“Laura Secord (September 13, 1775 -
October 17, 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812…The story of Laura
Secord has taken on mythical overtones in Canada where there as many
embellished versions of the tale.”
Both
of these write-ups appear in the online encyclopedia ‘Wikipedia’. What they have in common is that each of them is seen
by someone I know as being a possible ancestor several generations back. And so
the story is brought out explain that person’s physical appearance or to
validate their Canadian heritage. Almost every family I know has someone in
their past that they point to with pride. Very seldom do people claim
horse-thieves or ne’er-do-wells, although we al have those in our family’s
story too!
If
the story of Laura Secord who lived in Southern Ontario just 200 years, spoke
English, and whose actions are recorded in official sources, has gained mythic
overtones, then why would we expect the same thing not to have happened to the
stories of Jesus which were written in Greek, by people who had never met him, decades
after his death. (Yet the same people who have no trouble with the mythic parts
of the Laura Secord story have difficulty accepting the stories told about
Jesus in the New Testament as anything other than an accurate telling of
events.)
As
someone who has spent a number of years working on the genealogy of her family,
I know that there are many ‘stories’ in the background I uncovered, some true,
some partly based on fact, and some that are ‘just’ good stories. But they all
influence how I perceive ‘my’ story.
But
I am also part of another ‘family’ … the Christian family, who claim to follow
the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. So why do I not hear more of them
telling stories about him, as I do about their ‘real’ family? Why do I not see more
of them trying to live up to his example of inclusive love? Why are more of
them not showing his passion for bringing about the ‘Kingdom of God’ here,
today? Why do I not hear more voices speaking out against the violence, want
and greed in our society, as he did 2000 years ago? Why are people not claiming
all these things as part of who they are?
We
need to reclaim our Christian heritage. To go back to that person Jesus, to the
stories told about him decades after his death, and look at those stories, not
a factual history but rather as how generations after him perceived his impact
on their lives and from that try to discover for ourselves just who this man
was and what was he willing to die for. Then we need to make these values ours,
incorporate them into our story and share them with others by what we say and
do every day.
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