“Evil is not inherent in the human condition: there once was a completely good creation and there will be again; hence, the restoration of creation is not impossible. Nothing in the world ought to be despaired of. Hope is grounded in the constant availability and the insistent presence of the good creation, even in those situations in which it is being terribly violated.”Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview
February 2010 archive
While I’m on the topic of story feasts, I should point out that telling stories is NOT for women only. Here’s a story of one way men were transformed by a simple story feast.
A friend from seminary had been struggling with disunity among church board members. I had told him about Story Feasting and he decided to try his version of it.
At the next meeting, he announced to the group that there would be no minutes nor motions taken that evening. Instead, each man would have twenty minutes to find a quiet place and write a story of rescue. Then they would return to tell these stories. For the first time in one of these meetings, there was complete silence. The men just stared at my preacher friend, who smiled, handed them the assignment, and sent them off.
Twenty minutes later, they returned. William, at eighty-one, an original board member, and one of the wisest and gentlest, spoke first. He had tears in his eyes as he thanked the pastor for reminding him that he was a redeemed man. He went on to tell the story of how he became a Christian during World War II.
Rod, the youngest elder who had settled in a strict conservative camp where there was little room for the gospel to breathe in any of the “hot button issues,” softened as he heard William’s story. For the first time in a while, he thought of his deceased grandfather, who had led him to faith. His grandfather had been a kind and gentle man with a “homegrown” Christianity. As Rod had begun studying theology, he found himself silently critiquing his grandfather’s simple understandings. Listening to William, a man from his grandfather’s era, Rod began to realize both his own arrogance in criticizing his grandfather and the arrogance with which he sometimes approached his work on the board.
At that moment, Rod decided to tell a different story than he had written. He told a rescue story of being raised in a home ravaged by an alcoholic father and of a grandfather who cared for him. Early on hot summer mornings, his grandfather would come calling at his house and together they would walk to the nearby pond and fish for bream with cane poles. As they waited for fish and swatted flies and mosquitoes, his grandfather would tell him about the ‘fisher of men’ who loved him and died for him. Though they never caught many fish, it was in these times that Rod’s heart was deeply hooked by his grandfather’s beloved fisher of men.
From there, the stories took off, and before long, at least four of the thirteen men in the room had tears in their eyes as waves of understanding washed over them. With each story, each man was reminded again of his own rescue by a loving God who had pursued him to the ends of the earth. A gospel shift occurred on the board that evening, as many men, not all, had their eyes opened to their sinner-saint status.
Another part of the Learning Story Bible study series is what we call a Story Feast. Here is a brief excerpt from the study describing the purpose behind feasting on stories.
We are learning about the Grand Narrative of Scripture, the story of grace God is telling in the cosmos and in our lives. But as we learned in our study of Psalm 78, we must do more than learn the story – we must share it!
Sharing our stories is essential to growing in faith, hope, and love. As we hear the stories others tell of how God has worked redemption in their lives, we often remember marvelous deeds God has done in our own lives. In telling stories of wrecked shalom, the Spirit often moves to grow our hope that “this will make a really good story one day.” Listening to others’ stories draws us to know and love them in new ways; sharing our own stories is a gift of love to other people.
Okay, you may say, “I get why I need to share my story. But what’s the deal with a feast?” Feasting is a key theme of the Bible. God’s people gathered at appointed times to reflect on his rescue in their lives. Passover, one of the most important feasts, was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These two feasts together recalled God’s rescue of his people from Egypt and his provision for them along their journey. Participants included everyone in the community, men and women, young and old, orphan, widow, and stranger. The feast revolved around ritual food: meat, bread, and wine, which were offered and eaten as a sacrifice to God.
Feasting is taken to a new and bizarre level when Christ says, “So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. ” (John 6:53-54) As we celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, we are feasting on Christ’s body and blood, doing this in remembrance of the greatest story of rescue ever known. And as we follow Christ, we must do more than feast on him. We must gather together and offer our own stories as the bread and wine that sustain the life of the community. In so doing, we celebrate the faith, hope, and love that mark us as Christians.
I have hosted and attended hundreds of Story Feasts in the years since I introduced the concept to a Moms group I was working with, but last night I experienced one that I will remember forever. (Even as I write that, I have to renege, because every Story Feast I’ve attended has been remarkable in some way.)Still, this one stood our for the richness of the scene, the fare, and the women gathered.
Hosted by Jennie Schutt and Gigi McMurray, it was held in a neighborhood clubhouse that had been transformed to look like a scene out of a Narnian tale. Candles, a warm fire, fine bone china with varied creams for coffee, water, wine, chocolate cream brulee, chocolate bourbon cake, thick and pungent bread pudding, fruit…perhaps the only marring in my memory will be of tasting too much rich fare and not sleeping very well after all the deep chocolate I consumed!:)
But even richer than the fare were the around 20 women gathered there. Two here or there knew each other well, some had made acquaintance before, but they were not deeply connected to one another as a whole. That’s what made it seem even more like a foretaste of new heavens new earth life. One day we will be reunited with people we have hardly known or not known and experience healthy and whole intimacy. As stories spilled, we came to see the glory God had engraved into each woman’s life. We saw themes of God’s pursuit, of busted dreams in which grief led to a deeper knowledge of God, of God showing the way through foggy times and of women waiting courageously in uncertain time. And more.
I am full, so very full, this morning. Thankful to women with gifts of hospitality and creativity, thankful to courageous women willing to share their stories and seek the handwriting of God in them. Thankful to God for the ways He reveals the beauty of new creation He is writing in this world.
Both of my friends need to know the grand narrative Scripture tells. The Gospel story sings a song of redemption in four parts:
- Creation tells us who we are, male and female, created in the image of God.
The “chapter” of Creation is characterized by “shalom,” peace, wholeness, harmony – everything is “the way it ought to be.”
- The Fall tells us why we struggle with sin and live in frustration.
The chapter of the Fall is characterized by wrecked shalom, sin has divided what was meant to be together; it has distorted beauty; it has deconstructed wholeness.
We may also describe a second Fall in which we multiply sin as we try to restore shalom by turning to people, places, or things that make us feel significant – what the Bible calls idols.
- Redemption tells of a sinless Savior who rescued us from sin and death by living, dying and rising. This wild story of God’s grace means that anyone who trusts in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for their salvation is transformed to live the free life we were made to live.
In this chapter of the story, shalom is partially restored: relocation, reconciliation, and re-creation characterize our lives, even though we await the final day when restoration will be complete.
- Consummation, the ‘grand finale’ of the story, tells us that all our endings are transformed into the beginning of an unending story.
Scripture shows us that our stories matter. We all have stories that follow the rhythm of God’s story of grace: a period of shalom, the wrecking or unraveling of shalom, further deconstruction as we attempt to restore shalom on our own terms, rescue and partial restoration of shalom with full restoration awaiting the final Chapter.
Today I am going to begin a brief series called Learning Story. It will include some excerpts from my hot-off-the-press Bible study of the same name. The Bible study seeks to transform hearts and minds by engaging the TRUE story of Scripture and the equally raw and real stories of our lives. As we enter this process, we discover a God who has written beauty, allowed tragedy, redeemed sinners, and finished the grand narrative of grace with a flourish. Getting to know the Author of the core narratives of life shows us how we were meant to live and compels us to move out of our small stories into a very broken world with the life-transforming message of epic hope.
From the Introduction:
Who am I? Where did I come from? Is there any meaning and purpose to my life? Whether you’re 70 or 17, punk or prep, Native American or Native African, these are the questions that rumble in your soul, according to anthropologists. The Bible exhorts us to know our story and to tell it. In knowing and telling our history, we are reminded of the essential realities that make a difference in how we live our daily lives.
My friend Joni grew up hearing her father shout, “I hate you. I wish you had never been born!” She needs to know that while she is a sinner (which she easily believes), she was created in dignity and re-created by redemption. Knowing these parts of her story make the difference between walking with shoulders slumped and head hung in shame or walking upright and proud, knowing that the God who created her takes great delight in her.
Another friend struggles with judging people. He finds it much easier to see other people’s sin than his own. He needs to know that Scripture tells a story that explains our sin as a demandingness to have life work our own way. When he recognizes his sinful heart and God’s redemption of it, he doesn’t spend so much time nitpicking the sins and failures of others.
Both of my friends need to know the grand narrative Scripture tells. The Gospel story sings a song of redemption in four parts:
Tune in tomorrow for more on the song of redemption…
P.S. For those of you who live in the Pensacola area, I will begin leading a women’s group through this study next Tuesday, February 9, from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. at The Mission Anglican Church.
The study is written to be used by men and women who want to grow in understanding the gospel and how to live it in our own stories.