mistreat you.  Do you see how that overturns every other story?  But if you really want to understand these teachings, you need to consider the story of Jesus going to the cross and how he responded to his enemies.

Now, just for a moment, picture these not as stories but as cars.  Many people who are driving these cars want to put a Jesus bumper sticker on them.  “I want to dominate the world, and ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!’”  But in the Gospel story, Jesus never stood with the dominators. 

Okay, well how about the victimization car?  Jesus certainly stood with the victims of society, the poor and the outcasts, but he did that without becoming a victim himself.  Sure he was despised, rejected, beaten, crucified, but he “entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).  He was secure in God’s love and secure in his mission, and so who could make him a victim?  Whatever happened, happened in God’s good purpose.  That’s part of our story too.

        HEB 13:6 So we say with confidence,
  "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
    What can man do to me?"

            The point is:  Lots of folks want to put a Jesus bumper sticker on THEIR car, which is to say that we all want Jesus to bless OUR story.  He won’t do it.  He invites us to defect from these other stories – they are fables after all, maybe even lies – and to join him in His story, the Gospel story.

            Are you ready today to let go of the story you’re living and come join Him in the story you were made for?  Let go of domination and come to the cross.  Let go of pitying yourself as the victim of the Universe, and come to the cross.  Quit living the accumulation dream and come to the cross. 

 Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205