Sacred Storytelling

by Reverend Jennifer Creswell

“What’s your amazing story?” I wish this question were an original of mine, but I suspect it’s not. Still, it’s a good question to ask in community. It’s a question that opens doors into people’s experience,and invites them to share pieces of their life. And that’s a gift. I’ve been at St. Luke’s a year now (and been a priest for three and a half). When people ask me what I like most about my work, I tell them it’s hearing people’s stories, and, even more, being invited into the stories. Stories about birth, stories about death, stories about illness and healing, stories about love, stories about conflict, stories about community.

In a family-size church like St. Luke’s, it only takes a few Sundays of worship services to recognize the people who make up this community. A few more Sundays, and you’ll know most of their names. But stories, stories take longer to learn. We don’t all wear our stories on our sleeves. For some of us, sharing our story is an act of generosity. It’s something we offer, in faith, to people we love.

As people of a Book, people who understand God, in one form, as Word, stories are an important part of our faith tradition. We read the stories in the Bible and we look for the places where the stories intersect with our stories. We look for places where we can read ourselves into the sacred text, and places where the text interprets our own lives.

In weekly lectionary groups, and in occasional interactive sermons (like the one we had last week), we are encouraged, as a community, to share stories with each other. Nothing invites us into someone else’s life and reality like hearing a piece of their story. How can we judge another person’s life when we hear it as part of their sacred story? How can we not love the person who lays herself bare in telling us her experiences? Sharing stories builds community. Sharing stories also heals.

Be on the lookout for more ways to share your story, and listen to other stories, at St. Luke’s: in vestry spiritual time, in lectionary groups (Mondays 9:15, Wednesdays 5:30), in interactive sermons, in Lenten dinner groups.

Here’s to the story: the story we are telling, and living, together.