Stories

Job 1: 1-5

Acts 20: 7-12

Matthew 20: 29-34

Stories

When you were a child, how many times did you beg your mom or dad “Please give me another list of rules and regulations.”  Right. I thought so. Never. But how often did you try to put off bedtime by begging to hear “Just one more story. Please!?”

What do we do at family reunions and holiday celebrations? We trot out the same old stories, initiating each new generation in the stories of the ancestors. In their telling and re-telling, we make them living history, not just dead facts.

Stories are how we learn who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we are going. A mature human being lives a well-storied life. There are stories that teach us about our identity as Americans — George Washington stories, covered wagon pioneer stories, North and South Civil War stories, Great Depression stories, December 7, 1941 stories, hippy-dippy sixties stories, 9-11 stories, Katrina stories, 1978 snow stories, 1998 Southeast Ohio flood stories.

There are still other stories that teach us about our family identity. Ellis Island stories, proud moment stories, scandalous secret stories, celebration stories, triumph and tragedy stories, new love stories, old grudge stories.

Christians are more than just our country’s stories. Christians are more than our family’s stories. Christians have the “greatest story ever told.” We have the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We have the story of Jesus. That is our most basic identity as Christians: the story of Jesus. We tell the story of Jesus to the world. But do you know—really know-- the living story of your faith?

The truth is that we Christians are woefully under-storied. Not long ago a Pew study of religious knowledge (http://religions.pewforum.org/reports) found that our knowledge of the Bible, world religions and what the Constitution says about religion in public life is embarrassingly low. How low?

Atheists and agnostics scored better than evangelicals or Catholics. Bible‑belt Southerners scored the worst. Those who believe the Bible is the literal word of God did slightly worse than average, while those who say it is not at all the word of God scored slightly better. A lot—far too many--Americans think Deuteronomy is a rock group. More Christians than you would care to imagine think Joan of Arc was married to Noah. Seriously—none of this is a joke. 

Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four, 25%, say they are not affiliated with any particular religion.. They have no bible background at all, no understanding of any church, any denomination. Is it any wonder they do not know, let alone understand any of the stories we think we know well and may take for granted?

The bible is full of stories. Jesus often teaches through stories, called parables. Those are stories that on the surface have one simple meaning, but upon study have deeper meanings, often uncomfortable, but always ones that provoke thought. But then there are short little stories about Jesus that are easily passed over, such as the one we read this morning from Matthew. A little story tucked into the larger narrative, about two quick miracles. Easily overlooked. But it tells a lot about Jesus.

The importance of this story is found in one word:  compassion. Jesus and his followers were busy. They were on their way from Jericho headed to Jerusalem, on foot, a distance of 15 miles uphill with an increase of about 3400 feet in elevation. A tough climb. It would have taken them about 8 hours of steady walking. No time to waste. These two blind men yelled at Jesus to stop and help them. In the eyes of all the followers of Jesus, they were outcasts, worthless, beggars leaching off of others to stay alive. You see, in Jesus day, people with an infirmity were looked down on—in fact, they may have become that way because they were cursed by God for some offense. People then, and too often now, were very judgmental about people who could not take care of themselves.

So, the crowd wanted them to shut up and get out of the way. But Jesus had compassion, and healed them. Notice, he did not ask them for anything. He didn’t judge them, preach to them, tell them to do anything in return for his gift of sight. They had a need, he filled it.

If you read the gospels carefully, you will see that in all the stories of Jesus’ miracles for people, he served them without strings attached-- all were out of compassion, simply because there was a need.  Two of the most important themes of the gospels are compassion, and hypocrisy. Those who truly love God will be compassionate as Jesus was.  Those who only make a show of their religion, such as many Pharisees, are hypocrites.

If you had met Job in the middle of his crisis, and not known the start of his story that we read earlier, you would have met a man who was totally down and out. Dirty, penniless, homeless, a street person from whom many of us would likely shy away.  

In 2008 21% of the population of Morgan County were below the poverty line.  That is 1 out of every 5.  It is likely higher now.  Most of those are the working poor, those who have jobs, but who face challenges every day for rent, heating in winter, food enough each week, health care, transportation, clothing.

The working poor are people such as 52-year-old Maryann Lahr of Colorado Springs, who struggles to help take care of eight grandchildren and bring in a little money with her home-cleaning business. Lahr said she feels stable for now, but worries that she can’t afford medical insurance. “Thank God I’m in good health, but you just never know,” she said. “Anything can happen.”

The $600 or $700 monthly income Lahr gets from the cleaning business is a long fall from the roughly $1,600 she made monthly as a 25-year employee with Schlage Lock Co. until 2004. The job had benefits, including medical insurance and six weeks of vacation, but she lost her job in a downsizing. Lahr got money from a pension benefit for a while, she said, but now that’s gone.

Meanwhile, the lot rent for Lahr’s mobile home is $400 per month, and the mortgage payment is $173. Those expenses take up most of her regular monthly income. To pay for utilities and other bills, Lahr gets creative. She said she holds yard sales and sells her belongings at flea markets. Occasionally, Lahr’s son gives her a little money, she said. Lahr regularly volunteers, handing out goods at a local food bank, and can take home supplies for herself. That’s how she holds her monthly grocery expenses to about $20.

That may be a story in Colorado, but that story is repeated in one way or another in Morgan County all the time. It is like the story of many of the 1 in 5 of us who live below the poverty line. Most of us do not know those stories. We may not hear the stories, we may not want to hear them, but they are there. We have no idea how they got into the situation they are in, but too often we make assumptions. Like those who were with Jesus that day on the way to Jericho, we may be quickly judgmental.

During the visitations before, and after, a funeral we hear the family stories, as we share the memories. In the funeral service we try to weave together a bit of the story of the life of the deceased.  It has to be a Readers Digest condensed version of the person’s life, touching upon the most memorable, the most important, the most significant parts.

Each of us must ask ourselves, what is our story? What will be the stories others will tell about us when we pass on? Will they be stories of our compassion? More importantly, what is the story God knows about us, and how well does it match the story he had in mind for us?