Stories Can Change Us

September 2020

Partying crowds occasionally make the news and many are aghast at our lack of social distancing in a time of pandemic. What to do about it? How do we stop it? How dangerous is it? Perplexing times with absolute certainty unavailable for most questions. But plenty of strong opinions offered – often angrily.

For the last few weeks I’ve been slowly noodling my way through Matthew’s take on these stories. He’s taken me from Jesus’ mountainside sermon, his travels through many towns and villages and eventually to one day on a beach. He heals, he teaches, he trains his followers, and when he faces large and diverse crowds his strategy is very entertaining but often puzzling. He shows Jesus jumping in a boat offshore to avoid their crush and have a platform to address them.

He’s telling stories about sowing seed, soil sampling and weed management. Perhaps hundreds or thousands are in the audience, some paying attention, some kicking a soccer ball, playing volleyball or letting kids play in the water. The crowd is a mixture of the needy and angry, haters and lovers, seekers and critics.

He looks out at his audience with compassion for them and yet he knows how hard it is to crack the set minds and attitudes shaped by culture, religion and plain human stubbornness. During this pandemic we have seen the futility of hectoring people into compliance with edicts that are well-intentioned but largely unenforceable. People will ultimately do what they want but often when the public mindset changes, behaviour also changes. We’ve seen it in the past around smoking, drinking and driving, wearing seatbelts among many examples. Enforcement helps but ultimately when public sentiment changes around an issue then compliance happens.

Jesus clearly understood that if he wanted his audience to change direction, to turn (repent) he had to come at them obliquely. They had been well-schooled in a rigid system of religious and cultural thought, spiritual and cultural pride. Strongly reinforced with rigorous enforcement of slight deviations from right behaviour. So he told stories while he healed, fed and engaged thousands.

Standing in the boat offshore he sees the diversity of the crowd. His parable of the sower and varieties of soils receiving the seed reflects this. He’s sowing his ideas to a field of diverse soils and there is opposition to the fruitfulness of what he is doing. He describes his audience to themselves without being confrontational.  

This is why I speak to them in parables, …. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ (Matthew 13:13-15 ESV)

Jesus knew his audience and wanted to reach the hearts and minds of people who had become crassly unable to see, hear or understand anything new or truer or liberating. Jesus’ deepest desire was change for these burdened people – healed was his word.  His stories were to open the possibility of healing and turning for people he loves.

We live in equally fractured times with hard lines being maintained on many opinions and anger expressed over disagreements. I’m as likely to be hard of hearing and blind spiritually as Jesus’ crowds. He looks on us with the same compassion desiring we would be open to doing good in these difficult days.

Our work of spiritual friendship has been shape-shifted like all of us. We want to care about what is important for the good of all and release that which impedes justice, mercy and truth.

Goodness of friendship grow among us,

Norm