Since I mentioned stories the other day...
WHEN the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and misfortune averted.
Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Magid of Mezritch, had occasion, for the same reason, to intercede with heaven, he would go to the same place in the forest and say: "Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayers." And again the miracle would be accomplished.
Still later, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say: "1 do not know how to light the fire, I do not know the prayer, but I know the place and this must be sufficient." It was sufficient and the miracle was accomplished.
Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: "I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is to tell the story, and that must be sufficient." And it was sufficient. God made humankind because God loves stories.
--Hasidic tale told by Elie Wiesel
The earlier post on stories got me thinking (along with the Thought Criminals comment), but I will put this here so it's not quite so far down the screen. Having read it and thought about it, there were a couple different ideas that I will try to bring together.
ReplyDeleteStories, parables are strong way of teaching people. Most of also look for stories to understand ourselves and the world, you could call that narrative. Events can just happen, or they can be part of narrative and have meaning. As a person of faith, that allows even the bad events to have meaning and to be part of a storyline in which I live and hopefully grow. The risk is that not all stories or narrative are good, they can lead down the wrong road (just look at the stories of Qanon, stolen elections, etc.). It's nice to feel like you are the hero of your own narrative, but that can lead to a bunch of poor ends too.
A different thread is a small saying I carry (maybe a small catechism?) "My faith is not based on hope in the end, but in endless hope now".
I recently was reading a pastor and she mentioned that just as she was to graduate seminary, a professor told her that one of the worst things you could do as a pastor is hold out false hope. She then paraphrased it as, don't blow smoke up people's asses.
So what stories should we believe, what narrative do we belong in? On one side, there are a lot of false stories. Conspiracies, international cabals, stolen elections, anyone not with us is against us. These are being promoted sometimes unwittingly, but often they are being sold cynically to stir up false hope, for personal gain. There is a lot of smoke being blown up a lot of asses. Which leads to, how do we protect ourselves?
I think a community helps. As has been pointed out many times here, reading the bible is really more of a group activity. There is context, there is discussion, there may not always be agreement but there is a framework of checking, challenging and confirming. Coming from AA, which talks of a asking only for god's will for us and the power to carry that out. It is followed by lengthy admonitions that if you think you know god's will for you, then you need to carefully check it out with others, friends, clergy and more. Self justification is powerful and crafty, often what you think is god's will is really you telling yourself what you want to here. Even when you have checked with others and taken counsel, you need to proceed with caution and even more importantly, extreme humility. That humility is necessary because even for all you have done, it's quite possible you are wrong.
I think it's part of the human condition to be at risk of the false story, the false narrative, the false hope. I have certainly walked those paths in my own life. I do think that community and humility are defences, but imperfect. I wish I had a better answer.
On a personal note, these ideas don't come out of nothing. Tomorrow I am attending a very small (masked, socially distanced and limited) graveside service for the father of my best friend DC. DC won't be there, he is in hospice at home with terminal cancer and physically unable to travel (his wife will not be attending either, she can't have anyone in to attend to him while she is gone due to the pandemic). DC is an only child and his mother passed away several years ago. At least DC's children will be able to attend. We have been friends for 45 years, his wife is close friends with mine (DC and his wife introduced us) and we have all been friends for 30 + years. I have been praying for DC and more recently his father. Not praying for him to be healed (that is my will and is a false hope) but for god's grace. There is no hope in the praying that anything will be fixed, and yet there still something very meaningful and of a different kind of hope. That is why I have been thinking of false hope.
Peace be with you (and the Thought Criminal too.)