The Big Story

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Richard Rohr talks about the Cosmic Egg, four domes of being.

It is kind of an ethical and spiritual matryoshka doll

With smaller, more limited layers of meaning nested within

Larger, more profound layers

 

The smallest “dome” is “My Story”

Each of us has our own story

This is me

 

Me, as differentiated from all other beings

And their story

 

Not all cultures allow people to have

“My story” the way we have

This story in America (and the West in general)

 

This is the individual and individualism

It can morph into

“It is all about me”

 

A place where “My Story” is all that counts

Choices about right and wrong

Good and evil are based on one primary criterion,

How does it affect me?

 

I want lower gas prices!

Therefore, I will support a person who promises those lower prices

Even if they are a person who lies, is corrupt, greedy, predatory, and cruel

If I don’t think that person’s negative qualities will impact me, personally,

All is good!

 

Our story is the layer at which we say,

“This is us”

USA, USA, USA

 

This is groupthink

This is group loyalty, group identity

My country right or wrong

My version of Christianity versus yours

My race, my ideology, against yours

 

There is nothing wrong with either

Of these layers of meaning

It is good to have a sense of self

And a love of country

 

IF

Those layers of meaning are connected to something

Greater

Something, or someone infinite

 

Because there are “Other Stories” out there

Other people who also have a story

That is precious

 

And other groups that have

Faith systems, countries, ideologies

Different from ours

 

If we cannot accept that there are other stories

And insist that only our story is the “right” story or the “good” story

If we see others as inferior, wrong, threatening

 

We end up with ICE

And Pete Hegseth, and Donald Trump

 

What could be good about us as individuals,

And as a culture

Becomes twisted and tainted

And no longer healthy

 

What we need to realize is that we

As individuals

We as a collection of individuals

We as a gathering of different “tribes”

All participate in

 

THE STORY

The story (according to Rohr)

Consists of “the patterns that are always true” (p. 21, Things Hidden)

 

Forgiveness heals

Hate destroys

God loves all

Those who have are called to take care of those who have not

(Welcome the stranger, feed the hungry)

 

Spiritually, we must take all four “domes” seriously

We need a sense of self

We need community

We need an awareness of and respect for others

And we need to understand how we participate in the holy

 

MAGA’s big error is that it doesn’t move beyond “our story”

 

Many religions try to move to “The Story”

But neglect the importance of the individual

And the power of culture

 

And toxic individualism creates

So many ills

 

I think Jesus was on to something when he said

Love God (the story)

Love your Neighbor (our story and other stories)

And love yourself (My story)

 

We are part of the big story

Living in a diverse world with a plethora

Of beautiful stories

Joined together in community

And aware

That we, as individuals

Matter

 

It doesn’t get better than that

 

 

Others don't have to lose for us to win

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Someone else’s belonging does not require my exile.

Scot Loyd

What is the opposite of abundance? It's not scarcity. It's greed. Greed is the belief that there is not enough for everyone, so you'd better grab yours now. What is the opposite of love? It's not hate. It's fear. Fear is the belief that someone or something can hurt you.

Robert G. Allen

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Most politicians make promises.

In 1920, Warren G. Harding promised a “Return to Normalcy”

In 1928, Herbert Hoover promised “A Chicken in Every Pot and a Car in Every Garage”

In 1956, Dwight Eisenhower offered “Peace and Prosperity”

In 1988, George Bush offered a “Kinder, Gentler Nation” 

Barack Obama offered “Hope,” and Trump said he would “Make America Great Again”

Promises, promises

And now we have a President promising that if we let him stay in power

He will give every American adult $5000

The check is in the mail!

If you think about it, what most politicians do is appeal to our sense of scarcity.

They promise us what we think we don’t have

Wealth.  Power.  Safety. Hope.

A chicken in the pot.

To put it another way, they often appeal to fear (or create it)

Trump spoke to those people spooked by the emergence of a “new America” that had dared to elect a black person to the Presidency.  To a nation of people suddenly realizing that white, Christian, heterosexual, and culturally conservative was not the definitive identity of the “true American.”

Trump promised to take us “back”

Make us “backward” is more like it

He has succeeded in some horrible ways

We are such malleable people.

So easily influenced, swayed, so easily controlled.

We are afraid of “not enough”

Not enough money, food, water, housing

Not enough health care

And every leader ever (with a notable exception)

Preys on that mentality

And promises to give us what we are afraid of losing, or what we think we don’t have.

Obama promised more equality and equity to a nation controlled by white conservatives for years.

Trump promised white evangelical Christians that they would regain control of American culture.

Biden promised less Trump.

Trump promised cheaper gas and more affordable groceries (and underneath it all, white supremacy)

We truly believe, I think, that if others gain, we will lose

We have been taught that there is not enough to go around

This, by the 10% who have (and are hoarding), who control 68% of America’s wealth

By the 1% who control more than 30% of America’s resources

Someone once said (often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi), "The [Earth/world] provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed." 

What do we do with the fact that our fear, our sense of scarcity,

gives people like Donald Trump so much power?

Maybe we listen to the one guy who didn’t buy into the scarcity model

And who defined an abundant life in a far different way

Blessed are the poor

Blessed are those who mourn

The first shall be last and the last first

Sell all you have and give to the poor (are you listening, Elon?)

Jesus did not sell wealth.

Jesus sold abundance

He promised that if we could learn to trust in God

(remember the lilies of the field)

We would be set free from the scarcity mindset

And we would be able to be

Welcoming

Accepting

Generous

Forgiving

And we would be satisfied.

Remember Isaiah?

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. (55:2)

Why do we keep listening to Donald Trump

And not to Jesus?

Seems like a valid question

And I believe Walter Brueggemann was right.

The power of the future lies not in the hands of those who believe in scarcity but of those who trust God's abundance.

Lord, help us trust

Creating space

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Recently I’ve been wondering: if, when Jesus says deny yourself and follow me, that maybe it’s not about ensuring his followers are doormats. Maybe he’s inviting us to deny the part of us that wants to see itself as separate from God and others. 

Deny the self that believes that spirituality should be a suffering avoidance program.

Deny the self that always creates a list of demands.

Deny the self that is so turned in on itself that it cannot see much of anything beyond itself…

Because in the end, one aspect of the whole death and resurrection thing that Jesus promised us is the death of the false self.

But the death of the false self doesn’t feel good. In fact, Richard Rohr once wrote that “holiness never feels like holiness; it just feels like you’re dying.”…

But no matter how painful, when the unhealthy ideas and habits and identities we rely on are taken away from us, it just makes space for that which is actually real and actually holy….

Nadia Bolz-Weber. Daily Meditation, CAC, August 31, 2026

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Those who follow Jesus

Have signed on to something weird,

A path that leads not to ascent

To what is normally seen as victory and success

But to descent.

To what is normally seen as renunciation, 

Perhaps even failure and defeat.

Those who will be first must be last.

If you want to live, you have to die.

Give, if you want to receive.

Weird.

Or not.

Honestly, if I want to grow,

If I want to become a better human creature,

If I want to “move on,”

I must be continually letting go,

Continually dying.

Beginnings often can only come after endings.

If I am full of ego, for example,

Full of “me,”

(like someone we all know)

Then there is no room for other people,

No room for God.

And if there is no room for God,

Then I must become my own god

If I am too full of “victim,”

Then there is no room in my soul for self-examination;

“What about this mess I am in, is really about me, not them?”

If I can’t let go of my fear, I can’t be open to

Other people.

Change.

God’s new thing.

Maybe Jesus was on to something.

Deny the self,

Let it all go

Hand it all over.

And God will keep much of it.

But God will also hand back that which is worth keeping

And much more besides.