On the Road

Thanks to Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler for their works.

The Hero's Journey.  This is where I have been prospecting for revelation.  What is it?  It is the result of research.  It is the common essence extracted from the myths, legends, folklore and fairytale of many cultures around the world.  I've been going on the basis that the Hero's Journey is common throughout ages, places and cultures because it is somehow intrinsically present in the human nature.  My assumption, given that it speaks so richly of God's own actions, and resonates so strongly in His image bearers, is that this structure of story is God-inspired; God's plan, law and good news wrought in the hearts of men.  Everywhere.  Deep truths require the language of story, and Story has a heart, a fundamental core which has it's origin in The Origin, The Author.

It is a journey and it is a journey of transformation.  Transformation of the person though sacrifice; ultimate sacrifice; death- for a greater cause.  This is what rings in the human soul, it is our highest self, it is some dynamic part of the image of our maker, for the Hero's Journey is His journey, and the repeating journey of every human being.

So let me take you through the content of this thing.  It will be familiar, because you have followed this path yourself, many times.  It is also sewn into the stories we're told, through paper, voice and screen, because the Hero's Journey speaks to the soul.  There are twelve stages to the Journey, which the hero undergoes on the road of change.  Who is the hero?  The One who is Transformed, who makes sacrifice for the many and who on the journey deals with death.

1. The ordinary world is where we begin, but in this life there is an unspoken imbalance, the suppressed niggle of incompleteness.

2. The call to adventure comes when the balance is finally tipped.  Something's wrong, the hero needs to act.

3. But instead there is refusal of the call.  Who comes quietly when they really have to leave their comfort zone, and when sacrifice is finally a present possibility?

4. Meeting with the mentor provides the required kick and equipping for the adventure.  But..

5. Crossing the threshold requires the hero to overcome a guardian, by absorbing and redirecting their power the hero enters a special world of new rules and powers.

6. The special world has both allies and enemies to be identified, and challenges that test the hero's true character.  The stakes keep rising as the journey goes on.

7. But even this special world has an innermost cave, where the hero must venture to reach their goal.  This is the approach.

8. And in the deep dark of the innermost cave the hero finally undergoes the ordeal of sacrifice, dealing with death itself, but finding a rebirth.

9. And the ordeal wins them the opportunity to seize the sword, grab the prize and reflect on their rebirth from death itself.

10. But there is a greater cause still at steak, the prize must be taken home, so the hero must begin along the road back.

11. The battle isn't done, however.  The greatest confrontation takes place in Resurrection, where the final victory is sealed and the trouble overcome.

12. Finally the hero can return with the elixir to the ordinary world.  Bringing a gift of life and revelation and the fruit of transformation.

Surely the language, the wise truth, the blatant Jesus-ness has struck you?!  Sacrifice and suffering, death and rebirth, the elixir of life..   It is The Story.  God's Story.  Creation's Story as His subject.  Jesus's story as God in Matter and as our model, our leader, our example, our Way, our Reality, our Life.

Our story.  As we follow.

In fact it is played out like some fractal form in the realm of spirit.  Through ages, generations, lifetimes and moments it is played out as the journey of transformation.  Each lesson and adventure is woven of these incidents.

What does this mean?

1)  The Hero's Journey is all about transformation; God has changed.  Unchangeable, yes, but free to change- of course.  And He has chosen to.  His character remains, but now there is flesh on the Throne and humanity in the Trinity.  God has changed in order to regain us and we are called to follow.

2)  Our identity grows from our willingness to go on the adventure of engaging with our Origin and Destiny.  Life in contact with God is our Special World, where the very Life Force, the Essential Spark meets with us, flows through us and resides in us.  He makes us and remakes us.  He breathes life.  He Names us and He Chooses us.  A Hero is Chosen.  You are a chosen hero, called on a dangerous adventure of transformation in communion with The Maker. 

3)  Our purpose flows from the Journey of the World.  God's inevitable plan is that All Things will be transformed and made New.  Our purpose, our Road Back is to excercise this transformation in our world.

4)  Of course, this gives us insight into the practical things.  The Journey tells us that even the best heralded call to adventure will typically be refused, and the mentor is needed to catalyse a decision to act.  When we're Called the most normal and natural response is to deny it and carry on.  But how many mentors are involved in really early discipleship; before any decision..?  What on earth do we expect after people get baptised..?  Tests?  Allies?  Enemies?  They are all to be expected on entering the Special World.

But now to my question from the beginning;

Where are we now?

What is the context to "unanswered" prayer?  Why, when we believe God is all good and all powerful, and some things are just good, like healing and finding and loving?  What's the back story to this world around us; the horrific sick distortion, hatred and hurt and the miraculous radical uncompromising unbounded intricate and elaborate action of God seemingly randomly distributed and in such close proximity?

I believe that we are on the Road Back.  So, a little more flesh on the bones of this leg of the journey:

The road back follows seizing the sword.  That's the moment when you realise you are reborn, you've made it, come through the ordeal and now you sit, fresh and unburdened, on the edge of the alter, a new creation with the prize in your grasp.  You know that moment in the film, when the hero has apparently been overcome by their arch enemy but now, somehow, miraculously after all was lost, they have returned from the brink, or maybe even beyond it.  But now they realise that the job isn't finished, they must get back, rescue the captives, escape the enemy base, difuse the bomb, save the day or save the world.  Then comes the chase.  The crippled but maddened enemy lashes out in a final attack, often more vicious than before.  Now they are really threatened, their empire  crumbling around them already. They make one last ditch attempt on the life of the hero and their now hopeless ambitions.  The hero runs to win the Greater Cause, the enemy pursues. 

On the road back, the hero has to throw everything they've got back at the enemy simply to buy time to make good.  In myths and fairytales, the gifts of the special world often transform magically into great obstacles to the enemy as the hero casts everything down in the chase.  The Road Back follows the great crisis of the story, but it is only the final ascent to the climax to follow; the greatest conflict and the great refining of the hero.

So what?

This is the bit I find the hardest - conclusions.  Here's my start.  

1)  We're on the road back, not the home straight.  The crisis of redemption has taken place, but the climax is to come, followed by the final fruit.  It isn't an easy ride from Easter to New Heaven and Earth.  His Kingdom breaks in but this is not the final conversion.

2)  On the road back, a prize stolen is followed by fierce retribution, a prize divinely bestowed is accompanied by provision.  Our reconciliation and redemption are both; we have been snatched from death and decay, and through Jesus' sacrifice the Father joyfully calls us His very own.  What can we expect but ferocious attack and abundant treasure.  The present is the most extreme, intense time point in all history, and the intensity increases.  Sparks are flying as Love and sin clash, and we occupy the threshold.

3)  God has chosen the Heroic Way.  He will transform the world but through His own transformation and sacrifice.  He will not overpower Creation, but instead He has become it.
His road back, His re-commission to the cause of Creation, is to make His Church His bride, in unity with His Spirit; bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh.

God is love.  And with Him it is always personal.  His work in the world starts in us, our own transformation comes first.  We are called to die to our ego and follow Him before anything else.  His priority is the person.  But then we follow His way to join in His transformation of the World; through Love, the sacrifice of self for the thriving of another, we will invert the order of this plane.

It is confoundingly powerful and offensive, love and sacrifice subvert the occupying empire.  We are rebels of the revolution, the exiles reclaiming the land.  We are insighters of civil rest.  We can expect marvelous things but the base condition is still the mess.  We deal with life and death.  We draw from the deep.

And nothing sacrificed is wasted. 

His Kingdom will burst into this horribly wrenched world where we go.  Expect suffering, expect joy.  Expect brokenness and expect healing.  Expect to loose and expect to win.  Expect death, expect life, expect Resurrection.  Expect the whole world to be turned upside down and inside out on itself.  Expect to be transformed.  Expect change.

Watch the seed that falls to the ground and sprouts fresh new life.  Watch the tiny sparrows, when their heads rest in the dust it is counted.  Watch out because this world was created good and the Good Creator has launched His rescue mission. 

We are God's very children, called to know Him and sent out to do what He does.  He is the Hero of the World, and He is our Way.  Our reality, and our Life!