Three Narrative Arcs

Three Narrative Arcs in Intentional Discipleship

Some Thoughts before Lent Begins

Fr. Tony's letter to the Trinitarians; The Trintarian, February 2017

Lent begins at the end of this month.  We are planning a variety of programs and worship to help us all better know and tell our own spiritual stories, as part of an enhanced and growing intentional discipleship following Jesus.  In order to prepare, I make the following observations and suggestions to consider in the weeks leading up to Ash Wednesday. 

Those who speak of being “spiritual, but not religious” usually are trying to express a sense of being grounded in spiritual values or contemplative experience, without the trappings of organized faith communities, hierarchies, or dogmas.     On the opposite side, some self-identified religious people speak of their own tradition or hierarchy as if it were identical with communion with God; they occasionally express a sense of the sufficiency of right denominational affiliation without the need for an inner sense of growing personal closeness to God.  And then there are those who believe that inner experience or group identification are both barren in their own ways—one too idiosyncratic and the other too partisan—and focus simply on right action and service to others without the niceties of religion or God-talk at all. 

All three of these groups miss a profound truth about human nature and the experience most of us have of God:  if we are talking about our spiritual or philosophical growth, there are three different narrative arcs that mutually correct and feed the others.

One is the narrative of the heart and our personal, interior encounter with God.  When we talk about our spiritual life as autobiography, we often take one particular limited kind of biography as the model:  the testimony or witness of Evangelicals when they tell of their personal encounter with Jesus.  This kind of narrative has been honed to a deeply moving art:  how messed up my life was I was before I surrendered to Jesus, how I came to know Jesus and came to turn my will and my life over to him, and then how great things have been since, how much I have changed.  A less sectarian and more secular form of this basic narrative arc has grown in stories told in Twelve Step Programs.    This is the first narrative arc:  our interior experience of God and how it changes us.  It is good and powerful as far as it goes, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.   At its best, this arc tells about our deepest feelings and beliefs.  At its worst, it can be idiosyncratic or solipsistic, or even down-right bizarre. 

The second narrative arc is the story of our relationship with other people, in a particular community.   This can serve as an adjunct to our story of our inner life, as seen in Twelve Step stories that focus on the group as one’s “Higher Power,” or in faith stories where a change in denominations or affiliations reflects or triggers profound changes in one’s relationship with God.  But the narrative arc of relationships can be the central focus of one’s story:  how you found meaning in joining or following this group, or how a particularly meaningful relationship with a spiritual director or teacher changed you in deep, positive ways.   At its best, this arc tells how we have helped others and they have helped us in profound and lasting ways.  At its worst, it can be simply a chatty, gossipy story of the people we have run into over the years. 

The third narrative arc is where the first two are explicitly and intentionally joined and blended:  it is the arc where our experience of God is found within the holy objects, practices, or rites of a tradition and community, in our participation in sacraments.   For us, this means primarily the two sacraments established by our Lord:  Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.  It extends also to the sacramental rites of the Church:  Confirmation (laying on of hands to bestow the Holy Spirit), Matrimony, Reconciliation or Penance (private confession and priestly absolution), Holy Orders (for those so called), and Anointing for the Sick or Dying.  Reception of these holy things—outward and effecting signs of inward graces—often mark very real points of departure in our internal experience of God as well as our affiliation and dedication to people and groups.    At its best, this narrative arc tells of how God has reached us through holy things and people.  At its worst, it tells merely of rites of passage in a sectarian tradition. 

In all these arcs, the basic shape of the story—what was I like before, what happened, and how it has changed me and others—remains the same. But the focus of the details in each of these narrative arcs differs.   And the balance between them will vary from person to person, or within a single person, from different times of life. 

I encourage all of us to start thinking about our faith story as we prepare for Lent.  If at first glance it is all of one narrative arc, then think hard and try to see things through these different narrative lenses or filters.  Contemplation and reflection will help us all to balance out our stories as we prepare them. 

Grace and Peace, 

Fr. Tony+