The World of Narratives

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

I promise this morning, well, I didn’t promise. I teased this morning that I might be talking about story and narrative connected even with Dave speaking about the Worldview wheel and the different spokes of that from about a month ago now. And one of the spokes on the wheel in addition to the catechesis or the propositions where we’re able to give answers to particular questions about what we believe, that’s catechesis. In addition to lifestyle, in addition to liturgy and symbol, we also have this thing called narrative or story. And of course, in a one-message summary, wasn’t able to go into all of the particular details.

But this issue of story and narrative is something that my own heart and mind has changed on in the last few years. And in a lot of ways, I wish my mom were here tonight, though I think it might actually kill her to hear me talking about it. Because my mom was a professional English teacher and she focused much more than just on the grammar part but on the literature part for me then to have any kind and I rejected that is my point, growing up. I wanted nothing to do with that. I didn’t want the literature or the grammar. I didn’t know the difference between first, second, and third person until I was a sophomore in college failing Greek.

And I needed to learn. And somehow, I still graduated with one of those yellow cords around my neck from high school and knew almost nothing and had no appreciation whatsoever for the English or the literature, the stories, the reading part. And there’s so much irony in my job today, as well as in some of my passions, some of the things that are shaping me. So we’re gonna talk about that, and we’ll see how it goes as I try to tell a story about stories and discuss narrative, hopefully for our benefit. There was an older woman who had a really large week ahead of her, and on Monday, she spent all morning long preparing her shopping list, and she had everything down to the scale, not only what items she needed to pick up, but how much of each item.

She spent all of her Monday not only preparing her list, but then going to the store and getting all the items and bringing them home throughout the rest of the week. She spent all sorts of time cleaning her house, even painting one of the rooms that had kind of fallen under a lack of care, and she continued to work and clean her house and prepare her house. And a particular day near the end of the week came and she put on her best clothes that she had. She began to prepare a feast with all the things that she had purchased earlier in the week at the store and at the right time her son showed up and they were able to enjoy a meal of fellowship together having not seen each other for over a decade.

And that story is totally made up. That is not a real woman but totally made up. I have in my mind, I was in college, like this is what I was channeling, the commercial I was channeling while coming up with some of those details. Obviously, some things are changed, but I was in college and I had just fractured my, or one of my vertebrae in my back. I was on some severe pain medication and muscle relaxers and I watched that, I think it’s a Maxwell House coffee commercial where the kid from college comes home and he brews the pot of coffee and like the mom and the dad wake up and they smell the aroma and they can’t imagine what that means and they run downstairs and it’s 30 seconds long but I told I was bawling while watching that commercial like I say lots of drugs that we’re bringing it about at that point.

But back to the story that I mentioned, not lots of a story, but ideally with the details that I gave you that perhaps pulled up some emotions. And I could have worked harder at the details. I could have worked harder at presenting the story or telling the story. But ideally it brought up some emotions even though it’s fiction. He probably anticipated that it was fake. We know, or at least we want to know, there is something inside of us as human beings that connects with that kind of story, that kind of relationship, that kind of preparation and anticipation and then sharing of togetherness and reuniting of family members who have been separated for so long.

There’s something in that that we can appreciate and that we can even long for. Now, of course, the story could be an absolute miserable story. And I could totally ruin it for whatever sentimental happy feelings we might have about this lady who now gets to see her son and have dinner with him for the first time in over 10 years. We could totally just spoil that by maybe adding details like the reason she went through all that effort is because the reason she hadn’t seen him for 10 years is because she had pushed him away by being angry and bitter and controlling, and so he said, I don’t want anything to do with you.

And the cause of the separation was not some ministerial, international missions work, or some kind of being in the military and getting an assignment so far away, or he had been in a coma for that long and had nothing to do with either one of them. But we could totally say she’s just now trying to make up for all of the things that she did to make it so awful. Or maybe he was the angry one. Maybe he just was youthful and immature and didn’t understand what it was that she was trying to do or was mad that she divorced his dad and that ruined everything for him. Maybe then he shows up and the end of the story is not quite so pleasant.

Maybe she’s done all of this work of preparation, anticipating him coming and sharing that time together, and then basically he rejects it and criticizes her. And they fight throughout the whole meal. And he vomits up the food right on her cat or whatever it might be to demonstrate that the distance has been more than just in time. It’s a distance in their hearts.

Of course, the more of the story we know, the more we know the characters, the more we know the older lady, we know why she’s alone, we know why it takes her so long to do various things perhaps, the more we know the young man, the more we know their relationship, what makes them tick. As it is with all stories, we typically end up being drawn to some of the characters. We typically end up wanting to run away from others, other characters. And not only do we, by listening or by watching video stories being acted out for us, not only are we better able to know those characters, but we are all also better able to know what kind of characters we are.

We’re able to see little bits of ourselves in various things that we read or various things that we watch. We can see perhaps how others view us. And we can see maybe the better parts about us or the not as good parts about us. We can see not just character development, But we can start to anticipate various parts of plot development as well. We know as we’re reading through various books or especially if you’re reading through books by a particular author and you know that there’s always some kind of twist at the end. M. Night Shyamala Madingdong always gets himself in trouble because you are just waiting now for the thing at the end.

And basically, you know, you can ignore basically the whole first 90% of the movie because something at the end is going to explain all the other things in the beginning. So you can try to guess it, try to figure it out. But various authors as well, you can track how they typically like to tell their stories.

That’s actually really valuable when it comes to being able to watch and see the various stories that God tells. In the one big story that he’s telling, he tells lots of little stories. We want to know the kind of characters and we want to see the kind of ways that God is developing his plot. We also then, in knowing that and getting away to identify patterns and possible direction, then we can be surprised when there are certain plot twists, when a character says something or does something that we just hadn’t anticipated. So this is an element of our world view, this story or this narrative part. The narrative or the stories we read, and that’s a general statement.

When I’m talking about stories and narrative, I am thinking about not just the Bible. That’s the most important one. But I am thinking about other stories that we read, that we watch, and that we tell our kids. This is part of how we view the world. This is part of what we think belongs in the world that God has made. We are not cogs in a machine. We are people and persons. And there is drama. It’s one of the reasons why, and I think it’s a horrible version, like I can’t stand them, but nevertheless it’s one of the reasons why people are drawn to so much quote unquote reality TV because they love to see the drama.

This is a world filled with drama and people interacting and it’s strange, but that just doesn’t always seem to go very well when people get together and have to talk or do things. And those are all stories that we learn and see how people behave and then in particular how we are supposed to behave. And that is something that we communicate to one another and even to our children especially, to the next generation. The things we communicate to them are shaping how they are growing up. For example, perhaps you had a dad who regularly told you something like this, son, when you grow up, you’re going to college because you’re not going to flip burgers for the rest of your life.

The number of times my dad said that to me, like I could have started my own restaurant chain with the dimes per time of communication. He told me a story. And he didn’t say that. And he would not be impressed with me using that terminology to describe what he was doing. But he was telling me, he was painting me a picture of how life was going to go and about why I needed to be doing certain things right now when I was young, why I needed to be doing certain things right then that would prepare me. Because depending on what you do as a character right now is then where your character ends up later on.

So he told me this story about Flippenburgers. And I haven’t forgotten it. So his story answered how you move from this place not to burger flipping, but to success was education. You’re going to go to college. You’re going to get a degree. And this is how the story moves from ending up here to ending up over here. He was telling me a story about how school fixes problems, how a piece of paper from a particular school enables you to actually have more joy and happiness in life because then you get a better job, which gives you a better paycheck, which means you can live more comfortably and have more things. That was the story he was telling me.

He didn’t say you can have the American dream, but that’s just another version of it. And so the stories that we tell, the stories that we give attention to, are actually part of our worldview because they shape our life. The stories can be true. They can be based on true stories. They can be straight up fiction stories. Obviously, some stories are better than others. I am not giving carte blanche approval to say, just go find anything down at the Albertsons right there at the checkout stand that looks like a book and pick it up And there you go, you have God’s worldview. There are certainly stories that are better, that are consistent with the lordship of Christ over all things.

Or there are many stories, most of them, that present some sort of idol, like education, like schooling, tells the story about how a particular idol makes your life better. So there are some stories that are better than other stories, And I admit that until maybe three or four years ago, I just had no time for that at all. Like, interest, I think I would have argued pretty well. I mean, I would have argued about anything, but I think I definitely would have felt it worthwhile to spend some time arguing against reading storybooks to anybody, like fine for 3-year-olds, but the reason they read stories is because they can’t read Calvin’s Institutes, right?

That’s the only reason that you would read something else. Otherwise, you’d read the thing that more quickly fills your truth tube. So until maybe four or so years ago, I would have told you something different. But my mind is totally changed, so I’m repenting publicly from story hating, from having… and I didn’t know the four-spoke idea of a worldview then either, but I repent from having a wheel that was missing a spoke. It wasn’t even like it was halfway out. It was just not even there at all. And my pastoring, my being a husband, definitely my being a father, my being a Christian is so much more different.

I don’t know that I would say it’s 180 degrees different, but it is radically different because of this story element. It started, I think, by studying a narrative in the book of Genesis. And you can actually turn there because I’m gonna use Genesis 1 as the case study, as an example, to show story and narrative and how influential that can be. Because for me, this is really where it started. New worlds have opened up in my mind since having started to study Genesis 1 so many years ago. Or maybe it’s not new worlds have opened up. Maybe the actual world has opened up in new ways to me since reading this particular narrative.

More importantly than any of that, and I think this is not the most precise way to say it, but God has opened up to me. Or my thinking has been opened up about God in ways that it previously had not. And that’s after a Bible college degree and my master of divinity. Like I paid those dollars. I sat, well, I went to a lot of the classes. I didn’t go to all of them. And I paid attention in some of them. So even the ones I went to, I didn’t necessarily squeeze everything out of them that I could, but nevertheless, they at least still let me graduate and get me the certificate. And you know what, those things are not necessarily what have made my life more complete or more joyful, even though I’m not flipping burgers.

And this story part has, like I say, helped out a lot. I have awakened to new realities of our Heavenly Father, and in particular to realities of His heart like never before. And I owe it to thinking about him from his story, from the little stories that he tells, from the great eternal story that he is telling as well, and from the smaller stories that we can read that somehow echo, that make us think about various parts of his story that we get to then think about from a different angle. I owe it to stories. I definitely owe it to God’s Holy Spirit, and then to a few other people who told me that I was really missing the boat.

So thank you to you guys who were patient. I realize I am only introducing the subject tonight, but it keeps coming up in my head because it has been so transforming. it really would have been a lot more better for me to not talk about story tonight because I’ve preached lots more sermons that would have been easier to just, like, reprint and tweak some stuff that potentially would be good. But this is, I mentioned this morning, kind of new wine and old wineskins. And because it is so transforming and because with Dave talking about the worldview and because we’re really considering how to be a certain kind of people, I think we need to grasp this a little bit better.

So let’s look at, in particular, let’s read the story in Genesis chapter one. And to the degree that we can, and I know everybody always reads Genesis one on January one, everybody gets that far in their Bible reading program. I grasp that. You’ve heard this. You’ve seen the flanograms. Well, let’s try one more time to go through this story. See it not just as information, as facts about the first week, but as a story. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, let there be light and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse, and it was so. And God called the expanse heaven, and there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear.

And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together, he called seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit and which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit and which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the third day. And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.

And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on earth to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the water swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good and God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind, and God saw that it was good. Then God said, and He didn’t say, let there be. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created Him, male and female He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful, then fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food, and every beast of the earth, and every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food, and it was so.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Thanks for letting me read through that. Because now, as we have that in our minds, we need to ask this question. What is the point of that story? That’s a really important question.

What is the point of that story? We could say things like this. This could be some potential answers. How about, number one, God is. There’s no explanation of where he came from, how he got there. He just is. And not only do we see that God is, we see a bunch of different things about him that the story tells us. The story tells us that he is already, he is existing already. He’s powerful. He’s creative. He’s wise, imaginative, orderly, authoritative. When he speaks, things happen. And he says, let there be the follow up right after that is, and it was so. When he speaks, when his word comes out, it accomplishes its purpose.

When you get to Isaiah 55, and he’s talking about the more special word that it goes out and accomplishes its purpose. You know what the confidence of that is? Look around and see the universe. When God speaks, things happen. He’s authoritative. We also see that he’s personal. He creates other beings. I don’t think that that’s the point of the story. That’s really good. That’s true. That’s not the point of the story. How about the fact that the world is created? And in our day and age, that’s enough right there to get us into trouble with all of the education, school peoples. The point of the story could be that the world is created.

It has a creator. This tells us the origins of all things. How we came into existence. How it all came about. God created it. It tells us about God. It tells us about the world that it’s a created thing. I still don’t think that’s the point. For that matter, we could say that the point of the story is to say that men are image bearers. That certainly is a major part of chapter one. It tells us who we are as men, why we are like we are. It gives us the origin of marriage, of family, of society, as well as the origin of worship and morality. We answer to the creator, to our maker. It tells us who we are and who made us and what our, or at least some of our responsibilities are to him. We also see the basis for our work and responsibility taking dominion that God created us for that purpose. I don’t think that that’s the point of the story. Another possibility is the basis of existence. This story tells us about the day and night, light and dark cycle.

Why is it that it got dark at 3 o’clock this afternoon? Well, there’s a couple governmental choices that were made. But the fact that there is light and darkness goes back to the very first week. It gives us the seasons and the cycles of those seasons. It tells us the basis of our work six, take one off. weak. It sets the pattern. It gives us the standard for that. And yet, just the information that God is and who he is, the reality of the world being created in the particular way that it was setting as, it does so clearly, the basis for our existence, even who men are and what some of their responsibilities are, those are not the point of the story.

Now those are all true and glorious facts. They are necessary and non-negotiable, but they are not the point of the story. Consider, I mean, this is the kind of question when you know it’s a story. This is the kind of question that keeps coming up. In light of the fact that whatever God said happened just as He said, then why did God say it that way? The number of times, it repeats that phrase, and it was so. Why then really take six days to do it? If you can create everything out of no thing, and you can do that by your word, and you You can do that instantaneously. Then why create it in Genesis 1.1, without form and void?

And then why on the first three days form it, without form, and then form it on the first three days, and then the following three days fill it. It was without form, then he forms it, then it was empty, and so he filled it. Day one, light and dark. He’s forming it, dividing it, saying how it goes, but then on the fourth day, he fills it with the sun and the moon, the greater light and the lesser light. Light and darkness already exist. He was forming it, defining it, but now he fills it. Day two, he creates the sea and the sky. Day five, he creates fish and the storming things to fill the sea and birds to fill the sky, winged creatures.

He forms it and fills it. Day 6, he creates animals and men in order to inhabit it, dwell on that land, fill it up and utilize it. Why go through all that hassle? Why not, in Genesis 1.1 say, God created the heavens and the earth and he did it with a snap of his fingers and then it was all done? And for that matter, why start with Adam and then create Eve? Why not create them both at the same time? Or why not create the seven billion people all at the same time? Is it really more difficult for God to create seven billion people at one time than it is for him to create one out of the dust? Of course not. We’re reading the story.

We see what he’s capable of. He doesn’t really have any limitations. So why does he do it that way? What is he wanting us to understand from creating it in the way that he does with the days that he does? I think it’s because halfway through day six is the climax.

It’s what he’s been aiming for and he’s demonstrating that leading up to it. He is telling a story about how eager he is and how happy he is and the preparations he is doing to share himself with men. That’s why I gave the lame story about the old woman at the beginning, making preparations in anticipation for the sharing of a meal with her son. All of this is getting a home ready for man, for the crown of his creation, to share himself, show himself to, and be with the crown, the man. This is the emphasis in the story based on the amount of space it takes up. Verses 26 through 31, all of those verses take more time to talk about the least amount of things created.

Because basically in those few verses you get two people and that’s it. Everything else we’re creating light and darkness. We’re creating sun and moon and animals and plants according to seeds and fruit and blah, blah, blah, like all over the globe. He takes the most amount of space to talk about the least amount of creation, but he does so in a way unlike any of the other days of creation where then there’s deliberation. As I pointed out when I was reading through the story, that was my little cheating foreshadow reading insert. This is the very first time that he starts talking with himself. Let us make man in our image.

I argued a few months ago on a Sunday night that I think this is at least a hint at the Trinity. This Trinitarian God is spilling over and making this being in his image to reflect himself. That’s why there’s male and female. So there’s more space here. There’s deliberation among the Godhead. There’s a poem thrown in, at least by the narrator, and under the work of the Holy Spirit, that’s God’s work just as much.

Then in verse 29, I remember being convicted about this when I first preached it. Look at verse 29, and God said, right, And so he’s created Adam and Eve by this point because he gives the commission to both of them. So the story in chapter two is basically an expanded version of what happens in just a couple verses there in verse one. So he gives the commission, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, take dominion and subdue it to both Adam and Eve. And then in verse 29 he says, behold, look at these vegetables and fruits. And I think that’s the best you can do, but I mean, yes, of course it was the best he could do.

I have actually really tried as a small little takeaway to eat some more fruits and vegetables from this particular story. But it’s almost as if God can’t wait to show off what he’s made for them. Look at all the preparations I’ve done for you. Look at what I’ve made. Behold, this is for you. And the liberality with which they were given this is astounding. Out of all of the various things that were created, in particular the fruit and vegetable bearing trees and plants, There was only one he prohibited them from eating. All the others were fair game. Why didn’t he just make apples or oranges or bananas or whatever was his favorite?

Or why didn’t he just make them oatmeal? Remember in the Matrix, the story, you remember where they don’t really eat anything that tastes good. They eat that oatmeal-ish kind of glop because it contains all the nutrients that they need. God didn’t have to create taste buds and things that would be tasty and create all kinds of different things to taste and to enjoy. When he says, behold, look at what I’ve made for you, what I’ve prepared for you. He’s sharing what He’s made. No expenses spared. A liberty and a variety. And it was so. It all happened just how He wanted it to happen. Look at the end of the chapter.

Verse 31. And God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good. God is looking out over all that he’s made, and he’s calling for our attention to say, this is good. It is very good. It is just how I want it to be. We tend to read Genesis 1 as more of a scientific textbook that helps us fill in the blanks about where certain things come from, why we’re supposed to be moral creatures, why evolution is inconsistent. We tend to read Genesis 1 as a scientific textbook. Other people who don’t read it as a made-up or fictional story. And because of that, we miss the point that God does this. He did this.

He took days to do it when He didn’t have to do it that way. He took days to do it to share His heart with us, to show us the kind of God that He is. We truth tubes have a theology proper problem. Theology proper is the study of God Himself. I’m convinced more than ever that the reason why we behave so poorly is because we don’t know God very well. The reason why people who can teach some of the best expositional sermons have the least amount of joy either while teaching it or when they’re done teaching it. Why so many families that attend great Bible teaching churches are so messed up and miserable? Why we have so many authoritarian husbands and fathers rather than image-bearing husbands and fathers?

It’s because we don’t actually know God. Now I understand the fall like we got that far before I had to quit studying through the book of Genesis. read through chapter three, I know what happens. I understand the fall and sin and its effect. I understand the need for the seed of the woman and justification by faith alone. I taught on the soul of P-Day last Sunday night. I exalt in some of those specific declarations and statements of the things that give us life. But what does salvation get us back to? Mo and I were having this conversation in the car, driving somewhere on Friday. We are saved to get to be with God and share some of the kinds of things just like they had before sin.

What does salvation get us back to? We think salvation basically should cause us just to skip right from here into heaven. And we can take our well-filled Bible brains along with us, but basically all of this is useless, worthless, a hindrance to us thinking about heaven. Well, God sure did waste a lot of time telling an awful lot of story and saying now, because Jesus has come and you’re justified by faith alone, that all that’s meaningless, of no good. Loving God and loving life in the world He made for us is what salvation gets us back to. He really wants us to work hard and then rest, well, considering Him. He really wants us to do that.

That’s not a necessary evil because you have to buy things down at the grocery store so your family can eat. It’s not utilitarian in that respect, employment or work, vocation, calling to a job. I get it, it totally feels like that. But it doesn’t have to. We tend to think that’s the part that keeps me from being an image-bearer, when according to Genesis 1, that’s a major part of it. Not just knowing all the solas or being able to accurately identify the petals on the tulip. And again, those are good. He wants us to get up when the sun comes up and go to bed somewhere reasonably after the sun goes down. Yay for electricity.

I think he’s impressed, you know? Not impressed. He created light and didn’t need a socket. But he’s glad for us in our taking dominion work that we have electricity and we can turn it on and off. All he’s got to do is speak. You’ve seen the commercials where he can clap, clap on, clap off, and do the same thing with the light. But he wants us to get up and go to bed. He wants us to get married and plant corn and build cities and make music and live life with him. He’s made it for us to share himself with us.

That’s why he made it. That’s why we’re here. To know him, to share with him in all that he has done for us. Genesis one, if you were to go home and you were to get out, I didn’t do this, so maybe I’m gonna get myself in trouble, but if you were to go home and you were to get out Wayne Grudem’s systematic theology book and go to the scripture index in the back And look at all the times Genesis 1 is mentioned. I bet it’s mentioned a lot of times. And I bet it goes. It attaches itself to various truths about God’s attributes, about how he’s eternal, and he’s omnipotent, and he’s omniscient, and he’s transcendent, and he’s imminent.

He’s also right there. Genesis 1 totally teaches us about those attributes, but it misses that he really likes what he’s doing and that he’s sharing all of that with us. He’s not an omnipotent, omniscient God that we throw our songs at from a distance, and we just wish we could get to heaven where we didn’t have to do all of this stuff with kids who cry and meet that burns in the oven and cars that break down and need new tires or whatever it is like. But he’s telling his story and he’s made it for us to know his heart and to share him. It also misses the point that God doesn’t mind taking his time making a point.

God is not nervous that people have to grow. He made it that way. If He’d have wanted to, He could have changed that, right? It is His story. He could have said in Genesis 1-1, like Genesis 1-1 could have been, He created everything. Genesis 1-2 could have been that they ate the fruit they weren’t supposed to. Genesis 1-3 could have been that Jesus came and he died as the penalty, rather than some animal that God sacrificed in the garden. Could have just sent his son from heaven at that point and given him a body.

And then Genesis 1.4, yay, said the people, and then they went to heaven. The end. But it’s a lot longer story than that, a much bigger book than that. Why? because apparently he doesn’t mind taking his time to share himself with us and grow us and build us and tell his story. Why six days to form and fill? Why Adam first and then Eve? Why only two in a Middle Eastern garden to us Western Washingtonites? That’s of all the places, really? That was the one, okay. Because they got good oil. But they didn’t have cars. They wouldn’t have appreciated it like we would have. Why a tree to prohibit? If he’s doing all of this amazing stuff, couldn’t he have made it so that there wasn’t a tree that they didn’t have to eat from?

I mean, right, the answer to that is, of course. He could have, he was in charge of the whole garden part. And what things are planted where? So he is the one who planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the center of the garden. And he didn’t have to plant that there. He didn’t have to have such a thing. There was no director requiring him or no editor telling God how to write his story. Well, you really need to include some conflict.

Some kind of temptation. That’ll really engage people’s interests a lot better. And nevertheless, it is part of his story. Why did he even allow the serpent in there? So he is able to create a universe, but he can’t keep a snake out of his garden. Of course he can, but he didn’t. Why babies? Babies are a real issue for me. I like them, but man, what’s the deal with babies? Like, why didn’t he make it so that everybody comes out at 35, already able to do a bunch of stuff? Obviously, he can do it. He didn’t make Adam a baby. But everybody else since Eve has come out a baby and had to go through the process. Why the Old Testament?

Sheesh, that’s two-thirds of the book that’s really long and there’s some boring parts in there. Couldn’t he have edited those down? Get us just like the Cliff Notes version on into Jesus for then the New Testament. Why progressive sanctification? God must really like taking his time to make a point because otherwise it would be a lot better from our miserable little small tiny non-narrative worldview, right? It’s people who have the catechesis. You wanna go right from the question to the right answer. You wanna go right from, yes, Jesus, I confess my sin, you’re Lord, right to heaven. But there’s a story.

Why progressive sanctification? Why continue to what seems like for us at times, let us flounder and keep sinning again. Need to ask forgiveness again. Why week after week of Lord’s Day worship? Can’t we just have one really, really, really good service? And then you’re good for like 20 years. We’ll see everybody in a while because that was it. They can give us instructions for that. He could do that. He’s God. And yet, he’s doing it in a particular way to share himself with us and to grow us into knowing him and fellowshipping with him. That’s why we need to be careful about reading and telling good stories to one another and even to our kids, to give them a good worldview, to understand the Lordship of Christ.

So I’m a novice, I’m a newbie at all this kind of stuff. But we read through the Chronicles of Narnia with Maggie and Calvin and how they listened every once in a while. But as I was starting to grasp some of these things, I cried when Repachiep is, and they’re in the boat on the sea of silver lilies. Right? I mean how, talk about flowery. But there was a serenity and a sweetness in the air and an irresistible draw that Reepachiep had for Aslan’s land. And I cried because that is the sweetness and the draw that heaven is. And it’s okay that it’s taking time to get there, but like it was another story that echoed the greater story that God is telling that He invites us into to be a part of.

We just finished reading another book, another three series book. I’m reading it through with the kids. And there’s a scene where the young boy, I think he’s 13. He is battling this just mean old nasty witch lady. And she is sucking life out of everybody. She’s sucking life out of stones for sake of her power. And he is supposed to battle her and fight her. And she totally mocks him and says there’s no way that he can defeat her. And he stands up and I forget exactly how it goes, but basically she asked him, why do you think you’ll win? And he says, I have a name. And you know, it’s from earlier in the story where because of who he is, he has to fight and he has to win.

Now, I wanted to stand up while we were reading that and just scream, I have a name. Not Sean, not Higgins. I am a Christian. I serve the Lord. I have a name. I know who I am. He wins. I don’t have to, yes, a mean old terrible witch lady who’s sucking life out of stones. That’s bad. But we don’t run away. We stand up courageously because we have a name. The stories idea, if they’re good ones, and obviously the Bible, which is at least 40% in the narrative genre telling us stories. But then with other good ones in addition to that, help us communicate to our families, to our kids, to our community, the realities of who our God is, who we are, what we believe.

It is part of our worldview because Christ is Lord and He is telling an eternal story. I hope that helps. Like I say, I realize that’s just kind of an introduction, but I really believe there’s a lot of value there. Try it. You’re not too old to read a good fiction book to your grandkids or to your kids or just for yourself. It’s got to be a good one. I’m not talking about Twilight or left behind, necessarily. But there are good ones, and those are ones that help us get excited that we have a name, the character we are in his story, the plot that develops for sake of his final and absolute glory and our greatest joy.

There won’t actually be the end for that one. So Father, help us get a better understanding of you, not just being able to answer questions on the theology test as necessary as that is, the realities are really real. They can be explained as facts. That’s catechesis. But there is this other element that, at least in my case, and I anticipate in the case of many others, is missing. And because of that, we actually miss some of the point. For all of the truth that we think we understand, we still miss the point of how a lot of that connects, what it’s meant for. To help us to know you. Thank you for revealing yourself to us, preparing this world for us.

Don’t let us love the world rather than you. That’s obviously idolatry. but not receiving what you have made and what you have given is not actually better. So help us receive and live under your lordship with thankfulness and joyfulness, working hard according to your story. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.