September Focus
The Outrageous Promise
Jesus of Nazareth is an outrageous storyteller. He is the most outrageous storyteller the world has ever known. Jesus tells stories that change the world.
Storytelling lies at the very heart of every human being. We tell stories to give shape and meaning to the world. Stories provide the map by which we navigate life. They tell us what is important as well as what is not worthy of our time and attention.
On a hike in the woods, a stick is never just a stick. It may be an obstacle that can trip me up, a shape I see out of the corner of my eye (a rattlesnake!?) that makes my heart jump, or an interesting detail of the landscape I enjoy. If I take notice of the stick at all, it is because it has found a place in the running narrative, the story I tell myself, as I enjoy my walk through the forest.
William Shakespeare gave new definition to adolescent love when he told the story of Romeo and Juliet. Imagine if it at the end of the story, Shakespeare had Juliet lift a tissue and dab her eyes and say to Romeo, "This thing is not going to work out. Everything is just too complicated. Let's just be friends." The play would have ended as dully as the relationship.
But because Shakespeare understood the power of a great story to penetrate the depths of our humanity and to give shape to the world, he had Juliet press a knife against her breast and say to eternity, "Happy dagger, here is thy sheath!"
In effect we live in two worlds. The first is a hard and fixed – stub your toe – world. The second is an amazingly malleable and elastic world. It is the world in which my imagination interacts with the fixity of the first world in the stories I hear and tell.
We exist as mere material creatures in one world. We awaken and live fully human lives created in the image of God in the other.
Stories also form the fundamental basis of community. Communities come to life as people share stories that bind them together. Communities die when destructive stories separate and divide people from one another. The stories communities tell shape their social identity.
Entering fully into the social life of a new community involves learning the community's stories. Until one finds oneself in "the common story," one remains an outsider. The painful and harmful effects of isolation arise from the loss of the opportunity to hear and tell stories.
In short, the stories we tell give form and shape to the lives we live.
Children learn to tell stories that constitute their worlds by the stories they hear, (and see) their parents tell. The stories take up residence in their hearts and minds. As they live their lives they will retell these same stories over and over again including new and interesting characters they meet along the way.
Some stories are tragedies in which every hero has a fatal flaw. Some stories are abusive and destructive. Other stories are pointless and relate the powerlessness of the human condition.
Jesus is the most outrageous storyteller the world has ever known. He tells a very particular, very powerful kind of story.
Jesus tells a story about an outrageous promise. This story relates how God's blessing informs every human hardship and every human struggle. The Kingdom of God penetrates every relationship and every circumstance. In his story, death looses its power in the overwhelming profusion of God's grace.
Jesus is the most outrageous storyteller the world has ever known because he lived the story he told. So much so that to tell the story of Jesus' life, is to tell the story Jesus told.
To be a disciple of Jesus is to hear and tell the Jesus story. A community that shares Jesus' story becomes the church. When the church tells Jesus' story in the world, the world discovers the saving power of the Eternal Word (the Eternal Story) that became flesh in him.
Jesus tells a story about an outrageous promise, a promise that is delivered in every person who believes.
Monthly Focus Archive
2006:
Easter Focus: New Covenant
Lenten Focus: A Covenantal Response to Poverty
February Focus: Moving Forward
2005:
December Focus: Longing
November Focus: The Gift of Years
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Foundations
Summer Focus: The Book of Acts
Easter Focus: Tapestry
Lenten Focus: Rule of Life
January Focus: The Next Wave
2004:
December Focus: Surprising Grace
November Focus: Free Indeed
October Focus: Money Madness
September Focus: The Outrageous Promise
Summer Focus: Into the Fullness
June Focus: Thick Faith
Easter Focus: All Things New
Lent Focus: A Hungry World
February Focus: Commitment
January Focus: Unity
2003:
December Focus: Hope
November Focus: Worship
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Seasons of Faith
Summer Focus: The Gospel of John
May Focus: Faith
April Focus: Resurrection
March Focus: Truth
February Focus: Covenant Groups
January Focus: Sabbath
2002:
December Focus: Shut Up and Sing
November Focus: Spiritual Gifts
October Focus: Stewardship
September Focus: Intentional Faith
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