ISSUE No. 52 | DECEMBER 2024
WELCOME
If you’re new to CULTIVARE we welcome you! CULTIVARE is a monthly field guide for life and faith, brought to you by TEND. Each month we explore a specific “field” – a topic or theme through which we seek to cultivate contemplation, engagement, and deeper understanding. Our guiding questions are:
What are you cultivating in your life?
What fruit do you want your life to bear?
Each issue of CULTIVARE is structured into three parts:
Cultivate: Examines a specific “Field” or facet of life and offers questions to unearth and challenge our held perspective; along with concise kernels of truth which we call “Seeds.”
Irrigate: Explores the ways we nurture our understanding, which varies from individual to individual. We offer six means of irrigation: Art, Poetry, Profile, Film, Essay, and Books.
Germinate: Encourages practical ways to engage in becoming more fruitful and free in our lives.
Our name, CULTIVARE, in Spanish means “I will cultivate.” We hope each issue of our field guide will encourage you to do just that – cultivate new thoughts, actions, faith, hope, and fruitful living. We invite you to dig in and DIG DEEP!
FIELD
For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field.
(I Corinthians 3:9)
Our theme this month is STORY. In a month that celebrates the birth of Jesus, we spotlight the power of stories and the formative role they serve in our lives. What stories have had a significant and meaningful impact in your life?
A significant story in my life occurred my sophomore year in high school. I served as a teaching assistant in a class of three-year olds each Sunday at church. I found the experience to be amusing, as the toddlers often did things that were quite funny. Christmas time came and the master teacher, the beloved Esther Brown, set up the flannel board and began to tell the Christmas story in simple language to her very young audience. After placing Mary and Joseph on the flannel board she placed baby Jesus on the board noting that Mary had wrapped the baby in “soft cloth.” At this point one of the girls shouted out “Swaddling!” A surprised Esther nodded, “Yes! Swaddling clothes.” A few moments later, as Esther placed the shepherds on the board, she noted that the shepherds looked up at the night sky which was “filled with stars.” At this point a boy shouted, “Multitude!” Once again, a surprised Esther nodded, “Yes!” and then quipped to the group of three-year olds sitting on the floor, “Shall we recite the story together in the original King James?” Confused looks abounded.
I found what unfolded to be utterly captivating. These were three-year olds after all! The children had likely only heard the story of the birth of Jesus a few times before in their short lives. But they remembered the story and were quick to correct it when it didn’t follow how it had been previously told. Their retention of language also captivated me – “swaddling” and “multitude” were not words used every day unless they had a parent at home who would exclaim, “I have a multitude of swaddling clothes to launder, so behave.” Unlikely, I thought.
The experience was formative in leading me to a career in education, as teacher, researcher, leader, and curriculum developer. It’s a career that never ceases to amaze and engage me. Stories shape our lives, and it is important for us to pay close attention to the power of stories in our lives.
In this issue we feature the poem Why We Tell Stories by Lisel Mueller. We spotlight an essay by Leslie Leyland Fields entitled The Gospel is More Than a Story: Rethinking Narrative and Testimony. And, our Profile this month is of Scottish author and social advocate George MacDonald who greatly influenced storywriters J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. Author Madeleine L’Engle called MacDonald, “The grandfather of us all – all of us who struggle to come to terms with truth through imagination.”
We hope this issue will prompt you to take time to contemplate the stories that have formed and informed your life, stories that have helped you to grasp truth through your imagination – stories that are true or fanciful, joyful or painful, cautionary or inspiring. And then, to think of the larger story of which you are a part. Philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre once wrote: I cannot answer the question, “What ought I to do?” unless I first answer the question, “Of which story am I a part?” Good question. What’s YOUR story and of what story are you a part? (DG)
***
For I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—
stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.
We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.
(Ps 78:2-4 NLT)
Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe.
(Psalm 107:2 NIV)
That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight.
In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it,
listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. (Matthew 13:13-14 MSG)
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written,
I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
(John 21:25 ESV)
SEEDS
A handful of quotes to contemplate and cultivate into your life
The story – from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace – is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.
(Ursula K. Le Guin)
Because we fail to listen to each other’s stories we are becoming a fragmented human race. (Madeline L’Engle)
Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. (Hannah Arendt)
I’ve always felt life first as a story, and if there is a story there is a storyteller.
(G.K. Chesterton)
Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see. (C.S. Lewis)
There is a certain embarrassment about being a storyteller in these times when stories are considered not quite as satisfying as statements and statements not quite as satisfying as statistics; but in the long run, a people is known, not by its statements or its statistics, but by the stories it tells. (Flannery O’Conner)
When we submit our lives to what we read in scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves. (Eugene Peterson)
If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story. (Barbara Greene)
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. (Maya Angelou)
Sacred stories are those of transformation, they are stories that draw us closer to what I call the Lord Within The Heart, and they help us to see our connection to all things. There’s a saying in the Jewish tradition that the shortest distance between [a hu]man and God is through a story. So if storytelling is a journey, sacred storytelling is a pilgrimage—a pilgrimage to a place called Hope. (Andy Fraenkel)
ART
Top 15 Christmas Artworks
from Throughout History
It has been said that “Art is subjective.” Leo Tolstoy elaborated with “Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective, of nature with reason, of the unconscious with the conscious, and
therefore art is the highest means of knowledge.” So, what have artists throughout history made of the story of the birth of Christ? What knowledge does their craft illuminate, reveal?
We are grateful for blogger Laura Jaen for compiling a list of the Top 15 Christmas Artworks from Throughout History. We invite you to explore the 15 pieces of art ranging from the year 1434 to 1953. What story do they illuminate? What do they reveal to you?
POETRY
Why We Tell Stories
by Lisel Mueller
1
Because we used to have leaves
and on damp days
our muscles feel a tug,
painful now, from when roots
pulled us into the ground
and because our children believe
they can fly, an instinct retained
from when the bones in our arms
were shaped like zithers and broke
neatly under their feathers
and because before we had lungs
we knew how far it was to the bottom
as we floated open-eyed
like painted scarves through the scenery
of dreams, and because we awakened
and learned to speak
2
We sat by the fire in our caves,
and because we were poor, we made up a tale
about a treasure mountain
that would open only for us
and because we were always defeated,
we invented impossible riddles
only we could solve,
monsters only we could kill,
women who could love no one else
and because we had survived
sisters and brothers, daughters and sons,
we discovered bones that rose
from the dark earth and sang
as white birds in the trees
3
Because the story of our life
becomes our life
Because each of us tells
the same story
but tells it differently
and none of us tells it
the same way twice
Because grandmothers looking like spiders
want to enchant the children
and grandfathers need to convince us
what happened happened because of them
and though we listen only
haphazardly, with one ear,
we will begin our story
with the word and
PROFILE
George MacDonald
This is Christmas-time, you know, and that is just the time for story-telling…
(George MacDonald)
by Michael Phillips
GEORGE MACDONALD (1824-1905), forerunner of the Inklings—Scottish minister, poet, novelist, and imaginative seer—was one of the most beloved Victorian authors throughout Great Britain and the U.S. in the 19th century. He wrote some 50 volumes: novels, poetry, short stories, fantasy, sermons, and essays. His influential body of work placed him alongside his era’s great men of letters, and his following was vast. Two decades after his death, his books were pivotal in leading C.S. Lewis to Christianity. He thus became the foundational member of Wheaton College’s Wade Center “Seven.”
After his death, most of MacDonald’s books eventually went out of print as his name drifted from memory. However, he continued to be revered by an impressive gallery of well-known figures, including G.K. Chesterton (who referred to him as “one of the three or four greatest men of the 19th century”), W.H. Auden (calling MacDonald “one of the most remarkable writers of the 19th century”), and Oswald Chambers (“…how I love that man!”). In spite of such a following, however, MacDonald’s reputation gradually declined throughout the 20th century.
MacDonald’s most notable champion of the last century was C.S. Lewis, whose journey from atheism to Christianity was sparked by George MacDonald’s prophetic view of God. Lewis persistently acknowledged his debt to MacDonald, whom he called his “master.” Lewis wrote: “I dare not say that he is never in error; but… I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer… to the Spirit of Christ Himself… I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master, indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him.” Both in his autobiography and throughout his writing career, Lewis emphasized that George MacDonald was the most significant impetus in his own spiritual pilgrimage.
MacDonald’s writings can thus be seen as the spiritual soil out of which the faith of C.S. Lewis emerged. MacDonald’s novels, fantasies, and fairy tales provide the imaginative foundation for Lewis’s later writings, including The Chronicles of Narnia.
In spite of his own popularity, however, the spiritual roots of Lewis’s faith remain largely unknown. Lewis’s words of 65 years ago are still true today, “It has not seemed to me that those who have received my books kindly take… sufficient notice of the affiliation [with George MacDonald].” Notwithstanding Lewis’s frequent emphasis on the Scotsman’s influence in his own life, MacDonald’s name in the late 20th century drifted into obscurity and his books became unavailable.
A resurgence of interest in the forgotten Victorian began to mount in the 1970s and 1980s, given initial impetus by Wheaton’s Wade Center and the work of two Wheaton professors, Dr. Clyde Kilby, founder of the Center, and Dr. Rolland Hein, who released several editions of MacDonald’s sermon extracts. MacDonald’s name then exploded into public view in the years following, largely from the efforts of MacDonald redactor and biographer Michael Phillips. Building upon the efforts of Kilby, Hein, and others, and inspired by them, Phillips’ work resulted in a new generation of readers discovering the treasures in MacDonald’s stories, and led to a renewed publication of MacDonald’s books on an unprecedented scale not seen since his own lifetime.
Now more than ever, thousands the world over are discovering why Madeleine L’Engle called George MacDonald “the grandfather of us all—all of us who struggle to come to terms with truth through imagination.”
For additional resources on George MacDonald:
1. The Works of George MacDonald (from which the above biography is found). View Now
2. Article by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, Just the Time for Story-telling: George MacDonald and a Christ-wise Imagination found in Radix. View Now
FILM
Each month we recommend films focused on our theme
Feature Film
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
(2024)
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is based on Barbara Robinson's beloved 1972 children’s book about the mischievous, unruly Herdman siblings, who shake up a traditional small-town Christmas pageant. Known for bullying others, cursing, and even smoking, the six "no good" Herdmans volunteer for major roles in the pageant after discovering that the church offers free snacks. They set a shed on fire and are accused of starting a church fire. Despite their behavior, the Herdmans begin to change as they engage in the true story of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. Directed by Dallas Jenkins. Currently in theaters!
Watch the trailer for the film: View Now
Documentary Film
Christmas Under Fire
(1941)
Sometimes the celebration of the Christmas story gets overshadowed by the unfolding story of history. In this short documentary film produced during the Blitz of 1940 and intended for US audiences, Englanders prepare for Christmas. It's a Christmas of holly and barbed wire, guns and tinsel, yet the British are determined to make it as cheerful as possible. "England is fighting for her life," asserts the American narrator, but it is admiration rather than pity that the film seeks to evoke. The filmmakers achieve this with emotions bigger than most 10-minute films could contain, as we watch brave Londoners creating a subterranean Christmas on Underground platforms and the choristers of King's College singing their hearts out. While no doubt intended to encourage US support in the War, Christmas Under Fire ultimately offers a portrait of a nation "unbeaten, unconquered and unafraid.”
Short Film
Snow
(6 minutes)
In this 2017 short from mm2 Entertainment in Singapore, a mother’s love and sacrifice is remembered and celebrated. May it bring encouragement to you this holiday season.
Ted Talk
The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
ESSAY
The Gospel is More Than a Story:
Rethinking Narrative and Testimony
By Leslie Leyland Fields
Story is all the rage. Everyone wants to tell their personal narrative or to give the Bible
a simpler and more relevant plot. Maybe it isn’t such a good idea.
In this 2012 article from Christianity Today, author Leslie Leyland Fields offers a cautionary tale of viewing the Bible solely as “story” and ignoring the various expressions of the literary tradition and theological insight. Fields was a founding faculty member of Seattle Pacific University’s MFA program where she taught creative writing for many years.
In this deeply thoughtful article, Fields offers her perspective on the meaningfulness of story and its limitations for framing all of life and faith as story. She writes:
At the risk of oversimplifying what is both familiar and hopelessly complex, here's a thumbnail: Our culture's love affair with story corresponds to its dismissal of the One Story. Western society has rejected both the God of the Scriptures and his master narrative. In the absence of a universal storyline, we must make one up. No, we must make many up, because no single story can contain all that is real and true for all people, or so it's believed. Language and narrative now are used not to discover meaning imbedded in creation by an omnipotent Creator. Instead, they are used to create personal and subjective meanings in the face of non-meaning.
Read the entire article here: View Now
BOOKS
Each month we recommend a book (or two) focused on our theme
NON-FICTION
Between the Listening and the Telling:
How Stories Can Save Us
Mark Yaconelli
Stories tether us to what matters most: our families, our friends, our hearts, our planet, the wondrous mystery of life itself. Yet the stories we've been telling ourselves as a civilization are killing us: Fear is wisdom. Vanity is virtuous. Violence is peace. In the pages of Between the Listening and the Telling, storyteller, author, and activist Mark Yaconelli leads readers into an enchanting meditation on the power of storytelling in our individual and collective lives. We tell stories to remember who we are. We tell stories to savor the pleasure of living. Stories can be medicine, and they can transform entire communities.
FICTION
The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories
By O. Henry
O. Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter, is one of the most famous short story writers of all time; his stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. O. Henry is so acclaimed as a great short story writer that his pen name is associated with a prestigious American award given to short stories of exceptional merit. Included in this collection of "The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories" is the title story which describes the struggles of a poor young married couple as they strive to secretly buy each other Christmas gifts. Also included in this collection are the following stories: The Cop and the Anthem, Springtime À La Carte, The Green Door, After Twenty Years, The Furnished Room, The Pimienta Pancakes, The Last Leaf, The Voice of The City, While The Auto Waits, A Retrieved Reformation, A Municipal Report, A Newspaper Story, The Ransom of Red Chief, A Ghost of a Chance, and Makes the Whole World Kin.
CHILDRENS
Grandma’s Attic Treasury Box
By Arleta Richardson
In these refreshed classics for girls ages 8 to 12, Arleta Richardson weaves tales of a simpler time, stories that have touched more than two million lives. A young girl’s discovery of her grandmother’s keepsakes inspires heartwarming tales of her grandmother’s childhood and the lessons learned on a nineteenth-century farm. The set includes: In Grandma’s Attic, More Stories From Grandma’s Attic, Still More Stories From Grandma’s Attic, and Treasures from Grandma’s Attic.
DIG DEEPER
Practical suggestions to help you go deeper into our theme
1. QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
Devote some time and thought to these reflective questions on our theme:
a. What is a story that has captivated you (it could be from your childhood, youth, present day)?
b. What makes that story so captivating to you?
c. What story has been most meaningful to you over the course of your life?
d. What story has brought you the most joy, faith, or hope?
e. As you reflect on 2024, what stands out to you most about your personal story this year?
f. What new chapter would you like to see unfold in your life story?
2. FROM RUDOLPH TO BETHLEHEM
In this 2015 essay from First Things by Theologian Richard Mouw, Mouw reflects on how the stories of Rudolph and Frosty can actually serve us well as pointers to the Bethlehem story.
3. NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO STORYCORP
The Great Listen invites people of all ages to record conversations with elders, mentors, and loved ones, creating an oral history of our times. As we gather for the holidays, explore stories that inspire deeper bonds, shared laughter, and lasting memories.
4. THE MOTH
The Moth's mission is to promote the art and craft of storytelling and to honor and celebrate the diversity and commonality of human experience. If you are unfamiliar with The Moth, we spotlight the following story by storyteller Madeleine Berenson entitled Unexpected Grace and provide the link to many other stories on The Moth.
5. PRAYER
Gracious and sovereign Father,
Remembering your big story of redemption is not only a great joy, but a critical discipline, for many different narratives compete for our hearts, days, energy, and resources. Remind us today that your central storyline which progressively unfolds in the Bible, connects all of history, and reveals your generous and loving heart. By the grace of the gospel, help us, once again, to find our place in this story.
From beginning to end your story is a story of sovereign grace. You are the only true seeker in your story, and that which you seek you find. We praise you for your magnanimous heart and measureless generosity.
Father, thank you for making us characters in and carriers of your great story of redemption. Let us live and let us love. How we long for the Day when Jesus returns to finish making all things new. In Christ’s great and gracious name. AMEN
ROOTED
But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
(Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV)
POLLINATE
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FIELD NOTES
Images used in order of appearance:
1. FIELD: Yongsung Kim, O Night Divine
https://yongsungkimart.com/products/o-night-divine-by-yongsung-kim?variant=42841262325925
2. SEEDS: Edward Burne Jones with details by William Morris and John Henry Dearle, The Adoration of the Magi, tapestry, designed 1888, copy woven for the Corporation of Manchester, 1894 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adoration_of_the_Magi_Tapestry.png
3. ART: Sarcophagus of Marcus Claudianus from San Giacomo, nativity scene, Settimiana, Rome, 330 AD https://www.cofeinsaddleworth.org.uk/virtual-nativity-early-nativity-scenes
4. POETRY: Wendy Keller, Silent Night
https://christfineart.com/collections/wendy-keller/products/wk1019206-meta?variant=43399192772782
5. PROFILE: George MacDonald, National Portrait Gallery photo, London, UK
6. FILM: Jane Mingay, Esher Church School Nativity Play, Esher, UK, 2019
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/parenting/5-ways-school-nativity-play-has-become-new-sports-day/
7. ESSAY: Jedd de Lucia, cast of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s “Black Nativity, A Gospel Celebration of Christmas,” conceived and directed by Stanley E. Williams, 2009
https://www.sfpublicpress.org/hughes-black-nativity-is-uplifting-holiday-musical/
8. BOOKS: Martin Bostock, Grange Park Nursery Nativity, Christina Jackson who was three, Blackpool, UK
9. DIG DEEPER: Anthony VanArsdale, Anthony’s Madonna & Child
10. ROOTED: Created by French sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot. Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida sculpted the face; Christ The Redeemer Statue; Parque Nacional da Tijuca - Alto da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil; 1931
TEAM CULTIVARE: Duane Grobman (Editor), Billy Brummel, Greg Ehlert, Bonnie Fearer, Ben Hunter, Eugene Kim, Olivia Mather, Andrew Massey, Rita McIntosh, Heather Shackelford, Jason Pearson (Design: Pearpod.com)
WE'RE LISTENING:
We welcome hearing your thoughts on this issue
and suggestions for future issues.
Email us at: info@tendwell.org
