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You are witnesses of these things.
I have been reading this book called
“Learning How to See” by Brian McLaren.
He has a corresponding podcast that I have been listening to as well.
In each episode, he brings up new ways to break open learning.
The latest episode is particularly powerful.
He is interviewing Garrett Higgins,
a fairly renowned peace activist in Northern Ireland,
about reconciliation and bringing people together
after many years of troubled violence.
The series focuses on the mythical seven stories
with which we tell ourselves as humanity
and that we live these stories out.
It is really powerful.
I want to highlight the seven and
then come back and talk through two of them for you
because I think it is really powerful and applies to what we do.
The first story we tell ourselves is a story of domination.
Whether it is an individual or a group
that dominates another individual or group.
The story of domination has pervaded throughout all of human history
and it seems to continue to pervade power and authority,
all of that power and might.
The second story is a story of revolution,
or it might be called revenge or retaliation.
The people in this story get fed up of being ruled by authority;
there is a revolt and they demand their freedom back.
But what typically ends up happening
is just another version of domination,
another group dominates and then do the exact same atrocities
and things in a new name.
The third story that we tell ourselves is called the purification story.
If we could just do things right;
if we say and do the right thing,
then everything is going to be all right.
We have a very religious version of this story.
We talk a lot about this religious story, that if we do it right,
everything is going to be all right.
And of course that is not quite the way life works.
The fourth story is that of isolation and
that if we could get rid of all those people who do not do it right,
and then isolate ourselves.
This is sort of tribal, and there is the problem.
It is a combination of the purification story and the revolution story.
We will isolate and we do things our way and get rid of them.
But of course that does not work either.
No matter how much you isolate,
it is not a story for all of humanity.
Then comes the fifth story, that of accumulation.
If I have the right stuff or I have more of the right stuff,
then everything is going to be all right.
And we just accumulate many different things,
different stuff, hoping and believing that if we have the right stuff,
whether that be stuff, stuff or knowledge,
then everything is going to be all right.
The sixth story is that of victimhood.
You can choose any of the previous five,
and find out you are a victim to whatever group in which you live,
that story of being the victim and being oppressed by them.
Then comes the last and the seventh story, the story of Christianity,
the story of Jesus coming with God's story, which is that of love.
This is the love story.
And it rejects all six of the previous stories
and says, this is the story we live.
Now why do I bring that up?
It is because whatever stories we tell, we tend to live.
And so part of what we do in the Easter season
is we tell the story of the Apostles.
We read from the book of the Acts of the Apostles.
This is the story of the Holy Spirit, the post-resurrection story.
It is a story of how the spirit of God is active in the world here and now.
And we are called to participate
and cooperate with that story of the Holy Spirit.
The letter of John that we read
as the second reading for all of Easter this year.
is a story of love.
John is the beloved apostle
and it is written in the name of the beloved apostle.
It is all about God as love and how we are called to be love to one another.
And we are called to bring that story alive.
We gather every Sunday to tell this story.
Sometimes I fear that we do not really believe the story,
I am not sure we are convinced about the story we tell.
I am going to quote Garret Higgins in his accent
because I love the Northern Ireland accent,
but I do so out of respect for him and
because he says it beautifully.
He says,
“If we want a different story,
we are going to have to tell a different story.
And if we are going to tell a different story,
then we are going to have to live a different story.
Because if you keep doing what you have always done,
you are going to live the same story
and you are going to always get the same end.
So if you want a different story,
then you better start living a different story.
But it starts with telling a different story.”
What is the story you tell yourself,
because that is the one you live.
It is so true.
What is the Story we tell ourselves?
Because that is the story we end up living in our own lives.
That is the question.
We come every Sunday and we tell the story of love here at this table,
but I am not sure we are convinced of it,
because we often go out there and we do not live it.
That is what the letter of John says today,
you can not be out there living a different story
than what we are claiming to be
then you are not really a disciple of Jesus.
That is what John constantly says in this letter.
The question then for us is “What is the story we are telling ourselves?”
Because that is the story we end up living.
Is it domination, that we have to be on top?
Or is it a story of revolution or revenge?
Because ultimately that becomes a second story of domination.
It is just a different group dominating.
And then there are the other stories which we slip in to.
If I do everything right, then God is going to be on my side.
And if you are not doing anything right,
then God cannot be on your side.
Or if you do not have God on your side,
you must not be doing it right,
so you are one of them.
Or is it the story of isolation?
If we could just keep all of those people out,
then we will be fine.
We keep those people out.
Depends what those are.
If it is LGBTQ or married and divorced
or whether it is the Republican or the Democrat,
you name the group, you name the tribe.
If we just keep them out, then we will be fine.
You can see how that story gets told.
And then of course the accumulation story,
which we have taken hook, line and sinker in Silicon Valley.
The more the better, the bigger the better.
And the more I have, the bigger and better I am.
And we know how false that story is.
That is not really the story we believe in at all,
but yet we continue to live it.
You see how foolish we are.
See how quickly we find we fall into it ourselves.
And then there is the sixth story, which of course is victimhood.
This is taken up by lots of groups
and they live out the story that is “Poor me.”
And we live that story.
And yet the story we claim here every Sunday
is a story of love, that we are going to baptize this child into.
But the question I have is, “Do we really believe it?”
We have to live the story,
but we have to first learn how to tell the story
where justice and compassion are at the center of the story we tell.
And then we must live it in our daily life
with every little interaction with our children,
with our parents, with our grandparents and our bigger family,
But also with every stranger we meet
and especially those who are not part of our tribe,
whether that be non-Catholic
or would that be non Republican or non Democrat
or whatever tribe we think we belong to.
Whatever we have isolated ourselves into,
whether we listen to Fox News or CNN
or whatever the different tribes are.
We have to find a way to believe in the gospel
because that is the message that we claim.
That is what we say when we are baptized, that is what we claim.
The question is, “Are we willing to live it?”
But we first have to learn to tell it and tell it honestly.
And then we have to become what we receive.
That is what we are going to do today.
When we receive the communion at the end of Mass,
we are going to say “Amen.”
And what we are saying amen to is
we become what we receive in the breaking of the bread.
We claim to become what we receive.
We promise to become the story alive today.
You see the gospels are right, we are witnesses of these things,
but do we have the courage to live the story?
Have we got the courage to tell the right story
and not buy into the six false stories
and say focus on the one true story,
the story of Jesus' love.
God's love for us transforms everything.
Let's claim our story.
Let's tell our story.
Let's live our story.
The story of love.
You are witnesses of these things.
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