The Bible as God’s Story …
Understanding Story with a capital “S.”
Story is integral to Bible engagement. Story, when used with a capitalized “S,” delineates God’s Story as distinct from other stories. It’s the metanarrative, the immense account of the Creator himself – about the One of whom the Scriptures speak and who entered our world as the Saviour, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from sin and death.
Describing God’s narrative.
Story, when used as a term, is a summation of the Bible’s narrative, saga, and drama. It’s more than an arrangement of facts, ideas, propositions, or a compilation of spiritual laws. Story describes God’s narrative – a unified, immediate, multidimensional, relational, non-manipulative, unique and central to knowing the truth and the One who is Truth. It is a spacious realm that we are invited to enter with imagination and faith and, once we have entered, to see ourselves as participants. It invites us to actively engage it and get caught up in the saga by receiving and reenacting it.
Encounters with God’s Story.
The meeting of our stories with God’s Story is not a simple affair. Encounters between people and God are complicated and convoluted. This is due not to God but to us. We tend to confuse, digress and destroy. The problem is that we’re inclined to indwell an alternative story to the one God invites us to participate in. In our ignorance, improvised scenarios are created, distorted roles are developed, and conflicting dramas are enacted.
True Bible engagement.
True Bible engagement begins when we respond to the Great Storyteller (God) as He invites us to take the role intended for us. The roles are many and varied, including listening, speaking, reading, studying, reciting, memorizing, interpreting, singing, preaching, receiving, and acting – both individually and communally. All our spiritual senses need to be engaged with God’s Story. We need to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8); open our eyes to it (cf. Psalm 119:18, 82), and open our ears to it – “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:9).
Sharing God’s view of the world.
The point is this: When the Bible is reduced to a handbook for church dogma, a moral rule book, a depository of propositional truth, or a collection of wise sayings to guide people through life, it is easy to take it or leave it. But when the Bible is shared, in the power of the Spirit, as the story which runs deeper than the world’s stories, it invites people to enter a different world and see themselves in a different light, that is, to share God’s view of the world.
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Summary
The Bible as God’s Story. As a metanarrative, the Scriptures reveal the Creator’s actions through Jesus Christ to redeem humanity from sin and death. Unlike a simple collection of facts or laws, the Story invites active engagement, allowing people to participate in God’s narrative through imagination, faith, and spiritual practices. Human encounters with God’s Story are often complicated by our tendency to create alternative, distorted narratives. True Bible engagement begins when we respond to God’s invitation to take our intended role, embracing the Story by opening our hearts and minds to His truth.
© Scripture Union Canada
