Last in the Series, Seven Stories: Jesus’ Big Story, and the Other Stories by Which We Livebr /

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Welcome everyone!  I’m Ivy, Cate mentioned. It’s so great to be with you this morning - so lovely to have a room full with the texture of many of you who regard yourselves as young at heart - and many of you who are just, well - young…. Our kid’s programming takes a break once and awhile - and this Sunday is one of them - so welcome all you toddlers and kids! It’s a joy to have you, and your voices and energy in the room this morning!br /

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Next week we will enter the season of Lent, these few weeks leading up to Easter.   We’ll spend these weeks as a community considering the centrality of the cross - and we’ll explore this through a myriad of ways; a daily reflection guide - (that includes Bible and poetry), some thoughts on our blog around “Why did Jesus Die?”, authored by Pastor Steve , sermons of course, special services, Ash Wednesday 2/26, a participatory liturgy, and Good Friday service.   It is a rich season which I’m looking forward to pressing into with all of you - and if you are looking to explore this season with others, beyond a Sunday morning experience - it’s also a great time to consider joining a community group (booklets in lobby, me, website). br /

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Today though, we are wrapping up our winter series, Seven Stories. We’ve spent the last few weeks exploring 5 primary stories that authors Brian McLaren and Gareth Higgins suggest we’ve been telling and listening to for far too long - stories that don’t seem to usher in connection, liberation, creativity or peace for us all.  We’ve looked at the stories of domination, redemptive violence, isolation, purification and accumulation. We’ve told stories, and read scripture, posed reflective questions and gave helpful spiritual practice tips to help us pause and consider just how these stories are woven into our beings. Not just stories we can witness or identify - somewhere OUT there - but WHERE, IN US these stories live… and WHY…. And how on earth, these stories are told with our words and lips and bodies - and HOW we go about the work of unearthing them, shifting them, and yes, (changing direction), repenting from the ways we perpetuate these stories.br /

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Today - as is true every time I stand here - I  preach to myself first. . .. because I am still WAKING up to some of these stories , still acknowledging and owning responsibility for where I participate in telling them,  and I’m still trying to do the work and effort it takes to change them. I’m finding that these stories, (maybe not so surprisingly), DEMAND our trust in the extraordinary, supernatural story of Jesus to shake our constitutions again - to bring us to our knees with the belief in the  power of the miraculous spirit of love , “to see that the movement of the Spirit of God  - often call us to act against the spirit of our times, [these prominent stories of our days], with wisdom, humility, and courage ….” (Howard Thurman).br /

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And to “learn once again  - as Howard Thurman says, how to put at the disposal of the limitless demands of our [painful experiences]- the boundless resources of God - to see that instead of just enduring [being a victim to] this life,  that we can float it.” (Thurman, 173).br /

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The story of victimization, which I’ll talk more about today - tells the truth of the pain we incur in this life and also the lie that life is nothing more than pain…. (and that we are powerless to it). br /

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Now where we move from being a real victim of injustice, to a mentality of victimhood - that holds us prisoner to our pain - is sometimes hard to parse out.  How much time must go by? A month? 1 year? 5 years? 10 years? I guess the question is less about time and more about what we do with the pain we all experience as humans. Do we tell the truth about this pain - and let it transform us?