living the story

i never really came through on my promise to write about the "[Almost the Whole] Bible in a Day" seminar given by mark strom a couple of months ago, but one of the things it gave me was a renewed appreciation for the unity of the bible (which was basically the aim of the seminar). the bible is not a manual for how to live, but an unfolding story which spans the history of humanity and is centred around jesus the messiah of israel. there is a progression and flow of ideas and events, carried by god's promises (eg. to noah, abraham, david, the israelites at sinai, etc.), moving from creation to fall to redemption as recreation. it is a history that moves from humanity to one nation to one man to humanity, everything leading up to and pointing towards the life, death and resurrection of jesus. this is not Plan B – it was all there from the beginning, god's plan to redeem humanity through his messiah.

one of the revolutionary things for me about this understanding of the scriptures is that it means that we, here and now in the 21st century, are part of the story. one of the major problems with the contemporary church is, i think, that we've lost any real connection with the story of redemption – it all happened so long ago and seems so remote that we don't feel a part of it in any way, though we know we benefit from what jesus did for us. this is exacerbated by the prominence given by evangelicals to the doctrine of the divine inspiration of the scriptures, because it's hard to avoid the implication that everything important happened way back then, and nothing that has occurred or been written since then is as significant, including (and probably especially) our own lives. instead, we generally believe that we're in a 'waiting period' until the real story resumes when jesus returns. similarly, our lives as believers are lived as if between the two important events of our 'conversion' and our 'glorification' when we die and go to heaven, and nothing in between has any real importance (except maybe to tell others that they too can go to heaven when they die).

what happened to life now? what happened to the church as the living, incarnate body of christ in this world?

during the "[Almost the Whole] Bible in a Day" seminar, mark shared something he heard from n. t. wright (i think), an image of a drama with 5 acts, in which the first 3 acts and beginning of the 4th have been written, as well as an outline of the 5th. this is basically what we have as believers, but the point is that god has given us the task of writing the rest of the 4th act. what an idea! i think most christians would balk at such a suggestion. many would consider the thought of us being involved in writing what is in effect a continuation of the scriptures to be tantamount to blasphemy. others would find it very difficult to imagine themselves in such a significant role (as if there is any such thing as an insignificant person!). but I believe that this is exactly the situation that we are in and the task that we have before us, an enormous responsibility but also an incredible privilege. we're not members of a dead or dried-up religion, but active partakers in a living story, the story of god's redemption of humankind: the ending is sure, but we have a major part in determining how (or even if) we move towards that end in our lifetime. forgive my enthusiasm, but is that exciting or what!

i think this also gives a whole different slant on church. instead of being somewhere we go to hear and/or discuss abstract doctrine, it is where we join up all our individual stories to make up the collective story of the kingdom of god, real and living in this time and place. to tell our stories to each other is to continue the narrative of kingdom, grounding our faith in day to day life, weaving together a rich and beautiful tapestry (though we seldom catch a glimpse of its beauty we usually only see the reverse side with its confusion of colours and threads). what a difference that would be from the intellectual, irrelevant, guilt-provoking experience that most people have of church...