For this sermon, we listened to these texts as framework for the ongoing exploration of the Evangelical Stream of the Christian tradition: Genesis 22:1-3,7-12; Jeremiah 17:5-10
I was sent a copy of someone else’s sermon the other day, which set out what that minister believed and didn’t believe about stories in the bible. From what I can gather, what was said, and how it was said had caused a bit of consternation, provoked some unhappy reactions.
I’m not going to comment on any of that content, except to say that I understand that faith is a journey. I know that what I believe is subject to change and so is how I believe. This is true for all of us. That change can take me into greater depths of peace, love and joy, or it can take me into greater depths of fear, guilt and shame. This is also true for all of us.
So as we dip our toes a bit further into the Evangelical stream of the Christian tradition, we are going to look a bit more closely at our approach to the three aspects of the word centred faith – the living word: Jesus, the written word: the scriptures, and the spoken word: the stories we tell. This week we’ll focus on the written word: the scriptures.
But before that, a story.
I clicked on a link in the New York Times daily digest the other day, which showed how young stand up comedian, Taylor Tomlinson, worked on developing the story she used to close her live show.
The article had some short clips of various live shows Taylor did as she tried out different elements of the story, which was about how her best friend from primary school called Taylor to announce her engagement. The basis of the story is cute but kind of bare – so Taylor progressively adds in the names of her friend and her friend’s fiancé, plus some seemingly random personal details.
She notices that she gets better responses from the audience when she mimes some parts of the conversation – holding her phone to her shoulder, for example, and when she pauses at appropriate moments with some exaggerated facial expressions.
She adds in some extra elements of the conversation, making fun of herself with them. At one gig, she includes an F-bomb in the punchline, which gets good laughs, but then she takes it out and instead adds extra emphasis to a word. And she ends with a flourish that is verbal and physical and altogether sassy.
The end result is positively delightful. AND it probably bears very little resemblance to the actual flow of original conversation.
Perhaps you can see where I’m going with this.
There are stories in our scriptures which definitely didn’t happen, and it isn’t a sign of great faith to state that you believe they did. Nor is it a heresy to say that they didn’t happen.
I think we can probably all agree with the scholars who say that Jonah is not a story that actually happened. Similarly Esther and Job. These stories all have elements that are clearly exaggerations, and fantastical happenings, and stock characters. These elements are clues to us that the story is meant to be read as fiction.
But I am not saying these stories aren’t true. I am saying they didn’t actually happen.
Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
Stories can be True Fiction. Jesus’ parables are a good example of fictional stories that communicate powerfully some of the most profoundly true and beautiful things about who God is.
The father who runs down the road to embrace the returning, wayward son, and who leaves the party to reassure the dutiful son. The searcher after lost things, the rejoicer over found things. It’s true even though it never really happened. It is no one’s story and it is all of our stories.
This story that Taylor is telling is, I think, akin to many of the stories we find in the scriptures. She is telling a story that did happen, but now she’s telling it with style.
Similarly, there are lots of stories in the scriptures whose core events did actually happen, and the writers of the story had some fun telling it with flair. There are literary elements included like some exaggeration and symbolism.
In the gospel accounts we can see there are editorial comments or careful framing of a story – Matthew has the sermon on the mount, which echoes Moses and the ten commandments. Luke has the sermon on the plain, making a very different statement about servant leadership, breaking down of barriers, openness and radical liberation.
These aren’t tricks aimed at deceiving us or testing our capacity to believe. They are there for the same reason Taylor’s flourishes of story telling are there – to draw us in, to entertain and engage us and to communicate more effectively and memorably what actually matters.
What actually matters is not how many Hebrews were freed from slavery in Egypt or how many years they wandered in the wilderness. It was a big group. A long time. What matters is that God freed them, God liberated them, God called them and went with them. God’s presence in the story, God’s action, God’s provision, God’s faithfulness, God’s tender mercy… what matters in these stories is that they reliably tell us something about who God is. Usually, that’s a little something. Not too much, because we have limited capacity to grasp the fullness of God’s Isness.
There are one or two stories I would absolutely not put in the True and told with extra flair category. The story of Jesus actual physical death and actual bodily resurrection are not added flair. The whole of the writings of the New Testament constantly refer to and are built on the conviction that Jesus died and was raised from the dead – both of those a bodily reality. These are big clues to us that we are not meant to read these details as nothing more than literary flourishes.
The Evangelical stream of our faith is about our stories – written, living and spoken. So, this week, I invite you to dip in to a bible story. I’ve picked one for you, printed it out and everything. Take a copy, and later on today read it over and notice what it tells you about who God is. Maybe return to it a few times, see if you notice anything new.
And come back next week, for the next instalment of the Evangelical Stream.
