GOD & NARRATIVE

We are surrounded by narratives. Our ideas of self, freedom, honor, and justice are extolled and propagated by the narratives presented to us, those we present to others, and even the ones we tell ourselves, from how our parents met to how the bullying suffered in the third grade led to our running for office in order to fight for the little guy. Narratives contextualize our identity, as when we sit with the therapist in order to learn why all our relationships end in disaster or a Christian offers their testimony. The ‘real world’ too is presented as and interpreted by narratives. As Michael Cieply, former Movie Editor at the New York Times recently wrote, ‘By and large, talented reporters scrambled to match stories with what internally was often called ‘the narrative.’ We were occasionally asked to map a narrative for our various beats a year in advance, square the plan with editors, then generate stories that fit the pre-designated line.’ Obviously, not all of these narratives are successful, or even true.

Perhaps it’s more accurate to say we’re surrounded by attempts at narrative, in which case how do we weed out the good from the bad, truth from falsehood, the beneficial from the harmful? Or do we even need to bother, are narratives more trouble than they’re worth? In fact, maybe the entire subject of narrative is overblown and is little more than the modern equivalent of the humours, astrology, or phrenology? But, if the Bible is true then it means that reality is indeed a narrative, as is every life. For this commitment to a particular book as the Word of God, is presented in the form of a narrative. A book which purports to not only narrate a story about God but claims that this is the story of reality itself. Its claim is that there is a story, as told in these Scriptures, of everything that ever was, is, or will be. The question then arises, why a story? Why do we have to live the story? Why can’t we get the gist from Wikipedia and skip to the end? And why does God, who is eternal, unchanging, and outside of space and time, talk to us through story, something which has a beginning, middle, and end, and is all about change? And therein lies the key; Change. Events happen, things change, and it is either significant or insignificant but whatever the case, it means something. Meaning can only reveal itself within a story.

What does it mean to love one’s neighbor as thyself? Jesus could have explained who qualified as a neighbor and given a list of how to treat them, but instead he told the parable of the Good Samaritan. God chose to interact with us narratively because narrative is just what we call a connected series of events unified into a story. The narrative of Scripture recounts to us a story of humanity’s engagement with God. It is the story that recounts the creation of Reality itself in the beginning, all the way to its end and remaking in the New Creation. That means that each life has a part in that narrative, while at the same time every life can go from background character to protagonist in the same redemptive arc. is a narrative of our journey with God, from the Fall, through His covenant with Abraham, the Exodus, the Temple, captivity in Babylon, the return, and the coming of the Messiah are all events in a great narrative that culminates into the Son entering foursquare into the narrative as its Hero. A story which grants to every life a unity and wholeness, a story which finds its completion through Jesus Christ.