Fluent Essays

Journal Summary: Please submit your journal summary (synopsis) and reflection .   You can choose ONE article or summarize a combination of them.    On the articles that you are assigned to read, please write a 300 word (1-page) Synopsis and Reflection. The Synopsis will include a 150-word (½ page) summary of the assigned chapter followed by 150 words (½ page) of personal reflections and questions. Include in this Journal Summary details of information from the chapter that is new and particularly interesting to you. Story What is your favorite story? How do stories shape lives? What are the stories that shape lives? What are the grandest stories you’ve ever heard? Wednesday, August 14, 13 Being shaped by a Story Lives shaped by a story of tragedy and pain Wednesday, August 14, 13 Matthew 7:24-27 (The Message) "Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse, because it is built on rock. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash." Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Bible as a Grand Story Wednesday, August 14, 13 Our whole lives are shaped by some story. Wednesday, August 14, 13 l Note the following story told in two pictures l Ask yourself the question - what is the story? What assumptions can you make from the pictures? 6 Wednesday, August 14, 13 Wednesday, August 14, 13 Wednesday, August 14, 13 Wednesday, August 14, 13 Wednesday, August 14, 13 A Fox compliments a Crow and tells it that it has a lovely voice l He asks it to sing a song l What is the meaning of the event? l You know it if you know the STORY l Perhaps the fox is hungry and trying to trick the crow; Perhaps the fox is just a nice fox; Perhaps the fox is tone deaf but looking to start a choir of animals - each story gives this scene a different meaning Wednesday, August 14, 13 A Fox compliments a Crow and tells it that it has a lovely voice l Aesop’s fable l There is a famine in the forest and the crow sits in a tree with a piece of cheese in its mouth l All sorts of animals try different ways to get the cheese l The fox compliments the crow and the foolish bird opens its mouth to sing l The cheese falls out and the fox runs away with it l Moral of Story - don’t be deceived by flattery Wednesday, August 14, 13 Shape of a Story Wednesday, August 14, 13 Shape of a Story Beginning X X X X X X X End Wednesday, August 14, 13 Shape of a Story Beginning X X X X X X X End Theme Tension/Resolution Wednesday, August 14, 13 Grand Story Wednesday, August 14, 13 Grand Story l Comprehensive: Account of whole creation (meta-narrative) Wednesday, August 14, 13 Grand Story l Comprehensive: Account of whole creation (meta-narrative) l Normative: Claim to be true Wednesday, August 14, 13 Grand Story l Comprehensive: Account of whole creation (meta-narrative) l Normative: Claim to be true l Communal: Shapes community Wednesday, August 14, 13 Grand Story l Comprehensive: Account of whole creation (meta-narrative) l Normative: Claim to be true l Communal: Shapes community l Religious: Rooted in ultimate assumptions and commitments Wednesday, August 14, 13 Grand Story l Comprehensive: Account of whole creation (meta-narrative) l Normative: Claim to be true l Communal: Shapes community l Religious: Rooted in ultimate assumptions and commitments “… a story… is… the best way of talking about the way the world actually is.” (N.T. Wright) Wednesday, August 14, 13 Two Grand Stories Wednesday, August 14, 13 Two Grand Stories l Biblical Story Wednesday, August 14, 13 Two Grand Stories l Biblical Story l Modern Story - Humanist Wednesday, August 14, 13 Two Grand Stories l Biblical Story l Modern Story - Humanist “In our contemporary culture…two quite different stories are told. One is the story of evolution, of the development of species through the survival of the strong, and the story of the rise of civilization, our type of civilization, and its success in giving humankind mastery over nature. The other story is the one embodied in the bible, the story of creation and the fall, of God’s election of a people to be the bearers of his purpose for humankind, and the coming of the one in whom that purpose is to be fulfilled…these are two different and incompatible stories” Leslie Newbingin Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story Beginning (Creation) X X X X X X X End (New Creation) Meaning of History: Coming of the Kingdom Wednesday, August 14, 13 “The whole point of Christianity is that it offers a story which is the story of the whole world.” It is public truth.” (N.T. Wright) Wednesday, August 14, 13 Humanist Story Wednesday, August 14, 13 Humanist Story Beginning (Big Bang) Wednesday, August 14, 13 Humanist Story Beginning (Big Bang) X X X X X X X Wednesday, August 14, 13 Humanist Story Beginning (Big Bang) X X X X X X X End (Better world) Wednesday, August 14, 13 Humanist Story Beginning (Big Bang) X X X X X X X End (Better world) Meaning of History: Progress by science/technology Wednesday, August 14, 13 Living at the Crossroads Wednesday, August 14, 13 Living at the Crossroads Westernstory Modernity collapsing into postmodernity Wednesday, August 14, 13 Living at the Crossroads Westernstory Modernity collapsing into postmodernity Bib lica l sto ry Cre atio n, f all red em ptio n Wednesday, August 14, 13 “I can only answer the question “What am I to do?” if I can answer the prior question “Of what story do I find myself a part?” -Alasdair MacIntyre “The way we understand human life depends on what conception we have of the human story. What is the real story of which my life story is a part?” -Lesslie Newbigin Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Bible tells one unfolding story of redemption. Wednesday, August 14, 13 “As I read the Bible I find in it a quite unique interpretation of universal history, and therefore, a unique understanding of the human person as a responsible actor in history. You Christian missionaries have talked of the Bible as if it were simply another book of religion.” -Badrinath (Hindu scholar) Wednesday, August 14, 13 Scripture is “an immense, sprawling, capacious narrative.” -Eugene Peterson Wednesday, August 14, 13 “… the Bible provides us with an overarching narrative in which all other narratives of the world are nested. The Bible is the story of God. The story of the world is first and foremost the story of God’s activity in creating, sustaining, and redeeming the world to fulfill God’s purposes for it.” -C. Gerkin Wednesday, August 14, 13 “Scripture teaches one universal kingdom history that encompasses all of created reality: past, present, and future… its vision of history extends backward all the way to the beginning of time and forward all the way to the last day… the biblical vision of history spans time from the first creation to the new creation, encompassing all of created reality.” -S. Greidanus Wednesday, August 14, 13 Problem! Wednesday, August 14, 13 Problem! This is not a minor matter of misinterpretation... Wednesday, August 14, 13 Problem! This is not a minor matter of misinterpretation... Wednesday, August 14, 13 Problem! This is not a minor matter of misinterpretation... ...but a serious matter of which story is shaping our lives! Wednesday, August 14, 13 Living at the Crossroads Westernstory Modernity collapsing into postmodernity Bib lica l sto ry Cre atio n, f all red em ptio n Wednesday, August 14, 13 Absorption of Biblical Story Westernstory Modernity collapsing into postmodernity (Bible bits) Wednesday, August 14, 13 All of human life is shaped by some story... Wednesday, August 14, 13 All of human life is shaped by some story... ...If the Bible is fragmented into little bits... Wednesday, August 14, 13 All of human life is shaped by some story... ...If the Bible is fragmented into little bits... Wednesday, August 14, 13 All of human life is shaped by some story... ...If the Bible is fragmented into little bits... ...then it will be absorbed into our cultural story... Wednesday, August 14, 13 All of human life is shaped by some story... ...If the Bible is fragmented into little bits... ...then it will be absorbed into our cultural story... Wednesday, August 14, 13 All of human life is shaped by some story... ...If the Bible is fragmented into little bits... ...then it will be absorbed into our cultural story... ...Our whole lives will be shaped by our idolatrous cultural story rather than the story of scripture! (We are conformed to this world.) Wednesday, August 14, 13 Scriptural Drama Wednesday, August 14, 13 Scriptural Drama l Act One: God Creates His Kingdom Wednesday, August 14, 13 Scriptural Drama l Act One: God Creates His Kingdom l Act Two: Rebellion in God’s Kingdom Wednesday, August 14, 13 Scriptural Drama l Act One: God Creates His Kingdom l Act Two: Rebellion in God’s Kingdom l Act Three: Promise of Restoration of Kingdom: Israel’s Mission Wednesday, August 14, 13 Scriptural Drama l Act One: God Creates His Kingdom l Act Two: Rebellion in God’s Kingdom l Act Three: Promise of Restoration of Kingdom: Israel’s Mission l Act Four: Kingdom Restored: Jesus’ Mission Wednesday, August 14, 13 Scriptural Drama l Act One: God Creates His Kingdom l Act Two: Rebellion in God’s Kingdom l Act Three: Promise of Restoration of Kingdom: Israel’s Mission l Act Four: Kingdom Restored: Jesus’ Mission l Act Five: Kingdom Tasted and Displayed: Church’s/Ekklesia Mission n Scene 1: Church/Ekklesia Begins Its Mission to the Nations n Scene 2: Our Place in the Story: Church/ EkklesiaContinues Its Mission to the Nations l Act Six: Consummation of God’s Kingdom Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… lReveals God’s purpose Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… lReveals God’s purpose Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… lReveals God’s purpose lInvites us to participate Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… lOne story Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… lOne story Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… lOne story lProgressively unfolds Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… lOne story lProgressively unfolds Wednesday, August 14, 13 Biblical Story… lOne story lProgressively unfolds lRich, diverse, textured Wednesday, August 14, 13 Is the Bible a Single Unfolding Story? Wednesday, August 14, 13 Is the Bible a Single Unfolding Story? l Diversity of literary genres Wednesday, August 14, 13 Is the Bible a Single Unfolding Story? l Diversity of literary genres Wednesday, August 14, 13 Is the Bible a Single Unfolding Story? l Diversity of literary genres l How does each fit in the whole? Wednesday, August 14, 13 Is the Bible a Single Unfolding Story? l Diversity of literary genres l How does each fit in the whole? l Good and well known illustration: n Elephant and Blind Men Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Blind men and the Elephant Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Blind men and the Elephant Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Blind men and the Elephant lTouch different parts Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Blind men and the Elephant lTouch different parts Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Blind men and the Elephant lTouch different parts lDraw wrong conclusions about whole Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Blind men and the Elephant lTouch different parts lDraw wrong conclusions about whole Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Blind men and the Elephant lTouch different parts lDraw wrong conclusions about whole lMiss bigger whole Wednesday, August 14, 13 “And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his opinion, Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong.” -John Saxe Wednesday, August 14, 13 What is ‘Main Entrance’ to Story of Scripture? Wednesday, August 14, 13 What is ‘Main Entrance’ to Story of Scripture? lDramatic - real life with real God Wednesday, August 14, 13 What is ‘Main Entrance’ to Story of Scripture? lDramatic - real life with real God Wednesday, August 14, 13 What is ‘Main Entrance’ to Story of Scripture? lDramatic - real life with real God lPurposeful - going someplace Wednesday, August 14, 13 What is ‘Main Entrance’ to Story of Scripture? lDramatic - real life with real God lPurposeful - going someplace lRevelatory - God shows Himself Wednesday, August 14, 13 What is ‘Main Entrance’ to Story of Scripture? lDramatic - real life with real God lPurposeful - going someplace lRevelatory - God shows Himself lIncarnational - God shows Himself IN human life and experience Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Biblical Drama - one Paradigm Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Biblical Drama - one Paradigm l Act One: God establishes His Kingdom: Creation Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Biblical Drama - one Paradigm l Act One: God establishes His Kingdom: Creation l Act Two: Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Biblical Drama - one Paradigm l Act One: God establishes His Kingdom: Creation l Act Two: Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall l Act Three: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated n Scene 1: A people for the King n Scene 2: A Land for His people l Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: Inter- Testamental Period Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Biblical Drama (cont…) Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Biblical Drama (cont…) l Act Four: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished Wednesday, August 14, 13 The Biblical Drama (cont…) l Act Four: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished l Act Five: Spreading the News of the King: The Mission of the Church n Scene 1: From Jerusalem to Rome n Scene 2: And into All the World l Act Six: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed Wednesday, August 14, 13 www.echothestory.com 1 A summAry NArrAtive of the BiBle seeiNG the BiG Picture There are a variety of ways to see the panorama of God’s story. One way is to look at God’s Story is as a series of episodes. An episode is a distinct event that’s a part of a greater whole...like a chapter in a book or a scene from a movie. The following episodes will help give us a big picture of God’s story and allow us to see more clearly God’s desire to restore his relationship with us. * God is represented by the Greek letter Theta “ ”, sometimes used to abbreviate Theós, meaning “God.” ** The circle around the symbols represents a whole and complete relationship with God. BiBle summAry NArrAtive: This story begins as the Creator of all, God, was preparing the earth as a place for life. God filled the earth with plants and all kinds of creatures. The most special of these creatures were human begins, formed in God’s own likeness...in God’s image. God entrusted the humans to care for the earth and all of creation. God walked closely with them, showing them the best possible way to live. Under God’s reign, the humans lived a life that was whole and complete. In spite of this close relationship, the humans rebelled, choosing to live their own way over God’s. Living outside of God’s reign brought great consequences. Now separated from God, humans became subject to sickness, pain, and death. Soon, humans spiraled out of control, acting out in selfishness and violence against one another. Deter- mined to restore his creation, God chose a man named Abraham and his descendants to be a special people. God made a covenant with them, promising that they would extend God’s blessing and restoration to the entire world! These special people, called the Israelites, were called to live differently, showing the world what it means to live closely with God. God gave them a beautiful land where they enjoyed great blessings and grew into a large nation. But it wasn’t long before the Israelites chose to live their own way over God’s. In their rebellion the Isra- elites encountered great struggles and became slaves of other nations. But God continued to give his people hope, promising to send a rescuer to break the power of their selfishness and rebellion. 2 www.echothestory.com Enter a man named Jesus. His life, teaching, and miracles all proved he was who he said he was: God’s son in human form...God-with-us! Jesus lived a remarkable life, always choosing to live God’s way. He called peo- ple to follow him, inviting them to be a part of the “Kingdom of God” and live under God’s reign once again. Jesus chose a surprising way to help humans be restored to God—because he’d lived perfectly, God allowed Jesus to become our substitute and take on the required punishment for all of humanity’s rebellion. After suf- fering a brutal death, Jesus came back to life three days later and was seen by more than 500 eyewitnesses. The power of selfishness and rebellion was conquered once and for all! Jesus challenged his followers to live as he did and sent God’s Spirit to live inside of them and empower them. This was the beginning of The Church—a community of people across the globe who follow Jesus in living God’s way and share in God’s mission to restore the world. This story continues with us. We are called to be The Church—a new kind of community that’ll show the world what it means to live in God’s reign...returning to the life we were created for. The end of this amazing story lies ahead. Jesus promised to return one day and bring about God’s new creation. God’s reign will come in fullness, restoring all things to the way God designed them. Until then, may we live in God’s ways, giving people a glimpse of what life is like in the coming Kingdom. iNterActioN: As you read or listened to this narrative what did you picture in your mind? What did this summary help you notice for the first time about God’s Story? What do you think God’s Story is ultimately about? How do you think looking at God’s entire story at once is helpful? How does this story continue right now? How are we a part of it? The Story-Line of the Bible Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen ACT ONE: GOD ESTABLISHES HIS KINGDOM (CREATION) The curtain opens on the Biblical drama—its first act is God’s creation of the universe. As a supreme ruler, God calls all things into being by His sovereign decree. Each creature plays a part in this grand symphony of creation, and every part is declared “good.” God’s creative work climaxes in His creation of human beings to be like himself and to rule the world as His stewards. These first human beings, Adam and Eve, enjoy warm and close fellowship with God in the garden as they carry out their task of looking after the world, delighting in and developing its rich potentials, and thanking God. By the end of act one, the curtain closes on a ‘very good’ world. ACT TWO: REBELLION IN THE KINGDOM (FALL) Bright anticipation characterises the opening of act two. God gives Adam and Eve everything they need; their lives are rich and full as they delight in God and the gifts He has given. God places one restriction on them: they are not to eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden or everything will be ruined. By submitting to God’s word, Adam and Eve learn the joy of living as trustful and dependant creatures. But Satan offers another word, a lie, by which Adam and Eve can live. In a tragic twist, they listen to the lie of Satan and contravene God’s command. This treasonous act of rebellion sends shock-waves throughout the whole creation. Adam’s and Eve’s rebellion corrupts the warm friendship they had enjoyed with God as they walked together in the garden, delighting in God’s presence and gifts. They find themselves estranged from God and hide from His presence. Their revolt also damages relations between human beings. Adam’s and Eve’s relationship to each other becomes one of selfish mastery. The effects are soon seen as their son Cain murders his brother, Abel, and as violence and evil spreads among the earth’s growing population. Their apostasy further ravages the harmonious relationship enjoyed previously between humanity and the non-human creation. Every relationship and every part of human life is now defiled by their betrayal. Already, even death has entered the world. As the curtain closes on act two, Adam and Eve are in the middle of a mess. The whole world is now befouled by their rebellion. ACT THREE: THE KING CHOOSES ISRAEL (REDEMPTION INITIATED) Scene One: A People for the King Rising Tide of Sin and God’s Faithfulness As the curtain rises in act three, one burning question remains: how will God respond to a world that has chosen to go its own way and that continues to ignore his good plans? To start, God brings judgement; He expels Adam and Eve from the garden. But God also brings hope when He promises to crush all the evil forces that Adam and Eve have unleashed in their foolish mutiny (Gen. 3:15). The next few millennia, recorded for us in a few brief chapters (Gen. 3-11), are the story of two interwoven developments: the increasing darkness of sin and God’s faithfulness to His promise to banish that darkness. The tide of wrongdoing continues to rise. It reaches a peak in Noah’s time, and God decides to destroy the earth with a great flood and start over again with one family. God saves Noah from the great flood on a large boat. After the flood, Noah’s descendants turn out to be no different from their predecessors (cf. Gen. 6:5 and 8:21). Like the previous generation, they ignore God and go their own way. This continued rebellion climaxes in the building of the tower at Babel, a monument to humanity’s treasonous revolt (Gen. 9:18-11:1-9). But amidst sin’s forward march, God has remained faithful to His promise. When the righteous Abel was killed God raised up Seth and a godly line that would remain faithful to Himself (Gen.4:25-5:32). When the whole world became wicked, God preserved Noah through His judgement (Gen.6:8). After the flood, when Noah set foot on dry ground, God promised that He would protect the world from disaster and recover it again from the ravages of human rebellion. Yet this long period of human sinfulness and God’s faithfulness ends on a sour note. In the story of Babel the whole world turns against God. Recovery Plan for Creation: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob In spite of human rebellion, God does not abandon His plans for His world. About two thousand years before Jesus, God sets into motion a plan that will lead to the recovery of the world. This promised plan has two parts: First, out of this mass of rebellious humanity, God will choose one man (Josh. 24:2). God will make this man into a great nation and give that nation a land and bless them. Second, God will extend that blessing to all nations (Gen. 12:1-3; 18:18). The rest of the book of Genesis traces the ups and downs of this two-fold promise. The promise is given not only to Abraham but also to his son Isaac (Gen. 26:3- 4) and his grandson Jacob (Gen. 28:13-15). Many dangers threaten God’s promised plan along the way: impotence and barrenness, foreign kings and their harems, natural disasters, hostility with surrounding people, and the unbelief of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, themselves. Through it all, God shows Himself to be ‘God Almighty’ (Gen. 17:1; Ex. 6:3), the One who has the power to carry out his plan. Nearing the end of his life, Jacob moves his twelve sons and all their families to Egypt in order to escape a famine. The riveting story of his eleventh-born son, Joseph, shows God’s faithfulness and control of history as He manages to preserve a people through whom He will bring salvation to the world (Gen. 45:5; 50:20). Freed from Slavery and Formed as a People Four hundred years elapse before the story resumes. Abraham’s descendants, now known as Israel (the name God gives to Jacob), grow numerous in Egypt. But success brings its own problems. Egypt’s king begins to perceive this expanding racial minority as a threat. To stamp out the perceived danger, Pharaoh reduces Israel to slavery. The book of Exodus opens at the height of Israel’s oppression under Egypt. Into this scenario of intense pain and tyranny God chooses Moses to liberate Israel from the brutal rule of Egypt so that Israel can return to God. In a series of amazing incidents, ten plagues bring God’s judgement on Egypt’s gods (Ex. 12:12), and Israel is miraculously saved from the powerful Egyptian army as they cross the Red Sea. Finally Israel arrives at the place where they will meet God—Mt. Sinai. There God meets Israel in an awesome display of lightning and fire. Why has God done all of this for Israel? God has a job for them to do. They are to be a nation and kingdom that function like priests. Their task is to mediate God’s blessing to the nations and to act as a model people attracting all peoples to God (Ex. 19:3-6). This is the calling that will shape Israel from this point on: they are to be a showcase people and model before the nations that embody the beauty of God’s original design for human life. After giving them this task, God gives them the law to guide their lives, and the people of Israel commit themselves to living as God’s faithful people. God then commands them to build a tent where he will take up residence. From now on, wherever they go, God will live visibly among them. In Leviticus we see how Israel is to live in communion with a holy God. The book of Numbers contains the story of Israel’s journey from Sinai to Canaan. Unfortunately Israel’s unbelief requires that they spend forty years in the wilderness before arriving at Moab, on the threshold of the promised land. In Deuteronomy, Israel’s leader, Moses, instructs Israel on how they should live when they arrive in the land. Israel is poised to enter the land—they are committed to being God’s people and showing the nations around who God is and the wisdom of His original creational design for human life. As Israel sits poised for entry, Moses dies and the leadership is passed on to Joshua. Scene Two: A Land for the People Entering the Land: Joshua and Judges The book of Joshua tells us how God keeps his promise to give Israel the land. The Lord leads Israel in conquering the land and judging its wicked inhabitants, and then he distributes the land among the twelve tribes. The book ends with Joshua’s pleas for Israel to remain faithful as God’s people. Judges opens with Israel’s disobedience: they refuse to wage war with unbelief and to purge idolatry from the land (Ju. 1). God comes in covenant judgement and tells Israel that they will now have to live among the Canaanites (Ju. 2). Judges tells a sad story of how Israel turns from God and continually succumbs to the Canaanite pagan worship and lifestyle. God finally lets the Canaanite and neighbouring peoples rule and oppress them until Israel cries to Him for help. And He responds in mercy, raising up military leaders, known as judges, to rescue them. With each cycle of rebellion, though, the situation gets worse. The book ends with two stories that illustrate Israel’s foul rebellion and with Israel’s repeated cry for a king to deliver them from this mess (Ju. 21:25). Kings and Prophets Samuel is the last great judge, as well as a priest and prophet. The books of Samuel, named after him, tell of a time of great change within the Israelite nation. Israel asks God to give them a king so they can be like the other nations (1 Sam. 8:5, 19-20). So God uses Samuel to appoint Saul, and then David, as the first kings over His people. Saul is a failure as a king, but David serves God as a faithful king, defeating Israel’s pagan neighbours, enforcing God’s law, and moving God’s residence to Jerusalem. Here, at the hub of the nation, God’s presence is a constant reminder that God is Israel’s real king. Solomon, David’s son and successor, builds the temple as a more permanent place for God to live and hear the praise and prayers of His people. Despite being given great wisdom from God, Solomon’s marriages to foreign women lead him to worship other gods, and his ambitious building projects earn him a reputation as an oppressor. During the reign of his son Rehoboam, this oppressive spirit results in the splitting of the nation. The majority of the tribes break away in the north (Israel), leaving behind a few southern tribes (Judah). From this time on, the two halves have their own kings. The books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles tell their stories. The story is of a downhill slide into rebellion led by unfaithful kings. Far from being a showcase to the nations, God’s people push his patience to the point at which He expels them from the land. God seeks to halt their deadly course by raising up prophets to call them back to repentance. Elijah and Elisha are the prophets who feature most prominently in 1 and 2 Kings. Through these prophets, God promises that if Israel will return to him He will be gracious and continue to work with them. He also warns that if Israel continues to rebel He will bring judgement and finally send them into exile. As Israel’s situation becomes more incurable, the prophets promise that God has not given up. In fact, He promises He will send a future king who will usher in a reign of peace and justice. This promised king will achieve God’s purposes for His creation. The words of the prophets fall on deaf ears. And so, first the citizens of the northern kingdom (722 B.C.), and then the citizens of the southern kingdom (586 B.C.) are captured as prisoners by the ruling empires of the day. Exile and Return The ten tribes of the northern kingdom are scattered to the corners of the earth. The two tribes of the south go into exile in Babylon. ‘Beside the rivers of Babylon we thought about Jerusalem, and we sat down and cried’, says the writer of Psalm 137. ‘Here is a foreign land, how can we sing about the LORD?’ (137:1, 4). Exile is a devastating experience for the Israelites. What happed to God’s promises and purposes? Had he given them up for good? During this exile, God continues to speak to them through prophets like Ezekiel, explaining why this crisis has come and assuring them that they still have a future. After over a half decade in exile, the way is opened for Israel to return to Jerusalem. Some return; but most do not. In time, under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, Jerusalem and the temple, which had been burnt by Judah’s invaders, are rebuilt. But Israel, Jerusalem, and the temple are only shadows of their former selves. The Old Testament ends with Israel resettling in the land, but resettling on a small scale and facing huge threats. They live in the shadow of the super-powers of their day. With the promises of the prophets echoing in their ears they wait for the day when God will act to deliver them and complete His redemptive work. As the curtain falls on act three, Israel has failed to carry out the task God gave them at Sinai, but hope remains because God has made promises. INTERLUDE: A KINGDOM STORY WAITING FOR AN ENDING (INTERTESTAMENTAL PERIOD) Between the end of act three (Old Testament) and the beginning of act four (New Testament) there is an interlude of four hundred years. This period is called the intertestamental period. During this time, Israel continues to believe that they are God’s chosen people and that God will act in the very near future to bring His kingdom. Under the oppression of the Persians, Greeks, and, especially, the Syrians and Romans, the flame of hope ignited in Jewish hearts is fanned into a raging inferno. How God’s kingdom will come, who will bring it in, and what way to live until it comes—on these things there is much difference among the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, and Essenes. But all of Israel agrees: their story is waiting for an ending. The kingdom will come soon. And so they wait in hope. ACT FOUR: THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM (REDEMPTION ACCOMPLISHED) Act four. The curtain rises. Into this setting of feverish anticipation for God’s kingdom steps a young Jewish man, Jesus of Nazareth. He announces the kingdom has come—in him! God is now acting in love and power to restore the creation and humanity to live again under the kind rule of God, the way God designed it all in the beginning. The gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tell the story of this man Jesus, who claims to be sent by God to accomplish the renewal of the creation. Jesus, however, is not the kind of king Israel is expecting. He is not the freedom fighter who will throw off the Roman yoke and make Israel great again. In fact, he seems more like a wandering teacher or prophet. Though he announces the arrival of God’s final entry into history, nothing seems to happen. Jesus goes about gathering a small community of insignificant followers around him and calls them the new vanguard of God’s coming new world. God’s power to restore is evident as Jesus heals people and frees them from evil spirits. His invitation extends beyond the ‘washed’ and acceptable: he welcomes religious and social outcasts into his new community. As he challenges the customs and expectations of the day, he arouses growing opposition among the leaders. Jesus teaches his followers to live lives steeped in love, forgiveness, and righteousness. He tells them stories to help them understand the unusual way in which God’s new rule was coming. The kingdom is coming, not by destroying your enemies but by loving them, not by using force but by suffering, not by revenging but by forgiving, not by retreating from the ‘unwashed’ but by compassionately involving yourselves in their lives. Jesus does not meet the expectations of his contemporaries for what the coming king will look like. So, who is he? Jesus poses this very question to his followers. Peter answers in faith: ‘You are the Christ, anointed king, the Son of the living God’ (Matt. 16:16). Indeed, his followers believe Jesus is present to reveal who God is and what He is doing to recover the world. But the majority of Jesus’ fellow Jews do not recognise him. Opposition to his work mounts until they arrest him, put him on a mock trial, and take him to the Roman governor for execution. Jesus is handed over to suffer the most appalling of all deaths— Roman crucifixion. Surely no king would die such a disgraceful death! Yet his followers declare weeks later that it is at that very moment—in the shame and pain of the cross— that God accomplishes his plan to recover his lost and broken world. Here Jesus takes the sin and brokenness of the world on himself so that the world might be healed. He dies, nailed to a cross, to take the punishment that a guilty humanity rightly deserves. It is now possible for the world, and all people in it, to be made right with God. How can his followers make such a preposterous claim? Because of the resurrection! They believe Jesus walked out of the grave and is alive from the dead. What astonishing news! Many people, even a crowd of 500, see Jesus alive. His resurrection is the sign of his victory over evil; it is the first evidence of a new world dawning. But before that new world comes fully Jesus gathers his followers and gives them a task: ‘You are to continue doing what you saw me doing’ (John 20:21). ‘You are to make known God’s coming rule in your lives, your deeds and your words. God’s new world will come in time. When that happens, everything that resists that rule will be destroyed. But until then, announce its coming and show by the way you live that it is a reality. I limited my work,’ Jesus says, ‘to Israel. Now you are to spread this good news of God’s coming world through the whole world.’ After these instructions Jesus takes his rightful throne, in heaven at the right hand of God. ACT FIVE: SPREADING THE NEWS OF THE KINGDOM (THE CHURCH’S MISSION) Scene One: From Jerusalem to Rome The book of Acts begins with the sudden and explosive coming of the Holy Spirit, whose coming the prophets and Jesus, himself, had promised (Acts 2). He comes, intent on bringing the new life of God’s kingdom to all who turn from sin, believe renewal has come in Jesus, and are baptised into the emerging kingdom community. This new community is established and commits itself to doing those things that God promises to use to renew in them the life of the resurrection: the Word of God, prayer, fellowship with one another, and the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42). As they do this, the life of God’s kingdom more and more shows itself in Jerusalem, and the church begins to grow. The church spreads from Jerusalem to Judea and into Samaria. Then a new centre is established in Antioch (Acts 11:19-28). Here too, Jesus’ followers embody the life of the kingdom, like the Jerusalem community does. But the church at Antioch also catches a vision for taking this good news to places where it has not been heard. And so they commission two men, Paul and Barnabas, for this task (Acts 13:1-3). Paul plays the biggest role in the spread of the good news throughout the Roman Empire. He was once a militant enemy of the church, but a dramatic encounter with Jesus turns him into a leading missionary to the non-Jewish world. On three separate journeys he travels throughout the Roman Empire establishing churches. He writes thirteen letters to these newly founded churches to encourage them and instruct them about how to live as followers of the risen Jesus. These letters, along with others, eventually are collected into the New Testament. Each of these letters continues today, in the twenty-first century, to give valuable instruction on what to believe about the good news and how to live faithfully under God’s rule in our daily lives. Getting back to Acts, Paul is finally arrested and shuffled from one official to another, from one hearing to the next. The book of Acts ends with Paul being transported to Rome and living there under house arrest. Not a very satisfying ending to a dramatic story of the spread of the gospel! But Acts ends without finality for a reason. The story is not finished. It must continue to unfold until Jesus returns again. Scene Two: And Into the Entire World This is our place in the story! The story of God’s people, growing in numbers and gathering from every nation into one community, has continued for 2000 years, and it continues today. Any who hear the call of Jesus to follow him must centre their lives in him and commit themselves to living the life of God’s kingdom. Faith in Jesus brings the gift of the Spirit, a foretaste of the full kingdom meal that is yet to come. To use a different metaphor, the church is now a preview of the coming kingdom. The church picks up Israel’s task of being a showcase of what God intends for human life (Ex. 19:3- 6; cf. 1 Pet. 2:9-12). The church is to continue the kingdom mission that Jesus began among the Jews, a kingdom established now among all the people of the earth. The church today is guided by the stories of the church in Acts as it faces new and very different contexts for its mission. The mission of God’s people is to make known the good news of the kingdom. This is what gives the contemporary time period its meaning. And since the rule of Jesus covers the whole earth, the mission of God’s people is as broad as creation. In effect, God’s people are to live lives that say, ‘This is how the whole world will be some day when Jesus returns!’ ACT SIX: THE RETURN OF THE KING (REDEMPTION COMPLETED) Jesus promised that one day he would return and complete the work he had begun. And so his people live in the confident expectation that every challenge to his loving rule will be crushed and that the His kingdom will come fully. When he returns, the dead will be raised and all people will appear before him in judgement. God’s opponents will be overthrown, earth and heaven will be renewed, and God’s rule will be complete. The last book in the Bible is Revelation. In that book John is ushered into God’s throne room to see how things really are. He is shown that, whatever evidence exists to the contrary, Jesus, whom the church follows, is in control of world events. He is moving history toward its appointed end. At that end, the old world dominated by evil, pain, suffering, and death will be overthrown. God will again dwell among humanity as He did in the beginning. He will wipe away tears. There will be no more death, mourning, pain, suffering, or evil. With joy, those of us who have followed this story anticipate hearing God’s own voice: ‘I am making everything new!’ (Rev. 21:5) The marvellous imagery of the last chapters of Revelation directs the reader’s gaze to the end of history and to the restoration of the whole of God’s creation. He invites all the thirsty to come even now and to drink the waters of life but warns all those who remain outside the kingdom. The Bible ends with a promise repeated three times—‘I am coming soon’ (Rev. 22:7, 12, 20). And we echo the response of the author of Revelation: ‘Yes! Come Lord Jesus.’ READING THE BIBLE AS ONE STORY1 Michael W. Goheen Trinity Western University, Langley, B.C., Canada Starting with the Gospel In this paper I would like to address the issue of reading the Bible as one story. It would be tempting to begin with the idea of story and then argue that the Bible conforms to this idea. I think one could proceed this way, although it would run the risk of starting with a category alien to Scripture and then fitting the gospel to that category. Perhaps it would be better to begin where all our thinking should start, i.e. with the gospel. Jesus announced good news: ‘The kingdom of God is breaking into history.’ This is not the kind of announcement that could be relegated to the religion page of a newspaper. This is world news—front page stuff! This is headline news on CNN. It was an announcement that God’s healing power was invading history in Jesus and by the Spirit to restore the whole creation to again live under the gracious rule of God. His proclamation of good news stood as the climactic moment of a story of God’s redemptive work told in the Old Testament that stretched back to God’s promise to Adam and Eve. Jesus announced that the power of God to renew the entire creation was now present in Jesus by the Spirit. This liberating power was demonstrated in Jesus’ life and deeds, and explained by his words. At the cross he battled the power of evil and gained the decisive victory. In his resurrection he entered as the firstborn into the resurrection life of the new creation. Before his ascension he commissioned his followers to continue his mission of making the gospel known until he returned. He now reigns in power at the right hand of God over all creation and by His Spirit is making known his restoring and comprehensive rule through His people as they embody and proclaim the good news. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Creator, Redeemer, and Lord. But until then the church has been taken up into the Spirit’s work of making the good news of the kingdom known. From this brief summary of the gospel, the following observations are important for our subject. First, the gospel is a redirecting power. It is not first of all doctrine or theology, nor is it worldview, but the renewing power of God unto salvation. The gospel is the instrument of God’s Spirit to restore all of creation. Second, the gospel is restorative, that is, Jesus announces the restoration of the creation from sin. The most basic categories present in the gospel are creation, fall, and redemption. Jesus’ announcement declares a resounding ‘yes’ to his good creation and at the same time a definitive ‘no’ to the sin that has defiled it. The gospel is about the restoration and renewal of the creation from sin. In the history of the Western church redemption has often been misunderstood to be salvation from the creation rather than salvation of the creation. In the proclamation of the gospel Jesus announces that he is liberating the good creation from the power of sin. 1 The substance of two keynote addresses given at the ‘Inhabiting the Biblical Story’ conference at the Victorian University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, 16 July 2005. Third, the gospel is comprehensive in its scope. The gospel Jesus announced was a gospel of the kingdom. Surprisingly even though this was the central category of Jesus’ proclamation and ministry it has often disappeared into obscurity. The result has been a greatly reduced scope of salvation, limited to humanity, even human souls. Scripturally, the kingdom is about God’s reign over his entire creation; the kingdom stresses the all- encompassing nature of the salvation Jesus embodied, announced, and accomplished. The gospel which forms the lens through which we look at the world is the power of God through which the exalted Christ, on the basis of his death and resurrection, restores all of life by His Spirit to again live under His authority and Word. The fourth observation is central to our topic: Jesus and the good news that he announces is the fulfillment of a long story that unfolds in the Old Testament. Jesus’ arrival into history is into a Jewish community who was looking for the ending and climax of a long story of God’s redemptive acts. All Jews knew that this story was leading up to the grand culmination when God would act decisively and finally to redeem the world. They disagreed on who would do it, how it would be done, when it would happen, and how they were to live until it did. But they all recognized that the story of God’s redemptive acts was moving toward a consummation. Jesus announces that he is the goal of this redemptive story. So, on the one hand, if we are to understand the gospel of Jesus we must see Jesus in the context of the Old Testament story (cf. Luke 24:25-27). On the other hand, if we are to properly understand the Biblical story, we must see it through the lens of Jesus and the gospel (cf. John 5:36-57; Luke 24:44-45). But not only is Jesus the climactic moment in the story, he points forward to the end. The end has not yet come (Acts 1:6-7). Thus attending to Jesus points us back to a story told in the Old Testament, and forward to the end of the story. There is a final observation: the church is essential to the gospel. That is, Jesus did not make provision for the communication of the good news through history and in every culture until the end of the story by writing a book as did Mohammed. Rather he formed a community to be the bearer of this good news. Their identity is bound up in their being sent by Jesus to make known the good news of the kingdom. The story of the Bible is their life. Human Life is Shaped by Some Story All of human life is shaped by some story. Consider the following event: A fox compliments a crow and tells it that it has a lovely voice. He asks it to sing a song. What is the meaning of this event? It is not too difficult to see that the meaning of this event can only be understood in terms of some story. Perhaps the fox wants to eat the crow and this compliment is a ploy to get the crow to drop its guard. Perhaps the fox is a kind- hearted fox that simply wants to encourage the poor crow. Perhaps the fox is a tone-deaf choir director seeking to begin a choir among the forest animals. Clearly these three stories would give the event different meanings. In fact, this event is part of an Aesop’s fable. There is a famine in the forest and the crow sits perched in a tree with a piece of cheese in its mouth. The various animals try to get the cheese with different methods. The fox compliments the crow and the foolish bird opens its mouth to sing. The cheese falls out and the fox runs away with it. The moral of the story is don’t be deceived by flattery. This little exercise illustrates that an event can only be understood in the context of a narrative framework. So it is with our lives. Lesslie Newbigin puts it this way: ‘The way we understand human life depends on what conception we have of the human story. What is the real story of which my life story is a part?’2 What Newbigin is referring to here is not a linguistically constructed narrative world that we choose to live in. Rather it is to speak of story as the essential shape of a worldview, as an interpretation of cosmic history that gives meaning to human life. Story provides the deepest structural framework in which human life is to be understood. There is no more fundamental way in which human beings interpret their lives than through a story. N. T. Wright says that ‘a story . . . is . . . the best way of talking about the way the world actually is.”3 It is because the world has been created by God in a temporal way that story can help us understand the way the world is. Brian Walsh says that ‘because the world is temporal, in process, a worldview always entails a story, a myth which provides its adherents with an understanding of their own role in the global history of good and evil. Such a story tells us who we are in history and why we are here.’4 If one lives in a culture shaped by the Western story there are two stories that are on offer: the Biblical and the humanist. Newbigin points out that In our contemporary culture . . . two quite different stories are told. One is the story of evolution, of the development of species through the survival of the strong, and the story of the rise of civilization, our type of civilization, and its success in giving humankind mastery of nature. The other story is the one embodied in the Bible, the story of creation and fall, of God’s election of a people to be the bearers of his purpose for humankind, and of the coming of the one in whom that purpose is to be fulfilled. These are two different and incompatible stories.5 There are a number of things that can be said about both of these stories. (1) Both of these stories claim to tell the true story of the world. They are in the language of postmodernism ‘metanarratives’ or in the language of Hegel, claims to be ‘universal history.’ (2) Consequently both of these stories are comprehensive. That is, they claim the whole of our lives—social, cultural, political, and individual. (3) Both of these stories are embodied by a community. They are not simply the fruit of individual experience and insight but stories that shape whole communities. The Western cultural community is shaped by the humanist story. The church is the new humankind that is shaped by the Biblical story. (4) Both of these stories are religious; they are rooted in faith commitments or ultimate assumptions. Contrary to the claim that the humanist story is ‘neutral’ or ‘secular’ while the Biblical story is ‘religious’, both stories are rooted in ultimate commitments or beliefs. (5) As both stories claim to tell the true story of the world, they issue an invitation to all hearers to come live in the story, and pursue its goals. 2 Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 15. 3 Wright, N.T. 1992. The New Testament and the People of God, London: SPCK, 40. Italics added. 4 Walsh, Worldviews, Modernity, and the Task of Christian College Education, in Faculty Dialogue 18 (Fall 1992), 6. 5Newbigin, Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 15-16. The humanist and Biblical stories are to some degree incompatible; they tell two different stories. It will be evident that if the church is faithful to its story there will be to some degree a clash of stories. The Bible Tells One Story The Bible tells one unfolding story of redemption against the backdrop of creation and humanity’s fall into sin. As N.T. Wright has put it, the divine drama told in Scripture ‘offers a story which is the story of the whole world. It is public truth.’6 When we speak of the biblical story as a narrative we are making an ontological claim. It is a claim that this is the way God created the world; the story of the Bible tells us the way the world really is. There is no more fundamental way to speak about the nature of God’s world than to speak of it in terms of a story. Nor is the biblical story to be understood simply as a local tale about a certain ethnic group or religion. It makes a comprehensive claim about the world: it is public truth. The biblical story encompasses all of reality—north, south, east, west, past, present, and future. It begins with the creation of all things and ends with the renewal of all things. In between it offers an interpretation of the meaning of cosmic history. It, therefore, makes a comprehensive claim; our stories, our reality must find a place in this story. As Loughlin has put it: The Biblical story is ‘omnivorous: it seeks to overcome our reality.’7 Hans Frei makes the same point when he quotes Auerbach’s striking contrast between Homer’s Odyssey and the Old Testament story. Speaking of the Biblical story he says: ‘Far from seeking, like Homer, merely to make us forget our own reality for a few hours, it seeks to overcome our reality: we are to fit our own life into its world, feel ourselves to be elements in its structure of universal history . . . Everything else that happens in the world can only be conceived as an element in this sequence; into it everything that is known about the world . . . must be fitted as an ingredient of the divine plan.’8 This insight has been gaining ground in various areas of philosophy and theology. In philosophical ethics Alasdaire MacIntyre states that I can only answer the question “What am I to do?” if I can answer the prior question “Of what story do I find myself a part?”9 In practical theology, for example, C. V. Gerkin says ‘This sense in which practical theological thinking is grounded in narrative is, of course, rooted in the faith that the Bible provides us with an overarching narrative in which all other narratives of the world are nested. The Bible is the story of God. The story of the world is first and foremost the story of God’s activity in creating, sustaining, and redeeming the world to fulfill God’s purposes for it.’10 In theological ethics Stanley Hauerwas contends that ‘the narrative character of Christian convictions is neither incidental nor accidental to Christian belief. There is no more fundamental way to talk of God than in a story. The fact that we come to know God through the recounting of the story of Israel and the life of Jesus is decisive for our truthful understanding of the kind of God we worship as well 6 Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, 41-42. 7 Loughlin, G., Telling God’s Story: Bible, Church, and Narrative Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, 37. 8 Frei, Hans. The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974, 3. 9 MacIntyre, Alasdaire. After Virtue. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1981, 216. 10 Gerkin, C.V. 1986. Widening the Horizons: Pastoral Responses to a Fragmented Society, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 49. as the world in which we exist.’11 Sidney Greidanus believes it is important for preaching to hold that ‘Scripture teaches one universal kingdom history that encompasses all of created reality: past, present, and future. . . . its vision of history extends backward all the way to the beginning of time and forward all the way to the last day. . . . the biblical vision of history spans time from the first creation to the new creation, encompassing all of created reality.’12 Newbigin states further the importance of story for preaching: ‘Preaching is the announcing of news, the telling of a narrative. In a society that has a different story to tell about itself, preaching has to be firmly and unapologetically rooted in the real story.’13 And finally, in Biblical studies N. T. Wright wants to proceed with a method that joins ‘together the three enterprises of literary, historical and theological study of the New Testament and to do so in particular by the use of the category of “story.”’14 And yet it is the case that often Christians do not see the Bible as one story. A Hindu scholar of the world’s religions once said to Lesslie Newbigin: I can’t understand why you missionaries present the Bible to us in India as a book of religion. It is not a book of religion–and anyway we have plenty of books of religion in India. We don’t need any more! I find in your Bible a unique interpretation of universal history, the history of the whole of creation and the history of the human race. And therefore a unique interpretation of the human person as a responsible actor in history. That is unique. There is nothing else in the whole religious literature of the world to put alongside it.15 We have fragmented the Bible into bits—moral bits, systematic-theological bits, devotional bits, historical-critical bits, narrative bits, and homiletical bits. When the Bible is broken up in this way there is no comprehensive grand narrative to withstand the power of the comprehensive humanist narrative that shapes our culture. The Bible bits are accommodated to the more comprehensive cultural story, and it becomes that story—i.e. the cultural story—that shapes our lives. The Bible as a Six Act Play In The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Story of the Bible we have attempted to tell the story of the Bible in six acts.16 In Act One God calls into being a marvellous creation. He creates human beings in his image to live in fellowship with him 11 Hauerwas, Stanley. 1983. The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983, 25. 12 Greidanus, Sidney.1988. The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 95. 13 In another place, Newbigin (A Word In Season, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994, 204-205) speaks of his personal Bible reading, but his words could as easily be applied to his understanding of preaching: ‘I more and more find the precious part of each day to be the thirty or forty minutes I spend each morning before breakfast with the Bible. All the rest of the day I am bombarded with the stories that the world is telling about itself. I am more and more skeptical about these stories. As I take time to immerse myself in the story that the Bible tells, my vision is cleared and I see things in another way. I see the day that lies ahead in its place in God’s story.’ 14 Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, 139. 15 Newbigin, 1999, A Walk Through the Bible, Louisville, KY: John Knox Westminster Press, 4. See also Lesslie Newbigin, 1989, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 89. and to explore and care for the riches of his creation. In Act Two humanity refuses to live under the Creator’s word, and chooses to seek life apart from Him. It results in disaster; the whole creation is brought into the train of human rebellion. In Act Three God chooses a people, Israel, to embody his creational and redemptive purposes for the world. Israel is formed into a people and placed on the land to shine as a light. They fail in their calling. Yet God promises through the prophets that Israel’s failure will not derail His plan. In Act Four God sends Jesus. Jesus carries out Israel’s calling is a faithful light to the world. But he does more: He defeats the power of sin at the cross, rises from the dead inaugurating the new creation, and pours out His Spirit that his people might taste of this coming salvation. Before he takes His position of authority over the creation he gathers his disciples together and tells them: ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ Act Five tells us the story of the church’s mission from Jerusalem to Rome in the first hundred or so years. But the story ends on an incomplete note. The story is to continue; the church’s mission is to continue in all places until Jesus returns. We are invited into this story to witness to the comprehensive rule of God in Jesus coming at the goal of history. Act Six is a yet future act. Jesus will return and complete his restoration work. We might ask how this story might be authoritative for our lives. N. T. Wright believes that the authority of the biblical story is tied up with its overarching narrative form. He offers a rich metaphor to explicate this authority.17 Imagine that a Shakespearian play is discovered for the first time but most of the fifth act is missing. The decision to stage the play is made. The first four acts and the remnant of the fifth act are given to well-trained and experienced Shakespearian actors who immerse themselves both in the first part of the play and in the culture and time of Shakespeare. They are told to work out the concluding fifth act for themselves. This conclusion must be both consistent and innovative. It must be consistent with the first part of the play. The actors must immerse themselves in full sympathy in the unfinished drama. The first four acts would contain its own cumulative forward movement that would demand that the play be concluded in a way consistent and fitting with that impetus. Yet an appropriate conclusion would not mean a simple repetition or imitation of the earlier acts. The actors would carry forward the logic of the play in a creative improvisation. Such an improvisation would be an authentic conclusion if it were coherent with the earlier acts. This metaphor provides a specific analogy for how the biblical story might function authoritatively to shape the life of the believing community. Wright sees the biblical story as consisting of four acts – creation, fall, Israel, Jesus – plus the first scene of the fifth act that narrates the beginning of the church’s mission. Furthermore this fifth act offers hints at how the play is to end. Thus the church’s life is lived out consistent with the forward 16 Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Story of the Bible, Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004. We are dependant on N. T. Wright for the metaphor of a drama. He explicates the Biblical story in five acts (‘How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?’, Vox Evangelica 21 (1991) 7-32; and The New Testament and the People of God. London: SPCK, 1992, 139- 143). Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton add a sixth act (Truth is Stranger Than It Used To Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1995, 182). We follow Walsh and Middleton, and use the latter structure. See our website www.biblicaltheology.ca for resources on using the book including a seven page summary of the Biblical story. 17 Wright, ‘How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?’ and The New Testament and the People of God, 139- 143. http://www.biblicaltheology.ca/ impetus of the first acts and moving toward and anticipating the intended conclusion. The first scene of act five, the church’s story, begins to draw out and implement the significance of the first four acts, especially act four. The church continues today to do the same in fresh and creative ways in new cultural situations. This requires a patient examination and thorough immersion in what act four is all about, how act four is to be understood in light of acts one through three, and how the first scene of act five faithfully carries forward act four. This view of the authority of the Biblical story assumes a clear understanding of our place in the story. It is important not only to understand that the Bible is one cosmic story of the world but also where we are at in the story. The Old Testament looked to a time when the kingdom of God would be ushered in in fullness. This was the goal of God’s redemptive work. When Jesus emerged he announced the arrival of the kingdom yet it did not come as expected. Examining the gospels and listening to Jesus we hear that the kingdom of God is already here but not yet arrived. What can this mean? If my wife tells me that our guests from out of town are already here but not yet arrived I would wonder what on earth she is saying. How can the kingdom be already here but not yet arrived? And what is the significance of the ‘already-not yet’ time period of the coming kingdom? First we have been given a foretaste of the kingdom. The gospels often compare the kingdom to a feast, a banquet. When the end comes we will enjoy the full banquet of the kingdom. However, the church has been given a foretaste of that kingdom banquet. A foretaste of the kingdom constitutes us as witnesses. The reason we have been offered a foretaste of the salvation of the end is so that we can witness to that salvation. Let me offer another illustration. The people of God are like a movie preview or trailer. A movie trailer gives actual footage of the movie that is coming in the future so that people will want to watch it. The people of God are a kingdom preview. We embody the salvation of the kingdom which is coming in the future so that people will see it and want it. That is what the witness is all about. We are a sign that points to the coming of the fullness of the kingdom in the future. We witness to its presence and its future consummation. A biblical witness is a witness to the kingdom, to God’s rule over all of human life. The worldview significance of our place in the story can be illustrated by N. T. Wright’s reflection on worldview. In their popular book on worldview, Richard Middleton and Brian Walsh argue that the Bible provides a worldview by answering foundational questions that shape our lives. Those questions are: Who are we? Where are we? What’s wrong? What’s the remedy?18 Wright follows Walsh and Middleton in his masterly discussion of the importance of worldview for New Testament studies.19 Four years later in his second volume he writes that there is a fifth question that needs to be added to the other four, a question that is fundamental for human life. That question is ‘what time is it?’ He says: ‘Since writing The New Testament and the People of God I have realized that ‘what time is it?’ needs adding to the four questions I started with (though at what point in the order could be discussed further). Without it, the structure collapses into timelessness which characterizes some non-Judaeo-Christian worldviews. 18 Walsh and Middleton, The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian World View, Downers Grove: IVP, 1984, 35. 19 Wright, N. T., The New Testament and the People of God, 29-144. Heading Off Misunderstandings Saying that the Bible is one unfolding story could lead to misunderstandings. So it would be good to say a few words to head off some of those misconceptions. First by saying that the Bible is one unfolding story I am not saying that the Bible is a nice neat novel. It is not a single volume but a ‘sprawling, capacious narrative.’20 In his discussion on the Bible as a metanarrative Richard Bauckham states that the ‘Bible does not have a carefully plotted single story-line, like, for example a conventional novel. It is a sprawling collection of narratives along with much non-narrative material that stands in a variety of relationships to the narratives.’21 He continues that major stretches of the main story are told more than once in divergent ways; there are a plurality of angles on the same subject matter (for example, the gospels). He points further to many ways in which there is a ‘profusion and sheer untidiness of the narrative materials.’22 He concludes that all this ‘makes any sort of finality in summarizing the biblical story inconceivable.’23 Secondly, the Bible is not only a narrative document. There are many other genres of literature in the Bible as well. Newbigin states that while the ‘Bible is essentially narrative in form’ that ‘it contains, indeed, much else: prayer, poetry, legislation, ethical teaching and so on.’ Yet, he maintains, ‘essentially it is a story.’24 James Barr differs radically with Newbigin (and me) on what exactly story means. Yet he too sees the overall shape of Scripture as a narrative within which other genres of Scripture fit. Here is how he puts it: . . . in my conception all of the Bible counts as ‘story.’ A people’s story is not necessarily purely narrative: materials of many kinds may be slotted into a narrative structure, and this is done in the Hebrew Bible. Thus legal materials are inserted and appear, almost entirely, as part of the Moses story. In this case they are incorporated into the narrative. Others are more loosely attached: songs and hymns of the temple and of individuals, mostly collected in the Book of Psalms but some slotted into the narratives as in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. . . . Wisdom books: whether . . . they came from Solomon, or because they were general lore of Israel, they are part of the story also. In the New Testament the letters of great leaders, and an apocalyptic book like Revelation, form part of the story, along with the more strictly narrative writings. Thus in general, although not all parts of the Bible are narrative, the narrative character of the story elements provides a better framework into which the non-narrative parts may be fitted than any framework based on the non-narrative parts into which the story elements could be fitted.25 20 Peterson, Eugene. ‘Living into God’s Story.’ This article originally appeared on the website ‘The Ooze: Conversation for a Journey’ (www.theooze.com). It can be accessed at http://www,churchcrossing.com/articles.cfm?fuseaction=articledetail&122 21 Bauckham, Richard. Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003, 92. 22 Ibid. 23 Bauckham, Ibid, 93. 24 Newbigin, Lesslie. The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995, 81. 25 James Barr. The Concept of Biblical Theology: …