Rooted in God’s Story

Grounding Ourselves in God’s True Narrative (Recovering the whole story of the Scriptures from the Garden to the Garden City)

The Bible is a unified narrative of God’s ongoing creative, redemptive, and restorative work in history. It is a story of God’s Kingdom and as followers of Jesus, we are invited to continually live out that redemptive narrative in our modern world and to reveal God’s Kingdom in every aspect of our lives. We cannot live out that redemptive narrative, however, unless we know it. 

Therefore, as followers of Jesus, we are to recover an understanding of the Scriptures as God’s Story:

·      Which begins with God and a Garden;

·      Then recounts the Call and Fall of Humanity and resulting fragmentation of all relationships;

·      Then tells of God’s redemptive work through the people of Israel, Jesus Christ, and the Church; and

·      Ends with a restored Garden City where God dwells with His people in a a renewed heaven and earth for all of eternity. 

As we come to recover this story, we come to understand God’s faithful and loving character, to see ourselves as people who are broken yet still beautiful, and to recover our identity as image-bearers, sons & daughters of God, family members in God’s Church, and heirs of God’s Kingdom.  We also discover our purpose and destiny.  This gives us great hope, helps us to uncover false narratives that the world throws at us, and allows us to live our lives intentionally as Kingdom citizens “who love, serve, and reverence” our Lord, the King of All Creation. 

Grafting Ourselves into God’s Family by learning the stories of our brothers and sisters across time and geography

While we learn God’s Great Story primarily through the Scriptures, we can see this story played out in the lives of devoted followers of Jesus who themselves have been shaped by the Scriptures and Jesus’ presence. 

Thus, we can renew our faith by reading the biographies, autobiographies, and writings of “saints” who have gone before us, witnessing the lives of the faithful, & listening to the contemporary testimonies of those in our family of faith who have experienced God’s love, faithfulness, and transforming power.  As we see how their stories have been shaped by God’s Story, we can have vision for how our stories can also be shaped.  And as we ourselves are shaped by God’s story, we can share this with others in word and deed, trusting that God can use our stories to inspire others to come to faith, be reconciled to God, and join our family of Jesus followers. 

Grazing on short parts of the Scripture and enjoying it like a good nourishing meal.

Though the Word of God is full of information, it is not just meant to be read, studied, and grasped for informational purposes only.  We are to approach the Scriptures like we approach a good meal, where we find nourishment and joy in the company of others sharing this meal. In this case, we a nourished by Jesus Himself, the Word Made Flesh, who is present with us and who wishes to speak to us. 

Thus, in addition to grasping the broad sweep of Scriptures, we are to sit with smaller sections of Scriptures, ruminating on the words of Scripture, allowing our informational knowledge of God to turn into an experiential meeting with God where the truths of Scriptures get deep down into our hearts and souls. 

We are also to be nourished by the Eucharistic meal in worship, where we meet the Word Made Flesh each week as we partake of the bread and wine and we recount the story of Jesus died, risen, and coming again.

Grasping God’s Love for each one of us, personally

The foundation stone of our faith as Christians is that God is love.  In fact, love is at the very heart of God’s being – God is a Triune God overflowing with love who created us out of the overflow of His love.  As such, the Father is our loving “Daddy” (who shows us what true parenthood is like), and Jesus is Love Incarnate who suffered on our behalf because of this love and who is now present with us through Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the one who fills us with God’s love and transforms us by this love. As followers of Jesus, it is imperative that we understand this foundational truth if we are to properly understand the whole sweep of God’s story and we are to understand our true identities as image-bearers of inherent worth and dignity. We are beloved sons & daughters of our Loving Father and heirs of God’s Kingdom. 

This understanding, however, must move beyond head knowledge and be experienced as a concrete reality in our lives.  God loves us, not because of anything we do, but simply because He created us and delights in each one of us.  Unfortunately, for too many of us (whether because of false theology, unhelpful narratives about ourselves, or unloving environments), we do not believe God loves us in the deepest parts of our hearts and souls. 

Thus, we are invited to seek out ways to simply be with God and rest in God’s loving arms so that slowly but surely, we know God’s love experientially.  Especially in times of suffering, we are to seek out and experience Jesus’ co-suffering love.