CHAPTER 1

GOD'S STORY AS OUR STORY

The ability to sustain a narrative that defines its life is one of the crucialelements of viable community. We become a people, a community, as we acquire astory. And we remain a community so long as we retell that story. Our identityis dependent on having a story that tells us who we are; our understanding oflife's meaning and purpose is dependent on having a story that tells us whatthe world is like and where we are going. To be a community of faith, we must bea people with a story: a common memory and vision, common rituals or symbolicactions expressive of our community's memory and vision, and a common lifetogether that manifests our community's memory and vision.

The church is a story-formed community. Baptism is our adoption into a story,God's recreative story, which is recorded in the community's story book (theHoly Scriptures), incarnate in the community's life, and made present throughits sacramental rituals, especially the Holy Eucharist. Each of us also has astory. To each community Eucharist we bring our stories and reenact God'sstory so that God's story and our stories may be made one story. In thecontext of our liturgies we are initiated into God's story and we appropriateits significance for our lives so that it might influence our common life day byday. And as we journey through history and traverse life-cycle passages, theretelling of God's story sustains us and moves us on.

Our most important and fundamental task as Christians is to learn God's story.All our Christian beliefs, experiences, and actions are dependent upon ourinternalization of God's story, that is, making God's story our story. Thisexplains why for a number of years I have described the first aim of catechesisas the acquisition and appropriation of God's recreative story, throughparticipation in the church's rituals and through reflection on theintersection of our life stories and God's story, so that we individually andcorporately may more faithfully manifest God's story in our lives.

All of this may seem obvious, but it has not been normative in the church'slife and learning. I am continually surprised at how few people in the churchknow God's story or are able to express how their stories and God's storytouch and inform each other. More important perhaps, I have discovered that eventhose who claim interest in God's story as found in the church's story book,the Holy Scriptures, are more interested in doctrine than sacred story. Thetemptation of theology is to interpret the foundational stories of the Christianfaith and then treat the interpretations as if they were that which wasoriginally given. Theology is founded on thoughts and concepts that, if takenoverseriously, will replace with dogma and institutions the stories that makefaith and community possible. Indeed, the vast majority of books on the churchyear turn out to be books primarily on doctrine, as do the majority of so-called"Bible-centered" curriculum resources.

Have you ever tried to discuss the Bible with a literalist? For literaliststhere is no story, no poetry, no imagination, only doctrinal truths to bebelieved, that is, to be asserted intellectually as true. The Bible for thembecomes a collection of proof texts for doctrine, ideas about God to be believedrather than a story book to be dramatized and lived out within a story-formedcommunity. Indeed, to say that the Bible is essentially myth or sacred story(true story)—that is, history but much more—is offensive to many. Sacredstory, or God's story as found in the Holy Scriptures, embraces history but isnot merely history. Sacred stories are destroyed when taken literally, for theirfunction is to point beyond themselves to God and to bring the experience of Godinto our present.

The stories were not collected by the church as a theology textbook. Nothing canreplace a story. Stories resist definitive interpretation and invite commentary.Theology is abstract but not story; story invites participation. We discusstheology but experience story. Theological speculation limits and divides; storyfrees and unites. Only adults can engage in meaningful theological reflection.Stories are for all ages. "Tell me a story" is the request of every child.At the heart of the Christian faith is story, not dogma.

The major roles in Peter Shaffer's play Equus are an adolescent boy and hispsychiatrist. The young man has blinded a number of horses after being seducedby a woman employee of the stable. The psychiatrist's task is to analyze thecause of this psychotic behavior and free the young man for productive life.What is unveiled in the drama is the mental torment of a patient and the storyhe developed to make it tolerable. The psychiatrist comments, "We need a storyto see in the dark." We all need such a story. Stories are the means by whichwe see reality. Without a story it would appear as if we lived in an unrealworld. Without a story we cannot live. Without a story we cannot have community.In the beginning is a story that provides us with both a memory linking usmeaningfully with the past and a vision calling us to a purposeful future.Without a story life makes no sense. The story that is foundational to our lifeprovides us with the basis for our perceptions and for our faith. Faith ismanifested in story; story communicates faith. Anyone familiar with Chaucer'sCanterbury Tales will remember that the pilgrims told stories on the way to theshrine of St. Thomas à Becket. Stories are the imaginative way of ordering ourexperience. The pilgrimage of life requires a story.

The gospel began as a narrative including stories, sayings, songs, andinterpretations remembered by those who had experienced life with Jesus ofNazareth and had concluded that he was the Christ. Later these were collectedand arranged for various purposes (Matthew as a catechism for Jewish Christiansand Luke as a catechism Gentile Christians, Mark as a spiritual journal, andJohn as a witness to sacrament), written down, and in the end authorized forinclusion in the church's canon. Christianity is based upon and arises out ofthat story;...