Truth and Myth

Today, we will begin Living Water, our Kids in the Kingdom Week with the stories of the creation and the flood. Scholars see this stories as myth, which used to aggravate me as I consider the stories true. Dictionary.com defines myth as:

myth n.
1. a. A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society: the myth of Eros and Psyche; a creation myth.
1. b. Such stories considered as a group: the realm of myth.
2. A popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution, or occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural ideal: a star whose fame turned her into a myth; the pioneer myth of suburbia.
3. A fiction or half-truth, especially one that forms part of an ideology.
4. A fictitious story, person, or thing: “German artillery superiority on the Western Front was a myth” (Leon Wolff).
[New Latin mthus, from Late Latin mthos, from Greek mthos.]

I considered myth more as defined in 2 or 3, meaning first and foremost that it is untrue. But if we consider Genesis from the standpoint of definition 1, then certainly it is an ancient story of ancestors that gives the worldview of a people. In fact we will share these stories with the children hoping they will grow up with a biblical worldview. We will teach the children that God made each of them and loves them very much, and today we will do that with the stories from Genesis. I guess that makes the stories myths, as they are ancient stories containing a worldview. But that doesn't make the stories untrue, perhaps it makes them more true as they contain the essence of our very first stories in the long, overarching story of God loving the creation.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church