Drawn into the Story...

Two weeks ago I finished up my last class for the semester. The past nine-months of classes have been pretty reading intensive. Averaging about a book every week (sometimes two, if we're lucky), is quite a bit for me to keep up with.

As such, the past couple of years, I've come to look forward to the summer break in order to read the accumulating books on my have-not-yet-read shelf in my office. This week, as I traveled to Texas I picked up two books. One of them was from this shelf, the other was a lighter read from C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

On the plane, as I was reading, I was struck by one of the opening scenes. It's the scene where Eustace Scrubb and Lucy and Edmund Pevensive stare at a picture on a wall of a Narnian ship when suddenly the picture draws them into a whole new world.

Suddenly the picture on the wall comes alive and they begin to feel the breeze, smell the air, and hear sounds. The kids are magically drawn into the painting and find themselves in the waters, where they are helped into a boat with the enticing name The Dawn Treader. These kids, now in a new reality, travel to distant lands looking for the seven lost lords of Narnia. At the end of their adventures they find a lamb that turns into Aslan…

This is the sort of adventure with the bible that we are looking for, the adventure of staring at the Bible’s words on paper only to find ourselves drawn into the story itself.

The following is another favorite clip of my on this matter from the movie The Tale of Despaux.

The Story of Scripture: Understanding & Interpreting the Bible From 30,000 Feet

Have you ever showed up late for a move? It's a sick, sick feeling, isn't it? It's not uncommon to see people briskly walking, even running with  popcorn and drink in hand, as the look for the number corresponding to their movie ticket. They run, because they understand something very fundamental to all movies and novels. For, it is in the first few opening scenes (or pages) that the story begins to take shape and characters development. Missing the nuances surrounding the plot or character can leave one lost, sometimes for the entire movie.  Very few people will simply wander into a movie that's already started, even if it started only minutes ago. Rather, they'll wait until a later showing.

Likewise, who buys a novel and turns to page 55 and begins reading? No one! For we acutely understand that every sub plot is only fully understood within the context of the larger plot these sub-plots find themselves in. 

As oddly as this sounds, many violate these very principles every day with the greatest Story ever penned - Scripture. We often read it, and live off the life of the sub-narratives, without a clear understanding of the overarching plot of Scripture. For example, many love the story of Daniel in the lions den. In fact, for many adults, that's all they know about Daniel. Understanding this element of Daniel's life may make for a great lesson, sermon or flannel graph. However, if that's all I know, I've missed the whole point of Daniel's life, mission and purpose. I fail to see how Daniel fits in to the unfolding narrative of Scripture. This is true with all of our favorite Bible characters. We need more than their story, we need to understand how they fit in to the larger story. Without such insight, we can never accurately understand and interpret Scripture. Further, our hopes of becoming "biblical Christians" living out the message of Scripture in the day and age that we live in will be virtually impossible.

Starting this Wednesday at Southgate, we'll be taking a five-week tour of Scripture. We'll be looking not only at the Story of Scripture, we'll look at the different ways it has been read and interpreted. Our ultimate goal is, how can I apply and live the essence of Scripture in the time and place that I find my existence.

How to Tell a Story

Stories have enormous power, unfortunately the very essence of that power is often crippled in the telling. True storytellers simply know how to communicate old stories in new ways. And, even when they use the same plot as before, it always seems to take on new life. This life flows not from some new fabrication of the events at hand, rather the outworking of a life that's actually been there. The aliveness comes from the life the story has within them, it just simply can't be contained.

Martin Buber once commented about the power of stories:

"A story must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself.

My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how his teacher used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke, and he was so swept away by his story that he began to hop and dance to show how the master had done. From that hour he was cured of his lameness.

That's how to tell a story."

I'm fascinated not only how our very lives have been shaped by stories, but how powerful stories become in the authentic creative telling. Creativity is often simply pausing long enough to allow new ways to emerge for telling an old story. It is the very pause of contemplation that becomes the path that simply takes one deeper into the story itself.

The following is a simple, yet catchy and creative way of telling an everyday story.

Runaway Bride 2-4-07

For hundreds of years Christians have used the parables of Luke 15, specifically the parable of "the Prodigal Son" to communicate the heart of God for humanity. Interestingly, for hundreds of years Muslims have used the same parables to refute the claims of Christianity. They've used these stories to argue that Jesus was nothing more than a good Muslim, and Christians have turned Him into a Christian. They argue that the boy is saved without a savior. The prodigal returns. The father forgives him. There is no cross, no suffering and no savior. And based on many of the commentaries written in the West concerning Luke 15, their arguements seem to be in fact accurate. But are they? Can the Cross be found in these age old parables that Jesus told? If so, where? Where is the Cross, the suffering, and the savior that is central to the Christian faith. This message walks through Luke 15, following the theme of redemption, restoration, suffering and the cross. This "familiar" text takes on fresh breath and new life as we look at some of the ancient Middle Eastern cultural cues that are seemlessly woven throught this amazing story. This is message five in the sermon series "Lost."

Scavenger Hunt 1-14-07

A fresh look at the parables/stories Jesus told in Luke 15. The Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. This is the second message of the sermon series Lost done at Calvary Temple in South Bend, IN. This message is given by Pastor Jerrell Jobe.