Stories that Shape Us

  As humans we are shaped and live by our stories. My childhood was filled with the stories told to me of our family, by my grandparents and great-grandparents. Family stories told at family gatherings and around the kitchen table. Our family stories help us interpret how life is or how life ought to be and shape our identity as a member of our extended family.

  One tradition, I remember the most in my early life was during the period in and around Memorial Day. As a family, we would travel to the variety of cemeteries where family members were buried. Many were graves of relatives who died long before I was born, but during these moments at graveside, my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents would tell me old family stories of the family members I never knew. My grandmother would often open up during these visits and tell me family stories, I believe, upon later reflection she probably regretted having told me, but they were good stories.

  As a child, I was not always as attentive to remembering these stories as I wish now I had been. Many of the stories I do remember are the ones that were repeated multiple times. As I got older, I would often ask someone to repeat a story I could only partly recall. These were the moments, when I would discover my grandmother had second thoughts of having told me the story the first time. I often asked my parents to retell me some these stories, I had only vague memories of hearing and discover no one had told them the whole story.

  We are naturally drawn to stories and once heard, we have a feeling that compels us to seek their conclusion, because stories are exciting. As we get older and enter the life of the community where we live, the church we serve, and the family we create, we gain our own personal experiences which are transformed into our own personal and family stories. As we gain significant life experiences, they begin to shape us and mold our faith and life and we, in turn, build them into our own stories. For example, I have told many stories over the years about my experiences of working as an addiction's counselor. The stories of those individuals who freely shared their stories and experiences confronting the struggles and challenges of recovery from alcohol and other drug problems helped me better understand how God works in the world and how these stories shaped my view of forgiveness, redemption, faith, love and grace.

  You remember these experiences of your life, as a narrative. The impact these experiences have upon you helps to burn into your memory all the specific details, who was there, what was said, how you felt, the relationships that developed, the lessons you learned, the moments of grace and love you experienced and so much, much more. We turn everything into a story, in order, to make sense of life and our place within it. Our stories help us navigate our world, to understand right and wrong, be grateful for grace and love experienced and to provide meaning.

How Much Land Does A Man Need?

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

Someone once asked John D. Rockefeller, "How much wealth does it take to satisfy a person?" He replied, "Just a little bit more."

   My morning message on August 4 uses the scripture from the Gospel of Luke from Chapter 12 verses 13-21. Jesus tells the parable about the man who builds larger barns to hold the abundance from his harvest, so he can "Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” (v. 19) But God says to him “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” Jesus tells this parable, when a man asks Jesus to settle a dispute with his brother over an inheritance, but Jesus does not want to get into a family squabble. Jesus refocuses the man's concerns about how he views his life.

Jesus was concerned with the larger implications our preoccupation with the things of this world. Jesus wants us to understand that the sum total of a person’s life is more than their financial portfolio, but our wealth toward our relationship with God.

Leo Tolstoy wrote a story called, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied with his situation and he wanted more of everything. One day he received a novel offer. For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day. The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown.

Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace. By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point. He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run, knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost. As the sun began to sink below the horizon he came within sight of the finish line. Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared.

He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth. In a few minutes he was dead. Afterwards, his servants dug a grave. It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide.

In the end, Tolstoy suggests, all a man really owns is a 6 by 3 piece of earth, so we are better off putting our confidence elsewhere. Jesus, like Tolstoy, is warning us that we had better not put our trust in the promise of materialism; if we do we will be sadly disappointed.

Jesus doesn’t say that it’s wrong to have wealth to plan for our financial future. He doesn’t say that you can’t be his disciple and be financially secure. Jesus doesn’t propose a target income that is acceptable and then beyond that we’re in trouble. Jesus is teaching us by saying, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Jesus wants us to stay alert that our obsession with wealth can lead us down a road which can separate us from our relationship from God and from our ability to truly experience the wonder and abundance of God's creation. In the end, we can't take it with us and we only need a 6 by 3 foot piece of the earth.

The Romans had a proverb: "Money is like sea water; the more you drink, the thirstier you become."

Remembering Memorial Day and its Story

“Then Joshua summoned the twelve men from the Israelites, whom he had appointed, one from each tribe. Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the Israelites, so that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial forever.” (Joshua 4:1-7)

  Since the beginnings of human history, remembering our past and how it defines our character and makes us the people of God has been important to our identity. As Joshua lead the people across the Jordan river to finally end their long 40 year journey from Egypt into the promised land, God wanted to make sure they would remember this event. So God instructed Joshua to have twelve men, one from each of the twelve tribes carry a stone across the Jordon for a memorial. So that when their children asked why, they could share with them the story of God's mighty deeds in freeing them from Egypt and leading them to the promised land.

   As humans, we continue to tell our stories through memorials. Today, Monday, May 27 is Memorial Day or when I was child, I often heard others call it Decoration Day. My earliest memories of the day, related to our family tradition of going to the local cemeteries and planting flowers on the graves of family members, so their graves would look colorful during the summer. These moments at the cemeteries gave me an opportunity to learn the stories about our family. As I grew older I learned about the larger story of Memorial Day as a day of remembrance for those who have served our nation in the Armed Forces.

   As many things develop in a society the exact moment in which Memorial Day was born is claimed by many communities. Most likely, it was born out of the hearts of men and women throughout our country who felt it was important to remember the sacrifices of the men and women who died during the American Civil War on both sides. Even before the end of the Civil War throughout the country the widows of soldiers would go out to decorate the graves of the fallen soldiers graves, thereby beginning a tradition picked up by other communities.

   One of the first recorded accounts was on May 5, 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, head of an organization of Union veterans from the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) established May 30, as a day when the country would decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country. The first large observance was held that same year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

   It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Each community and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead after the nation had experienced a major Civil War. Memorial Day became a day not about division, but a day about reconciliation and the healing of a nation; it was about coming together to honor those who gave their all. Sadly, for many Memorial Day is simply the first three day weekend of the summer season, but it should be remembered for the day in our history when we remember ourselves as a nation and the stories of this nation which shape our identity. The sense of duty, sacrifice, and faith of those who gave their all to maintain a free nation is why, we today have the privilege to experience a three day weekend at all.