(taken from Genesis 6—a story of creation)
"Now it came to pass, when humans began to multiply on the face of the earth... the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not always strive with humanity, [nor shall my breath remain in humans forever, because they are only flesh and blood].'
"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.' But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."
"Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." This is one of the iconic phrases in Judeo-Christian tradition. It is the first time we are given this word "grace"—one of the unique treasures of the way of Jesus. Grace works in two ways. First, by not limiting the good we receive to only what we deserve in light of our shortcomings. For example, even though we poison our land with chemical fertilizers and pesticides that make it hard for anything to grow without more and harsher chemical fertilizers and pesticides, Elohim allows the food we grow to have enough nutrients to keep us alive. Second, grace also allows the good that we are able to do to not be limited to just our own shortcomings. Again, for example, if after years of poisoning the land we decide we want to do better by honoring the natural rhythms by which things grow, we can reintroduce worms to our poisoned land, feed them leftover scraps from our dining table, and before long, they will aerate and naturally fertilize the land, making it again hospitable to all the other good insects and plants that keep the bad insects away.
So when the Hebrew storytellers say "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," they are saying that Noah looked "into the face of God and [saw] the truth of his own dignity."
. . . Finish the story!
One of my unexpected joys at the Wild Goose Festival was the impromptu opportunity to guide middle-schoolers through the creation of art around the "Parable of the Prodigal Son," perhaps better titled "Parable of the Faithful Father." I am often pleasantly encouraged by the creativity adults find when they free themselves to live in the biblical narrative. However, I was blown away by the questions these kids were asking about the text and the beauty unleashed in their expressions of those questions.
This is a recording of our conversation about the middle-schooler's reactions to the Prodigal and the art many of them created:
In our impromptu Stories that Compost workshop at the Wild Goose Festival 2011 we reflected on the biblical narrative of Hagar the Egyptian slave who bore Abraham's first son, Ishmael.
Carolyn Kennedy was one of only two workshop participants who wrote fully developed stories during our writing time. Sadly, I only captured one (technical difficulties). Even more sad, I don't remember the other woman's name, so I can't track her down. All I can remember is that her story angle intrigued me. She was a mature women, real pleasant smile, with salt-and-pepper hair cut in a bob, kinda like Anne Rice if I remember correctly (then again, maybe not). But her smile reminded me of Anne's, and I know I've seen her before. If anyone who was there happens to know who I'm talking about, please let me know.
Carolyn is a soft-spoken-yet-hardy mid-western mom and minister who lives in one of those cold northern-most states. I appreciate her telling this story from Hagar the outsider's perspective. Carolyn saves me the trouble of having to write a version of this story myself ;-).
I love Jay's voice and visage! It's so untamed, so aggressive. In the opening concert for the Wild Goose Festival Jay spoke of Joseph selling his family into slavery. I found that recasting of the Joseph narrative so compelling that I asked Jay to let me record him telling that story.
Joseph's story was the inspiration of the new Psalter's album, Carry the Bones. The Psalters are amazing musical storytellers and well worth our ongoing support.
The clip ends with a excerpt of the Psalters "Re-member".
Tevyn East's understanding of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness is informed by the Sioux tradition of vision questing. In keeping with indigenous rites of passage all over the world, Jesus goes off into the wilderness to become attuned with the Spirit-wind that will at times stir, at others cool, still others billow through his life. Hear Tevyn's moving interrogation of what it means to surrender to the whims of the Spirit-wind of God.
The clip ends with a excerpt of the Psalters "Re-member" from the album Carry the Bones.
The first annual Wild Goose Festival gave me a phenomenal opportunity to collect more stories and to get into thrilling conversations about various ways of unpacking the same story. Those conversations were so much fun that I hope to initiate and record them at various gatherings for the duration of this project.
One such interaction at the Goose took place in the afternoon sun of the festival green with Jay Beck and Tevyn East. Jay is a percussionist and vocalist for the band Psalters out of Philly. Tevyn is a dancer, choreographer and activist whose current project is called Leaps and Bounds. Both are amazing storytellers looking for new and living ways to articulate their faith. Our conversation that afternoon began with the conflict between the Cains and the Abels (the previous story posted).
The clip ends with a excerpt of the Psalters "Re-member" from the album Carry the Bones.
(taken from Genesis 4—a story of creation)
The story of the talking snake is often told as the story of how sin entered the world, and perhaps it is—if not in terms of an exact event, definitely the story of how humans foolishly make room for sin time and time again. However, neither change nor changeability were sin. So even though much changes after the man and the woman's encounter with the talking snake, the creation saga says nothing to suggest that before this point the world was static and sterile, unchangeable and unchanging. To the contrary, the way the stories are told, life was full of promise and possibility, action and adaptability. God would make a move (God created); then humanity would make a move (humanity named): Creator initiating, creation responding, creation initiating, Creator responding: round and round it goes. And if the creation stories are given their due, these moves had likely been happening for some time: all creation growing, learning, evolving, changing.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the creation saga is that no matter how poor humanity's choices are Elohim chooses to come with them. They never endure the consequences of their short-comings alone. In fact, Elohim never takes back her initial judgment that, as far as she is concerned, humanity is "good". The man and the woman's choices and misconceptions haven't changed Elohim's mind; the man and the woman just misplace their God-given imaginations for that good. I guess it's true: what we don't use, we lose. But that's not to say it has to be lost forever.
So Eden becomes unwelcoming or uninhabitable. The man and the woman are forced out into the wilderness to make their way in the world, and where is God? Right there coaching them through it.
I can imagine Elohim initiating a conversation that goes something like, "So where are we going?"
"What do you mean 'we?'"
"I'm going with you, of course."
"But your place is there, back in the garden, back in paradise."
"Says who?
. . . Finish the story!
Holly Sharp's paintings are now featured with both the written and audio versions of the poem "And It Was Good". WooHoo!
Thanks Holly for being the first.
Now the entire Adam & Eve Saga is available in audio!
Dramatic readings complete with sound effects and musical score.
Stream or Download them all:
*"And It Was Good" has Holly Sharpe's visual art embedded in it, which is why it is only available as download.
And Phillip said, "Why did you ask us the question when you already knew what you would do?"
Jesus said, "Think about it. I asked the question so you would be part of figuring out the answer. First you used logic, but discovered it is too costly to buy bread for all of these. We don't have the money. Then you saw impossibility. There is a boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish. What is that among so many? Then you saw possibility when I said, 'Make the men sit down.' You believed.
"I asked the question so you would be a part of finding the answer."
Jesus mopped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. The day was warm and he was tired from healing so many. They just didn't get it. He hadn't come to fix all of their problems. He had come to show them the reign of God, to show them how to join with him in bringing it to life. His gifts were meant to empower them, to inspire them to become givers.
Yet they were so young. Like their ancestors, every gift led to a demand for more. Why couldn't they see?
Jesus groaned as he saw the multitude crest the hill. Here they come again.
. . . Finish the story!
Outings with a large group of kids is not always easy, but as a teacher, its something you have to do. Do I have them all? Where are the lunches? Are they safe?
These thoughts all ran through my mind as we became consumed in the crowd waiting to hear more from this man Jesus. The kids don't really know who He is or get his role in their community, but they don't really need to in their minds. He's interesting and unknown so they're intrigued--especially Michael. Meeting Jesus was all he talked about and as I did a quick head count, I realized he was gone
. . . Finish the story!
I remember Jesse Schroeder by his smile--humungous, almost giddy. But that was not the only thing physically memorable about him. At first glance, I was immediately struck with physique envy. Jesse is built like Superman, which is what made his grin so oxymoronic. Most buff guys look mean. It's like they all got together and decided they couldn't smile in any picture anymore. I really shouldn't stereotype because 3 of the gentlest guys I know look like action heroes. Jesse reminded me.
Jesse participated in our inaugural Stories that Compost workshop. Toward the end of June, he wrote me with most exciting news. He had gone home to share the experience and practice retelling stories with his emergent village cohort in Columbus, OH. I so wish more of those who participated would follow suit (hint-hint, clue-clue!).
They read the story of the feeding of the 5,000 in Luke 10 and John 6, asked the three questions we use in our workshop to unpack a story and then rewrote the story and shared. He passed along some of the retellings that came out of the experience.
I'll share a different one each week for the next few weeks. Hopefully by then, I'll have more to share from some more of you (HINT-HINT, CLUE-CLUE!).
(from Genesis 3—a story of creation)
Download a dramatic reading of "A Series of Graciously Unfortunate Event - Episode 1" complete with sound effects and musical score!
So even if we come of age and no longer insist that our early creation stories are scientific or historical accounts about specific individuals and particular incidents, they still remain quite useful in helping us find ourselves. In that regard, they are invaluable. Take for example the third story in the Genesis saga, the one about the man, the woman and the talking snake. I've never heard an animal talk and don't have to believe that they did at one time to imagine that a story about a talking snake has something important to say to me. Again, we don't have to make the Bible something that it's not to recognize its value.
With that in mind
. . . Finish the story!
(from Genesis 2—a story of creation)
Download a dramatic reading of "Being Human" complete with sound effects and musical score!
In the second version of the creation myth from Genesis, instead of both being created at the same time, man is created first without woman. The story goes that once Elohim had made man, he said to him, "Now that you're here, we have planted this garden for you, called Eden. It is your home. 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.'"
Now, this may sound strange at first
. . . Finish the story!
(in reference to Genesis 1 & 2—a story of creation)
Download a dramatic reading of "Why Too" complete with sound effects and musical score!
Did you know there are two creation stories in the Bible? Really, there are! The first is the creation poem with which most are familiar: "In the beginning... God said ,'Let there be... in our image...' and it was good." The other starts by covering the same ground in a much shorter fashion that offers a distinctly different rationale for why and when things came into being. The second creation story begins:
"In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flows out of Eden to water the garden."
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