The Nation's Story, Worth Perfecting

Borrowing an idea from a friend, I took each of my two sons on a trip around the time they were turning 13.  Just father and son.  Two rules.  We had to drive, so we could talk.  We had to see things we hadn't seen before, big things out there in the world.  

We were living near Philadelphia when it was time for my oldest.  We went to Washington D.C.  We were living in Scottsdale when it was time for my youngest.  We went to Los Angeles.  

Watching the news these past few weeks, I got to remembering that first trip—the one to D.C.  Seems like a century ago.  We toured the Capital building and walked its halls.  We walked the Mall from end to end, including by the White House, talking as we went.  Had a chat with the statue of Abraham Lincoln and read his words.  Spent a surprisingly long time at the Viet Nam Memorial.  There we talked about war, sacrifice, social conflict over what's right and wrong, and the democratic right to protest.  We read some of the names.  We watched veterans honoring lost compatriots and we spoke of service and honor.  Then in the evening we saw the Smothers Brothers (yes, the Smothers Brothers!) in concert at the Kennedy Center.  The purpose of it all was more than a chance for some father and son time.  It was also to see things bigger than us, larger than life, worthy of sacrifice, worthy of idealism and a passion to perfect.  

We should be part of stories larger than us that are worth learning, honoring, and sacrificing for.  And we should take the time we need to learn those stories by heart, correct them and improve them as more of their realities and more of their truths come into view.  We should practice those stories, so we can tell them well.  

But I'm not valorizing just any story here, for stories aren't life-giving just because they demand our loyalty.  Some stories are unholy, unhealthy, and untrue.  And some stories are just complicated and incomplete.  But the complicated ones can still have truth in them.  They can be worth the effort of learning and correcting and getting right.  

The story of our faith is the truly Life-giving story.  It's the one by which we measure all others.  However flawed our telling of it might be sometimes, and however much we still need to learn it, the story of our faith holds the Truth of all things.  

I don't want to equate the story of the nation with the story of faith.  A preacher should be clear about that.  But the story of the nation is still a story that matters.  It's worth our attention and care.  It's bigger than we who tell it.  And it's a story we're writing together, with a future that's still unknown.  Will we learn this story well, in all its complexities and colors?  Will we critique and improve our telling of it, even if that means telling some hard stuff?  Will we honor it by perfecting our understanding, free to know that even when it's painful it still has promise?  I hope so, for the sake of all the parents and children who walk the Mall and seek the ideals expressed there.