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COMMON GROUND:
A THEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE HUMAN STORY
PART ONE: THE STORY TELLERS
There was a man who had two sons…
there was this woman who lost a coin…
there was a shepherd who had one hundred sheep, a merchant who found
some treasure, a farmer who sowed a field…
When people asked Jesus questions about God, he would answer them with
a story and it would be their own story, for they were men and women,
mothers and fathers, shepherds and merchants. They knew all about family
tensions, things getting lost, striking a bargain, sowing a field. They knew far
more about these things than they did about theology and, if truth be told, they
were far more interested in fields and family, sheep and seeds than they were
in the study of God. So it was that Jesus would invite his audience to look for
the truth about God within the stories of their everyday lives.
People like stories. They remember stories, relate to stories, learn from
stories and share stories. They find themselves and one another in the tales
that are told.
Story will cross cultural borders. In the nineteen seventies, as the troubles
started up again in Northern Ireland, a flood of “Irish jokes” (i.e. jokes told
against the Irish people) started to circulate around our school. When a group
of German students from what was then West Germany came to visit, we
were amazed to find them telling the same jokes about the East Germans.
In the same way, the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans told exactly the
same stories about exactly the same gods, only under different names.
Stories will create relationships. We have heard of the “You- too syndrome,”
when one person will, with much hesitation, tell their story- maybe of domestic
violence, parental anxiety, hidden dreams- to a stranger, only for that stranger
to say, You too? I thought I was the only one! The sharing of stories brings us
out of isolation, as we realize that we are not alone.
Stories may hurt us. During some of the more gritty story lines in a soap
opera- such as child abuse, rape, sexual confusion- help lines are offered at
the end of each episode because it is known that the telling of a traumatic
story can revive trauma in the lives of the listeners. Yet the telling of the story
can also enable us to confront long-buried pain and, with help, move forward.
Stories have the power to entertain and, in so doing, take us “out of
ourselves.” When Scheherazade iembarked on her campaign of story-telling
in the hopes of distracting the cruel and bitter Shahryer, who was marrying a
young virgin every night and executing her in the morning, she not only saved
her own life but also saved him from wreaking revenge for his past humiliation
on himself as well as on yet more innocent victims.
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“In the Beginning,” writes C.S. Song, “were Stories, not Texts.” ii Aesop
taught morality through fables; Jesus taught theology through parables
because people identify with stories and through the sharing of story they find
common ground within cultures and even across faiths. We love our storytellers (J.K. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter is said to be worth £560 million)
far more than we love our preachers, teachers and theologians.
I am a reader of stories. I have always had my nose in a book and must have
spent at least two-thirds of my life pretending to be the heroine of the tale I am
currently reading. Although I find academic theology interesting, I seldom lose
myself in it, in the same way as I do a good story.
As a working minister then, although I continue to read academic theology, I
tend to illustrate my sermons with episodes of Dad’s Army or Only Fools and
Horses; anecdotes from Jane Eyre and Just William. When the Harry Potter
books were published I found a whole new mine of vivid tales to use. In
School Assemblies, few children ever know the answer to questions about the
Bible but if you ask about Harry Potter, a hundred hands shoot up.
“But does this,” I worried, “place me firmly in the shallow school of Christian
theology? Is “The Gospel according to Enid Blyton” about my level?”
In 21st Century UK, organized religion has become merely one aspect of life
among many: family, home, career, hobbies, holidays, church. And if “going
to church” appears to have little relevance to the other aspects of your life,
then, either for the sake of time or for the sake of integrity, you give it up.
After all, religion, since the Enlightenment, has been questioned as to its truth
and “provable” worth. In a scientific age it is felt to be naïve at best and
dangerous at worst to encourage people to believe in a God they can neither
see nor prove, especially given the political, economic and emotional power
wielded by organised religion.
Many thriving (numerically) faith communities in the UK have a tendency to be
one-dimensional: focussing almost exclusively on one’s personal relationship
with God; preaching hard-line morality and doctrinal fundamentalism;
demanding so high a level of commitment to the faith community that people
come to feel themselves “squeezed” into a faith system and lifestyle that are
alien to them.
Christian “evangelism” seems primarily to be saying, “This is God’s story. This
is our story. You must come here and become part of this story.” And people
say, “why? This story has nothing to do with me.”
When Christian theology formulates doctrines, saying, “this is truth and that is
heresy,” people nowadays say, “Why? It makes no sense to me. What is all
the fuss about?”
Today the Christian church, having been at the heart of British community life
for centuries, is finding itself marginalised. It has nothing to do with the people
who crowd our commuter trains, visit our shopping malls, stress out over our
financial crisis, dread their dependence on our NHS and worship-if they
worship anything- the celebrity of the moment.
I ask myself if there is any common ground left on which God and humanity
might still be able to meet? Is there a way of introducing people to a God who
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has something to do with them? And the answer I have examined is that of
“Story.’ Every single human being has a story of their own, so during my
sabbatical term, rather than look for ways of fitting 21 st century people into the
story of God and the church, I set myself the task of searching for God in the
human story.
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PART TWO. THE HUMAN STORY
A substantial amount of my sabbatical term was spent preparing for a Clergy
Consultation, entitled “Conversations: How do we speak about God?”
The prescribed texts for this consultation were novels written around the
themes of War and Peace, Global Warming, Social Care, Gender, Mission,
Today’s Church, Politics and Islam. The speakers at the consultation were
personally involved with these issues at a high professional level. Thus a
whole raft of stories from a variety of cultures, professions and concerns were
made available to me.
I was also able to spend time listening to people in various situations of life.
And as a minister of 28 years, I have heard a great many human stories
already.
From my hearing and from my reading, I offer a brief summary of what might
be called “The Human Story.” What was important to me was that each
statement about the human story should have at least three examples, each
from a totally different time/ culture/ genre, demonstrating the point that the
human story crosses cultures and civilizations, centuries and millennia.
I have used Biblical narratives, well-known tales from a variety of sources,
some of the prescribed texts from the Clergy Consultation and examples from
the lives I have encountered for myself.
(1) The human story is a quest for the unknown:
There was a man called Abraham, inspired by God to leave his home for a new
country and found a great nation…iii…
There was a journalist called Roland who, in the year 2000, looked round the
shopping mall in Milton Keynes asking, “is there more to life than this?” He went out
to explore different spiritualities and wrote “Shopping for God…...”iv
There was a girl called Safiya, who in the year 2011, betrayed by her life and her
lover, went on pilgrimage to Mecca in search of God and happiness…..v
There was a woman who turned up at church because she had been bereaved and
was seeking strength; a man who turned up because his business had collapsed and
was looking for guidance; a girl who turned up because she had made some huge
mistakes and needed to know that a new start was possible…...
(2) The human story is a march of progress:
There was man called Jabal who became a farmer… a man called Jubal who
learned to make music, a man called Tubal-Cain who became the forger of bronze
and iron…vi
There was a man called Watt who made engines travel by steam….a woman called
Marie who learned to see inside the human body…
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There was an engineer called Brunel, a sculptor named Michelangelo, a dramatist
called Shakespeare, a road-builder called McAdam…..
There were scientists in Cambridge developing ways of producing enough food to
feed hungry people in the Third World and musicians in Windsor learning to sing the
music of more than seven centuries……
Unlike the animal kingdom, human beings have progressed in their
knowledge and skills. But progress has not always been for the better:
There were these people who, in pride, erected a tower so tall that it seemed to
touch the sky. But the tower fell, their community was shattered and they were silent,
having nothing to say ….. vii
There were scientists who developed a weapon so powerful that it could wipe out the
entire world. Realising the threat now facing the whole of humankind, they fell silent,
having nothing to say……
There are young people South East England who excel in everything they do, yet
grow up hating themselves……
(3) The human story is a tragic tale:
There was a town named Pompei, which was buried by a volcano….
a Queen named Anne who had 17 babies, none of which survived…….
a young man called Oliver, who asked “what can you say about a twenty-four year
old girl who died?”viii
There was a young father who died of cancer; a loving couple who lost every child
they conceived; a brave old man who buried both his sons…..
(4) It is a Coming of Age story, wrestling with good and evil:
There was a man called Jacob who grew up resentful of his elder brother. He
deceived his father; cheated his brother and went on the run. But he was given a
second chance….. ix
There was an ambitious girl called Andrea who gained a post “that a million girls
would kill for.” To do this job she had to distance herself from her friends; betray her
lover; stab her colleagues in the back; worship her boss as god. But she was given a
second chance…….x
There was a young man who had realised in adolescence that his sexual inclinations
were homosexual. Determined to overcome them, he married, had children and
become a Minister in a conservative Christian church. But it had all gone wrong. He
had brought pain to his family and distress to his congregation. When I met him, he
too was “on the run” but beginning to believe that there might be a second chance ..
We acquire wisdom slowly, making many mistakes. Coming of Age is
therefore about forgiveness:
There was a man called Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery. When Joseph
became powerful, his brothers came begging for food. Joseph forgave them, fed
them and a new nation was born of that family…. xi
There was a man called Hitler, whose country was decimated by war and the
aftermath of war. He could not forgive and wreaked revenge upon the whole
world……..
There was a woman who hated her Uncle because he had cheated her mother. But
when he turned up at her mother’s funeral, she, of all the family, spoke to him
graciously because she knew that this was what her mother would have wanted…….
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And about being forgiven:
There was a man called Cheshire, horror-struck at his part in dropping the atomic
bomb on Hiroshima. He accepted forgiveness and gave his life to the care of
disabled men and women…..
There was a man called Judas who could not forgive himself for betraying his friend
to death. He went out and hanged himself….. xii
There was a person who said, “Yes, you are a b**stard, but I still love you…….”
(5) The human story is a story of relationships:
There was a man called Adam and God said “it is not good for him to be
alone…..and God created woman. xiii
So there was a family… there was a village…… there was a city…. there was a
country…..
These relationships are complex and demanding:
There was a man who had two sons; the elder was obedient; the younger, rebellious.
The younger son squandered his father’s money and the father, in love, forgave him.
But the elder son bitterly resented his father for forgiving his brother….. xiv
There was a King who had three daughters and he demanded that they speak of
their love for him. Two spoke eloquently; the third said nothing. The King was angry
at her silence but only through treachery and tragedy did he learn that the silence
spoke of greater love than words……xv
There was A, who never believed that her parents loved her….. B, who had a grownup son who refused to speak to him…… C, who lived permanently in the shadow of
the baby brother who had died one year before his birth….. D, who never sees the
grandchildren since her son lost custody of them……..
Yet love crosses social and cultural borders:
There was a King who loved a beggar maid…… a princess who loved a
woodcutter…
There was a boy called Romeo who loved a girl called Juliet but their families were
bitter enemies….xvi.
There is a young nephew of mine who declared that, “I have one white Granddad
and one black Granddad. That makes me a zebra….”
It is sacrificial:
There was a widow called Ruth who refused to leave her mother-in-law, travelling
with her to a foreign country…..xvii
There was an officer called Sassoon, who condemned the war his country fought.
But he returned to the battlefield, saying that he could not leave his men to fight
alone…..xviii
There are elderly parents caring for their disabled adult child…. partners of those
with Alzheimer’s Disease fighting to keep them at home….. volunteers in Foodbanks,
Night Shelters and Citizen’s Advice………
It seeks for justice:
There was a priest called Oscar who fed the hungry but also asked why they had no
food?
There was a man called Ghandi who, persistently yet peacefully, asked Colonial
Powers to leave the country of his people……
There are men and women who give up time and risk hostility in order to go door-todoor collecting money and raising awareness of Christian Aid……
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And it takes us by surprise:
There was a man called Abraham who looked on a city filled with the worst kinds of
wickedness, yet pleaded with God to save it….. xix
There was a hard-headed, loose living man called Schindler who wanted to save the
people his nation denounced as vermin……xx
There was a woman called Jeanette who, as puberty advanced, found herself more
attracted to women than to men……..xxi
There was a church congregation who felt strongly that babies were better in a
crèche on Sunday mornings, as worship needed stillness. When a seriously
handicapped infant, who could not be left, was brought into church, they found
themselves responding with loving care and their worship was enhanced…..
(6) The human story is an autobiography, a tale of self-discovery:
There was a man called Saul, brought up within the strict boundaries of his religion.
His life was turned around, his beliefs and lifestyle radically changed and he became
a new creature- “having nothing, yet possessing everything”………xxii
There was a woman destined to live as a luxurious, leisured lady. Her destiny instead
was on the battlefields of the Crimea, nursing wounded soldiers ……
There was a man who had made big money in big business, yet was now giving it all
up to train for Christian ministry……. a woman who thought she could never have a
child bring twins for baptism…… a young man who had spent his childhood in a
series of Foster Homes, acquiring a series of academic disasters, graduating from
the University of Cambridge………
(7) The human story is a mystery of life and death:
There was a King whose son was killed and the King wept bitterly saying “why could
I not have died for you, my son…..”xxiii
There was a man called Dietrich, condemned to death by a brutal regime. He wrote
“death is the final festival on the road to freedom.” xxiv
There was a man who could barely be called man, living 300,000 years ago. He had
no speech and no religion. Yet, as he laid the body of his mother in the ground, he
placed flowers and grave goods around her, believing that her life would go on…xxv..
There was a widower who spoke to me of the time when his wife was near to death.
It was at that time, he said, that he became convinced more than ever before of the
existence of God and of the real hope of life beyond the grave.
Physical and psychological science, history and sociology, personal and
relational experiences prove to us that every human life is unique. Yet all
human lives tell much the same stories. We live on common ground.
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PART 3. GOD IN THE HUMAN STORY
Given that it will be something of a challenge, having been brought up within
the Christian tradition, to look at the human story as an “outsider”- an alien
coming down from Mars, maybe- and to draw conclusions as to whether or
not there is a God, I offer the following conclusions from the Human Story.
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(1) The fact that human stories are so evidently cross-cultural and span vast
time zones points to a common origin. We all came from the same root.
Science tells us that anyway. It comes as no surprise. But if there is a god and
this god is, in some way, the Creator of life, then there is one God: a universal
God. We are not talking rival deities and nor are we talking racial or national
gods. There will be different experiences of this God; different interpretations
of God’s character and designs; but at the source of our being is one God,
giver of life.
(2) Unique to the human story, as opposed to other forms of life, is our march
of progress. To a certain extent, like the animal kingdom, we are at the mercy
of our genetic make up and yet to a certain extent we are not. We have the
power to change our genetic make-up; to alter the flow of evolution. We can
plan and shape our destiny. The animal kingdom is denied this choice.
No form of life is ever static. Anything that lives will grow, develop and
eventually die. Even the rocks are eroded, lifted and re-shaped. If there is a
god, then God has created life to live and move. This deity has also gifted the
human race uniquely with freedom, choice and creative power.
(3) Yet there is a human predicament: we have our visions and ambitions, our
powers and plans but they persistently fall short of the ideal. Speakers at the
Clergy Consultation on Politics, Global Warming, War and Peace, Social Care
each highlighted such issues as personal greed, muddled thinking, party
politics, economic pressure plus lack of co-operation or active aggression
from others as preventing us from creating the safe, just and peaceful world
we dream of.
The human story may be read as a march of progress yet our story is one of
wisdom learned painfully, creating innocent victims. It is one of powerstruggles, personal vendettas, blind ambition and insatiable greed, in which
our strengths become our weaknesses. Our progress is thwarted by natural
disasters and disease, which cannot easily be controlled. Our love stories are
also stories of betrayal, abuse and revenge.
The human character is complex. Many of our strongest character traits are
not necessarily “good” or “bad” in themselves but can be used in either way.
A person gifted with immense charisma might use this gift to influence others
for good or for evil. (Adolf Hitler was said to be a charismatic person) A child
who is strong-willed might either turn out to be a dynamic pillar of the
community or a small-minded bully who cannot cope with not getting his/her
own way. Our upbringing, our culture, our relationships and the events that
befall us will work upon our character either for good or for evil.
The human story reveals that, if there is a god, then God is a huge risk taker.
Life is, of its very nature, unpredictable. In creating life and in allowing life to
live, the Creator must be prepared for risk; for to take away the freedom of a
living creature is to take away the life.
(4) It has been suggested that, if there is a god, then this Being simply put life
into the world, sent the earth spinning on its evolutionary course and promptly
lost all interest in it. If there was some kind of Divine Creator, that Creator has
no present or personal involvement with human life.
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Yet the archaeological record demonstrates that human spiritual awareness
(the experience of a power greater than oneself) pre-dates organised
religion,xxvi just as surveys of people in 21st century UK demonstrate that
spiritual awareness remains prevalent amongst human beings in a largely
non-religious culture. xxvii Human beings do not have to be told to believe in
God.
V.S.Ramachandran, neuroscientist, did a study on the human brain in order to
demonstrate that our emotional, behavioural and thinking patterns were
aroused by purely physical causes. He made convincing and comprehensive
arguments yet on the final page of his book he conceded that one question
still defeats neuroscience: the fact that human beings ask, “Why are we
here?” xxviii
In a study undertaken during my previous sabbatical term (2002), I worked
with pupils at a Comprehensive School and of the pupils within that school,
barely 1% of whom would have had any contact with organized religion, 50%
admitted some kind of spiritual awareness: belief in God; a sense of the
presence of God; using prayer in times of stress; belief in life after death.
Another 25% expressed a wish to believe in God.
Not all people would call their spiritual awareness “God” or see it as proof that
God exists but human nature continues to reach out to something beyond that
which we can see and prove in the purely physically sense. It was interesting
to note that, just as belief in life after death is the first sign of spiritual
awareness in the human record, pre-dating organized religion, so belief in life
after death shows every sign of remaining in the human mindset even in what
is called a post-religious age.
(5) Yet, if there is God and if this God remains involved with human life, then,
given the human predicament, God sees a lot of things going horribly wrong.
People do terrible things to one another and to the world. The natural world
does terrible things to the human race. What is God supposed to do about it?
In the Old Testament, as in many ancient religions, prophets took the line of
calling on God to strike the evil b**stards dead. Send down a thunderbolt and
annihilate them. But this did not often happen.
The ancient tale of the Great Flood, destroying nearly all the known world was
also interpreted as God deciding to get rid of the earth and the life he had
created. Sweep it all away and start again. Yet, at the end of the story, we are
told that God makes a promise to Himself and to the human race that he will
never destroy the world. For better or worse, it will remain alive. xxix
Over and over again in the human story we see attempts to overcome evil by
annihilating those held to be responsible. It never works. All it creates is more
evil and a vicious cycle of revenge. Therefore there cannot be a god who will
simply destroy all that is wrong in the world.
(6) Perhaps a more surprising aspect of the human story is solidarity, and a
solidarity that cannot be attributed to the animal “herd instinct.” Naturally we
stand up for those related to us by birth, class, nationality-and this is laudablebut we also find ourselves standing up for those who might be thought alien to
ourselves.
Why did Siegfried Sassoon, brought up in Upper Class early 20th Century
society, in which the working classes were virtually invisible to men in his
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position, choose to return to a war he despised because he could not bear to
leave his men to fight alone? Why did he write poems expressing sympathy,
not only for families of British casualties but for grieving German mothers too?
Why did Otto Schindler, greedy, loose-living businessman in Nazi Germany
choose to save as many Jews as he could, despite having been taught that
they were vermin who deserved extinction?
When preparing a Good Friday service in the local market place, I had little
difficulty in finding both Jewish and Islamic prayers echoing the words of
Jesus: “Father, forgive and may this forgiveness become their redemption.”
One can only conclude that if there is a god, then God must stand in solidarity
with the human race. We are not talking Victor Frankenstein, who created life,
only to run away from it because it turned out terrible. If God does not stand
with the human race; if God cannot help us out of our predicament, whilst still
leaving us our essential freedom, then He is not a god worth believing in
because He is a deity less good than we are.
(7) In the human story, God is invariably known and experienced through
relationship. Within the fragility of each human life, there is a story of God
reaching out to us as we reach out to him. Our knowledge of God must
always be partial if God is “God” and therefore greater than we are but an
evolving relationship with God is traced in the testimony of innumerable
human lives. God is experienced as a living reality, in solidarity with the
human race and our story becomes a tale of saving grace.
As 21st century UK clergy, the members of the Consultation shared their
sense of confusion and ambiguity. The role that had been carved out for us in
a previous society was fast disappearing; the hard line, black-and-white
religion that appeared most popular today was not one to which we could
subscribe. Who were we? Where were we going? Our sense of ambiguity
made us feel like failures.
Yet, as we listened to our eminent speakers talking of their role in
Government, Defence, Islam, Ecology we heard exactly the same sense of
ambiguity expressed. In no area of human life were men and women totally
confident of what they were doing and where they were heading. All inhabited
complex vocations with constantly evolving visions. Life is too complicated to
be simple. It has to be lived and discovered step by step.
Faith does not and should not make life simple; it can only give us hope
through our ongoing relationship with God. By living completely in this
world….we throw ourselves into the arms of God.” xxx
(8) The human story then, might better be described as an Epic. It never
ends. There are always bends in the road, unexpected new chapters to be
written, room to ask what happens next. When Arthur Conan Doyle killed off
his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, he encountered such a storm of
protest from his readers that he was compelled to bring Holmes back again,
by a somewhat convoluted and unconvincing route. xxxi Yet in real life, there
are histories of whole nations as well as individuals whose tale appears to
have been told and completed, only to have an unexpected twist that restores
them to ongoing life again.
If the human story is an Epic then it stands to reason that God must be
encountered through an ongoing and uncompleted story. Truth unfolds as we
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move through life. Our finest theologies will never succeed in “pinning God
down” or proving his existence because it is in living our own story, step by
step, that we discover God.
The mistake humanity has made, time and time again, is that of trying to
encapsulate the truth about God within one set of doctrines formulated by one
group of people at one given time, then failing to recognise the reality of God
when encountered at an unexpected bend in the road. Refusal to accept that
our understanding of God will always be incomplete has brought about
religious wars, divisions in faith communities and rejection of faith by those
who cannot reconcile their own story with the religious “party line.”
(9) So finally, what of organized religion? Is it no more than a blot on the
human story or do our religions teach us something real about God?
Each individual human life is caught up in the vast, evolving existence of
humanity. And each individual life is inter-connected with every other life. We
all came from the same source and we remain joined to one another. Science
has demonstrated the physical proof of John Donne’s statement that “no man
is an island.” A man who says that what he does will affect no one other than
himself, is lying.
We are naturally drawn into family and into community. No one can survive
alone. Therefore, if there is a god, and if God is in some way the source of all
life, God will be known through community as well as through individual
experience.
Just as groups of people living in community have shared their skills so as to
be able to grow food, make clothes, build houses, educate children and nurse
the sick, so groups of people worshipping God as a community have shared
their stories, nurtured one another in faith, prayed together and organized a
lifestyle that they trust will draw them closer to God.
Creating relationships and creating community carry that same high level of
risk. Our children stand as much chance of inheriting the things we do not like
about ourselves as the things we do. Our marriage vows are demanding
because we know full well that there will be worse as well as better, sickness
as well as health. There will be people who enable a community to grow in
love and mutual support and people who can tear a community apart. And just
as there will be those who use the faith community to come closer to God and
to serve the world; there will also be those who use the faith community as a
means of gaining personal power over vulnerable human beings.
But without risk there can be no life. Without community we cannot live.
Religions have encouraged human beings to explore their natural longings for
God, to sift out what is true and what is false about life, to use the space and
time offered in which to encounter God. Few people have succeeded in
maintaining a strong, life-changing faith without the support of a faith
community.
The human story demonstrates that God is indeed found within religion,
although never bounded by religion. The most powerful human testimonies to
the reality of God tend to be those in which God breaks the boundaries of
religion, as we have known it and moves us on to something new.
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PART 4. THE STORY OF JESUS
Within the human record lies the story of Jesus Christ.
That he was an historical character is undeniable.
That he was a good and “godly” man is widely accepted.
That he had a powerful influence on the people he encountered, powerful
enough to change the course of history is undoubtedly true.
Everything else we “know” about him is down to what other people have said
and written, interpreted and experienced and so is up for question.
Again, knowing full well that, as a Christian minister, I cannot be totally
impartial, I offer the following statements on what we learn about God from
the human story as lived by Jesus Christ.
(1) The Fourth Gospel, written for a multi-cultural society, begins on common
ground with The Logos. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was
with God and the Word was God. Through him all things came to be.”xxxii
The Word (Logos) was a term understood by Greeks, Jews and Romans
alike. It meant the fundamental principle at the heart of all life. It was the spirit
of God as it worked through the life of the world.
The Fourth Gospel then was inviting the people of the known world to see in
Jesus Christ the reality of God within their own story. Jesus Christ had a
crucial significance for men and women in the place where they were. His
role was not confined to one race or one religion. He was relevant to all who
truly sought for God.
And sifting through the stories of Jesus, it becomes clear that he was a “multicultural” person. He mixed with people of different races and different
religions, speaking to them of God through the stories of their lives and
bringing God to them through the circumstances of their lives.
(2) When encountering Jesus, many men and women believed that they were
encountering “The Logos”- the living reality of God- and this was a lifechanging experience.
Our story is an autobiography, each of us creating our own narrative. Those
who cannot accept that they have a story worth creating and sharing are
those who take paths of self-destruction or who allow themselves to be
destroyed by others. But if in Jesus Christ there was an incarnation of God
(God in a physical existence), then Jesus Christ affirms the holiness and
worth of every human life. We are not random bundles of atoms, existing in a
random world. We have a divinity in us. In our uniqueness we discover God
within our own experience, our own relationships, even our own pain and
sinfulness.
The stories told of Jesus, stress his love for the people cast out by society and
his restoring of self-worth to those who had given up on themselves.
“To those who believed in Him, he gave power to become children of
God.”xxxiii
(3) In the face of evil and suffering, many declare the human story to be a
“tale told by an idiot.”xxxiv Our story might be read as a Greek Tragedy; a
drama in which men and women are the helpless victims of dark forces
12
beyond their control. For many this is reason enough to deny the existence of
God or at least a God of love.
In the story of Jesus Christ we are told of a love that proved stronger than
hatred; a forgiving power able to heal and renew; a personal sacrifice offered
for the life of the world and a life force that was stronger than death.
The greatest mystery in the human story is death and the greatest tragedy is
unexplained suffering. If then, we encounter God in this man who sacrificed
himself to suffering and death, overcoming evil and destruction then our tale
becomes a Redemption History rather than a Dramatic Tragedy.
For in the first place it demonstrates that God does not abandon us to struggle
alone. “The Gospel means “solidarity”- the steadfast sharing of creation’s pain
by the Creator. Solidarity, we have grown increasingly to realise, is not just
sentiment. It is a tool kit for survival.” xxxv If God is with us in the fight against
evil and suffering then we have hope because the struggle is not entirely
down to us.
In the second place, the story of Jesus gives some shape and meaning to
stories of human suffering. Suffering is not “deserved” by the sufferer and nor
is it deliberately inflicted by God. But suffering borne bravely or taken on
willingly for the sake of others brings goodness and godliness into the world;
thus benefitting the whole of the human race.
In the third place, the human story demonstrates over and over again that the
best and greatest things in life are only achieved through sacrifice: groundbreaking discoveries demand the sacrifice of immense time and energy;
loving relationships literally cost you your life; peace and justice can seldom
be won without bloodshed. Sacrifice is built into the fabric of human life. Jesus
himself said that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it
cannot produce fruit. xxxvi If the existence of God is also sacrificial, then this
gives a greater and higher purpose to that which is demanded of us.
And finally, in the story of Jesus we are offered hope of immortality. Even in
the face of tragedy, there is hope for a life beyond that which we know now.
The deep-rooted hope for life beyond death, present even in Neanderthal
man, was affirmed by Jesus Christ.
(4) At the time when Jesus lived, organised religion was fighting for its life.
The Romans were getting to the point when only the Emperor could be
acknowledged as “God” and devout Jews were becoming either very weary or
increasingly hard-line in their faith. As with the Christian church today, God
had little or nothing to do with the roman soldiers enforcing the peace, the
wealthy citizens creating Ideal Home, the shepherds and carpenters made
poor by high taxes, the women confined to the house, the teachers of religion
fussily measuring out the tithes of mint and cumin.
People asked Jesus to teach them about God, about prayer, about good and
right living. In response, he told them their own stories and invited them to
work out for themselves how their story reflected God’s story. In this way, faith
became a means of fitting life together, of understanding its basic unity.
Religion was not a matter of over-inflating one aspect of life above all others,
leading to power struggles, fundamentalism and a refusal to engage with
changing cultures but a communal exploration of God, of His relationship with
humanity and of human relationships one with another.
13
God was in the fields and market places; in the corridors of power and the taxgathers booths; in the sick and suffering and even in the crucified victims.
Religion was about bringing all of this together rather than about shutting it all
out in order to focus exclusively on ritual and theology.
Jesus Christ was not only a Story Teller; he was himself a Living Story in
which the story of God and the story of human life came together, each
making sense of each other.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
PART 5. STORY, CULTURE AND THEOLOGY
Timothy Gorringe, writing of Western Christian missions to non-western
cultures, wrote, “The Gospel not only converts other cultures but needs to be
opened up to other cultures to attain fullness of meaning.” xxxvii
Neither story, nor culture nor theology is a static system into which the other
elements need to be fitted. Each is a fluid element, inspired and shaped by
the others.
Our theologies and religious traditions are precious. They arise from the
stories of our ancestors in faith. They have been tried and tested. They have
shaped and nurtured our own faith journeys and the culture in which we live.
They cannot and should not lightly be cast aside.
Children entering adolescence will reject their parents’ rituals and traditions as
“nothing to do with me” only to return to them later in life, recognising their
validity. But this time the traditions will have been worked out in their own
story and never remain precisely the same. And if children and parents grow
in their relationship, the period of rebellion moves into a period of shared
reflection, which in turn moves into fresh understanding for both generations.
The Christian Church may learn and re-shape our theologies from the stories
of twenty-first century life. From what I have seen, read and heard, I offer the
following examples of story, culture and theology shaping each other.
(1) In modern literature, Michale Arditti’s novel “Jubilate,” xxxviiitells of two
people experiencing a miracle of new life, love and faith despite their religion.
Their own stories contradicted much of what their religion had taught them
about God, yet their experience of God brings healing, hope and renewed
faith. The challenge at the end of the book is whether their religion will be able
to embrace their stories. It will be no simple process because these stories
contradict much of what their religion teaches of moral and religious
behaviour.
The church has faced huge challenges over the last century with regard to its
teaching on human morality. When it comes to divorce and remarriage,
children born out of wedlock, same-sex partnerships, baptism or burial of
those who cannot even be said to be Christian “by default,” what do we do?
Do we hold fast to the moral standards of the past, believing them to be of
God? Or do we allow our moral theology to be dictated solely by the social
mores of the moment?
14
Jesus said that the “wind blows where it wills….so it is with those who are
born of the Spirit.” xxxix Faith and new life are found in lives that do not
conform to the standards of organised religion. Yet the Spirit- according to St
Paul- is about love and loyalty, gentleness and goodness, not about a selfish
desire to please only oneself. We are back in the area of ambiguity again and
what the church is compelled to learn is that we need to allow time to listen to
people’s stories. There is no black-and-white morality and no “one size fits
all,” save perhaps the requirement to love one another. The stories of Vincent
and Gillian, Patricia and Richard in “Jubilate” will cause their priests a great
deal of prayer and heart-searching but also, one trusts, a huge increase in
hope and renewed faith in the loving power of God.
(2) In modern drama, the Preston Passion, filmed for Good Friday 2012,
showed scenes from Preston’s own history alongside the Passion Narratives:
a Victorian Lord Mayor, faced with the leader of striking mill workers and
powerful mill owners who wanted to get rid of him; World War One mothers,
waiting to hear if their sons had been killed in action; a twelve year old girl
caring for younger siblings, yet loving her alcoholic mother.
I have to say that for me, the Preston Passion for me brought the Good Friday
Story into new and vivid life. The story of Christ was shown to be the story of
the people of Preston and the story of all suffering, sacrificial human lives.
In the telling of these people’s own story alongside the Gospel story, both took
on a whole new dimension. The Preston Passion was not in any way “an
idiot’s guide to the Gospel” telling a little story to help make the point. Both
sets of stories gave each other new life and new depth of meaning. God’s
story and your story come together.
We need to do more of this. The church needs people living and working in
the local community to share the stories they hear and live. Curiously, in my
church, the Service on Remembrance Sunday is the most well attended
service in the whole year, exceeding both Christmas and Easter. Is this a
case of people recognising Remembrance Sunday as something to do with
us? Is it about soldiers they have known or heard of; families who still bear the
scars of a war fought seventy years ago; questions now being asked as to
whether recent conflicts are justified? And are we called here to trace our
most confusing and tragic stories with God’s story?
(3) In a modern “Theology of “Radical Welcome”xl the Reverend Stephanie
Sellars suggested an understanding of welcome taking us far beyond the
usual greeting- visitors- to- church- with- a- smile-in-the-name-of-Jesus.
Sellars argues that “Christian Welcome” is not only about making people
welcome and comfortable in our services of worship; it is not only about
making a point of inviting people “not like the rest of us” to come into our
churches; it is not only about making people from outside the church welcome
inside the church in the hopes that we can make them just like us.
Radical Welcome is about being ready to allow “the other” to come in and
change us, to bring their story into our faith community, believing that we shall
enable one another to learn more of God. By embracing “the other” we
become the recipients as well as the transmitters of God’s truth.
15
It is a daunting challenge. We are by nature drawn into community with
people most like ourselves. In a frighteningly fast-changing world, the church
can feel like the last place of safety and security left to us.
And again, there is the element of risk. Different kinds of people may –as has
been known- enable a church community to grow and flourish into a whole
new, vibrant way of life and worship. But it can also happen that different
people can come into a church community, succeed only in alienating those
there already and then move on, leaving a broken congregation.
Some years ago, a town centre church where I worked was the target of
persistent vandalism by local young people. As committed and weary
volunteers swept up the broken glass yet again, we held a day of prayer.
Without intending to, I found myself praying- please God, do not let these
young vandals go away. Keep them here until we have learned what you
need us to learn from them.
The result was a youth project in conjunction with the Local Authority, set up
on the church premises. Has it brought new life to the church? Some say
“yes;” some say “no;” some say “maybe one day.” But no one says that the
risk was not worth taking.
(4) When coming to my present church, I found myself presented with a new
Liturgical journey. There are seven Scouting and Guiding groups in the church
and a monthly parade service at which they and their families join the regular
congregation. I got into the habit of inviting each group in turn to join me in
preparing a parade service. I meet with them three times, never with any plan
in my head beyond a basic theme or a reading from the Lectionary. I have
learned how to encourage them to talk; I have learned how to listen to what
they have to say and never yet have they failed to find something important,
something inspirational and something new to share with the congregation.
We have learned to find God in the stories of these children, whether these be
stories of families, football, relationships, heroes and villains, war and peace.
We have learned to worship God in their language and to encounter the living
Word of God in their words. Whatever the short or long-term effect on the
group members, these Church Parades are a gift from God to me given
through these youngsters.
I have been trained as a worship leader but throughout my years of ministry I
have learned that without engagement with the people in church; without
giving time to listen to them; I will have nothing to say that is worth hearing
from the pulpit. We need to allow story to feed our theology and shape our
liturgy. For, as Timothy Gorringe wrote, “Our Mission is to relate God’s history
of shared identity with people’s history of shared identity.”xli
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
PART 6. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO……?
The twenty-first century equivalent of Scheherazade’s 1001 Arabian Nights is
the Soap Opera. Like Scheherazade, the scriptwriters know precisely where
to make a break in a story line so that the viewers will return to the television
tomorrow in order to see what happens.
16
Many of the story lines in Soap Opera are at least 50% pure cloud cuckoo
land, which has its own dangers to impressionable minds. But there are also
story lines known to resonate in the lives of the viewers and to exert a
powerful influence over them. Politicians openly admit that, when social
opinions are felt to need guiding in such controversial matters as racism,
sexuality, medical ethics or religion, the most effective way of shaping public
opinion is known to be via a dramatic soap story. The responsibility of the
Story Teller for good or for evil is a high one.
Being a Christian Minister, I cannot accept a secular culture as the best way
forward for the human race. Despite the undoubted abuses of organised
religion, without faith men and women are spiritually dead and incomplete
human beings. With nothing higher than ourselves to look to, we are in grave
danger of sinking either into megalomania or despair.
In searching for some common ground where faith and modern life may meet;
common ground for a multi-cultural nation; common ground for all kinds and
conditions of humanity, I have suggested that this common ground is the
human story and that God is known as we look for the sacred in the story.
Might it not be argued though, that Story Theology is subjective, cases of
“believe what you want to believe? Create whatever god you want?” Do we
simply end up creating gods in our own likeness?
But the human story, when shared, gives us a sense of not being alone. It has
the power to lift us out of our own introspection and into other people’s stories.
In the sharing of our stories we are challenged and changed. We are not
permitted to create and to keep our own small, personal gods.
It might still be feared though that, if a whole group of people shares a story of
hatred, past pain or racial superiority, you end up with terrorism or Nazism. Or
if a group of people shares stories of fear, personal inadequacy and powerhunger, they might work each other up into a fundamentalist religion that is
harsh and destructive.
But I would argue that these situations arise not because we allow the human
story too much influence but too little. The cross-cultural nature of the human
story should promote solidarity and sympathy with other races. It should have
the power to draw us out of social or religious ghettos.
And neither should Story Theology be classed as Humanism. It is about divine
revelation. I have argued from the human record that God reveals his nature
and self to women and men in the places where they are; through their own
stories, both individual and communal. The continuing evidence of human
spiritual awareness bears this out. We reach out to a higher power than our
own. And surely, if we are committed to searching for the living God within the
whole human story and not simply grabbing at one narrow creed to affirm our
own particular desires at one given time, we can trust the living God to be
discovered and understood.
There remains undoubtedly a challenge of determining what is divine
revelation and what is not. Hearing mysterious voices in one’s head is taken
as sign of mental illness rather than divine visitation in 21 st Century Britain.
And we cannot deny that some of the so-called “divine commands” in the Old
17
Testament amount to ethnic cleansing on an horrific scale and those
perpetrating them would today end up in The Hague charged with War
Crimes. The means of answering this challenge, I suggest, lie in the way we
use our faith communities and in the way we use our sacred texts.
People need safe and affirming space in which to share their stories and to
test their experiences. They need to be part of a community in order not to fall
into isolation and self-obsession. The role of the faith community then, is first
to offer this space and this fellowship in the exploring of stories; second to
offer people the opportunity to explore the story of God and discover where
their own story fits in, that they may “set their lives within the context of
renewing gracexlii;” third, to relate and then proclaim the story of God to the
world, keeping faith alive and relevant; and fourth, being inspired by the story
of God in the world, to speak out prophetically against political, environmental,
social and cultural stories that are corrupt and untrue.
The way we use our sacred texts is a controversial topic in many religions.
Do we take them as being literally “the word of God,” and so insist they be
read at face value, no matter how alien they appear to modern ways of
thinking? Or do we view them as critically as we would view any other ancient
texts, thus putting ourselves in danger of watering down or abandoning the
divine truths within them?
In the church where I minister we have members at both ends of the
theological spectrum, plus a whole lot more who are somewhere in between.
In a life and worship project to re-engage with the Bible, we found it possible
to view the Bible as a Diary, seeing it as an ongoing record of what people
had discovered about God over many hundreds of years. This did not make
the text any less “divine” because it remained the story of the human
experience of God and God’s self-revelation. But it also allowed for elements
of the human situation in which each entry was recorded, to be
acknowledged.
There is the risk, of course, that Biblical interpretation will simply be steered
by what people happen to want or think they want at any given time. Yet texts
in the Bible have been used in their literal sense to support Henry 8 th’s
divorce, slavery, apartheid and the Holocaust. Hence I would argue again
that Biblical interpretation, faith community and the human story should be
allowed to shape each other.
Take the example of the current debate on human sexuality. Social and
political voices are declaring the right of gay couples to be married and
pressure is being put on the Christian church to affirm this and extend the
privilege of a Christian marriage ceremony to same-sex partnerships.
To date, no one Christian denomination has leaped straight in and said,
“because our current society declares than homosexual relationships are as
natural as hetero, we shall, as a church, affirm this.”
And despite the hostile media coverage, few mainstream Christian
denominations have actually said, “because our scriptures and our traditions
condemn homosexuality, we shall have nothing to do with this.”
What is actually happening is that Christian leaders and congregations are
listening to the stories of the sexuality of real life gay men and women and
18
their families; they are re-examining the texts of the Bible to discern the right
interpretation for today’s world; they are taking time to discuss the matter
thoroughly and respectfully with each other; and they are giving time to
prayer. The human story, the Bible story and the faith community story are
allowed to work together in discerning the will of God.
The media may sneer but the men and women of our country will respect us
more for giving time and effort to thinking this subject through than they would
if we simply caved in to public pressure. Despite the fears of religious
fundamentalism, nobody has ever respected a faith community that has
allowed itself to be moulded like Play-Doh by the ruling bodies of the age.
Ros Asquith, writing as a fictional teenager, “Letty Chubb,” highlights the
need, even in this day and age, for some kind of spiritual direction:
For moiself I am inclined to think that while a lot of V. Horrible things have
certainly been done in the name of various kinds of gods, a lot of V. Horrible
things have also been done in the name of Yuman Beings, people treated as
if they were gods, viz: Hitler etc. Maybe this means we do have a need to give
ourselves up to something beyond the werld inside our own Hedz, and which
makes us Feel United With Others, and praps it’s better if we accept that and
try to do something positive with it, rather than forgetting about it until the next
shouting loony shows up with a uniform and a gun. I believe that most
SUCCESSful people have some kind of spiritual life, as it is V. Nourishing and
can take them away from the rigours of the workplace etc. xliii
Story Theology is not just about us, but about God in the human story. It is not
about creating gods in our own image but about recognizing the God who
gave us his image.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
PART 7: THE NEXT CHAPTER
So what happens next?
It was a huge challenge finding opportunities to do the “field research” for this
sabbatical project. All I wanted was the opportunity to listen to people talk- in
the workplace or in the places of meeting or in the spaces where they came
for help. But people have learned to be highly suspicious both of listeners and
of religion. One of the greatest changes I have noticed over twenty-eight
years of ministry is that Christian ministers no longer have automatic access
to community places.
It is all very well then to say that the church must learn to engage more with
the human story but how do we do that when people do not want to talk to us,
much less come to church services, no matter what the service is about?
Maybe a good place to start is by learning how to listen to God. I doubt very
much if I am the only person who has a tendency, when praying, to present
God with a to-do list. ….. Rather than asking God to fulfill my vision for the
church, I should be asking God to show me His vision for the church. And,
going by the stories I have heard, when God gives a vision, God also shows
us how to make it happen.
19
In the story of the Samaritans, we hear of Chad Varah, vicar of a badly
damaged city-centre church, using the few opportunities open to him: a
telephone, a vestry, a handful of people needing to talk, and another handful
offering tea, biscuits, plus some unexpected listening skills. The rest, as they
say, is history…..
Everyone has an opportunity somewhere. On my church premises, at least
thirteen church-sponsored groups meet. Most of the people who attend are
not churchgoers but I do have the right to enter these groups and listen to
their stories. That is surely enough to be going on with……
Perhaps it is the mindset that presents the challenge: the “missionary
mindset” that views each person as a potential convert and talks with them
only in the hope of getting them to church; listening to the stories of the home
and the workplace only as a preliminary to moving on to God. And if this is the
line you take, you find that people start to avoid you.
Or the “Minister mindset” that places the church and the needs of its members
far higher on the to-do list than the people in the community groups, meaning
that there is seldom enough time to listen because there is always another
church matter needing attention.
However if the mindset is more that of Incarnational Theology, acknowledging
that God is to be found in the human story, then every human encounter is an
encounter with God. Listening to the stories of those who meet on our
premises will feed our faith and our understanding, whether these people ever
come to a church service or not. It will be time well spent and ministry well
fed.
Maybe the mindset of church members needs some similar encouragement.
Christians demonstrate a tendency to separate “god-stuff” from “ordinary lifestuff.” “Finding God in the workplace” means preaching to your colleagues
and that scares most people stiff. Chatting with a neighbour, listening to the
person next to you in the Doctor’s waiting room, engaging in discussions
about workplace issues does not count as “God-stuff.” God-stuff is seen as
synonymous with “church stuff,” which means that it is yet one more thing to
be squeezed into a busy life and we are right back where we started…..
If Story theology can become part of the Christian understanding then church
members can recognize something of God in every story they hear and allow
these stories to enhance their understanding of God and their part in his story.
The theology of Radical Welcome will also become a whole lot less
threatening if we have learned to look for God in the story of the Other.
One last story: throughout the many series of “Only Fools and Horses,” Delboy longs to live the story of a millionaire. He resents the fact that his story is
that of an unauthorised trader, struggling to make a living, driving a threewheeled van. He wants his story to be that of a wealthy man, living in a
mansion and driving a Ferrari.
Finally, and unbelievably, his dream comes true. He becomes a millionaire
and lives a life of luxury. At first it is all wonderful but then he admits that he
misses the wheeling and dealing; the excitement of “the chase;” the thrill of
the unexpected bargain. xliv The story Del had really wanted to live all those
years was in fact his own.
20
And this is perhaps the most important message for the church to hear- that
we have a story of our own and that our story is not that of a business or a
social programme or a celebrity promotion. One of the speakers at the Clergy
Consultation said that before the church could move on to something new, it
needed to go back and rediscover its original roots: a faith community called
to celebrate and to share the story of God in Jesus Christ with the world.
Jesus said that happy people were those faithfully found to be doing the work
to which God had called them. He never really bothered to quantify “success”
as we understand it.
Maybe, at the end of my sabbatical study, this is what I too most need to hear:
that I have a story of my own to live out; a story that is uniquely mine and in
which I too encounter God. There is no need for me to try to live anyone’s
story other than my own. There is no need for me to perform anyone’s
ministry other than my own.
As I find God in my story, so I shall find God in the stories of others. And as I
find God in the stories of others, so I shall find God in my own.
There was a man who had two sons…
there was this woman who lost a coin…
there was a shepherd who had one hundred sheep, a merchant who found
some treasure, a farmer who sowed a field…
Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.
The story of God and the human story are one.
Jennifer Millington. August 2013
i
1001 Arabian Nights
ii Song,C.S. In the Beginning were stories, not texts. Story Theology 2011 Cascade Books
iii
Genesis 12, verses 1-3
iv Howard, Roland. Shopping For God. 200l. HarperCollins
v Hussein, Safiya. Three Thousand Miles for a Wish.2011. New Age Publishers.
vi
Genesis 4, verses 19-22
vii
Genesis 11, verses 1-9
viii Segal, Erich. Love Story. 1970. Hodder Paperbacks.
ix
Genesis 27 and 28
x The Devil Wears Prada. 2006. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
xi
Genesis 45, verses 1-11
xii
Matthew 27, verses 1-5
xiii
Genesis 2, verses 2-24
xiv
Luke 15, verses 11-31
xv Shakespeare, William. King Lear.
xvi Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet
xvii
Ruth 1, verses 1-18
xviii Barker, Pat. Regeneration. 1991. Penguin Books.
xix
Genesis 18, verses 16-33
xx Schindler’s List. 1993. Universal Pictures.
21
xxi Winterton, Jeannette. Why be Happy when you Could be Normal? 2011 Jonathan Cape
xxii
Acts 9, verses 1-16; 2 Corinthians 6, verse 10
xxiii
2 Samuel 18, verse 33
xxiv Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters and Papers from Prison. 1953 SCM
xxv
Gowlett, John A. Ascent to Civilization. 1992. Mcgraw-Hill. Gowlett demonstrated that
Neanderthal men and women were known to have buried their dead.
xxvi
Gowlett, John A. Ascent to Civilization. 1992. Mcgraw-Hill
xxvii
Hay, David. Something There. 2006. DLT
xxviii
Ramachandran, V.S. and Blakeslee Sandra. Phantoms in the Brain. 1998 Harper Collins.
xxix
Genesis 8, verses 21-22
xxx
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters and Papers from prison. 1953 SCM
xxxi
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Return of Sherlock Holmes
xxxii
The Gospel of John chapter 1
xxxiii
John 1, verse 12
xxxiv Shakespeare, William. Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 4.
xxxv Gorringe, Timothy. Furthering Humanity. A Theology of Culture. 2004. Ashgate.
xxxvi
John 12, verse 24
xxxvii
Gorringe, Timothy. Furthering Humanity. A Theology of Culture. 2004 Ashgate
xxxviii Arditti, Michael. Jubilate. 2011. Arcadia Books
xxxix
The Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 8
xl Sellars, Stephanie. Radical Welcome.2006 Church Publishing Incorporated.
xli Gorringe, Timothy. Furthering Humanity. A Theology of Culture. 2004 Ashgate
xlii
Book of Common Order. (Liturgy of the Church of Scotland)
xliii
Asquith, Ros. The Teenage Worriers Pocket Collection. Corgi 1998
xliv
Only Fools and Horses. “Time on our Hands.”