Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people. Ephesians 1:7 (MSG)
Hard Stuff – The Storyteller Series – Part 1
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
Paul wrote a letter to his friends in Ephesus, it was intimate and purposeful. The first half is filled with kind and encouraging words for his friends. He built them up, reminded them of their true identity and worth, and that they were chosen, purposed, strengthened and filled with resurrection power. In Christ, they were facing a new reality. He wrote, “May you experience the love of Christ, although it is so great you will never fully understand it…” He didn't begin his letter with “do’s and don’ts,” he built layer upon layer of truth around their internal and eternal value, identity and worth.
Then at the start of chapter 4, he shifts from identity to how to function and walk out your life from a place of grace and love. It went from matters of the spirit and heart to the practical. God, through Paul, built a narrative and story not just in the content of the letter, but also by the way it was structured.
If we’re only told WHAT to do, we’re only being told half the story, maybe even less. Then, we wander around trying to find our identity and acceptability through the things we DO and achieve. But when we start figuring out WHO we are, and who we are in Christ, we figure out what to DO just fine. When you’re not living to gain acceptance, but from a place of “I am an enough,” you can live wholehearted, authentic and aware.
Free.
Purpose-filled.
God is a master story teller. Some of the most effective ways of teaching (and learning) are through storytelling. Metaphors, poems, characters, narratives, songs (Most of my pre-teen doctrine came from Psalty the Singing the Songbook. yep.), films, documentaries, design, novels… they all communicate to us through story. It’s especially good at expressing the hard stuff. The stuff that’s hard to explain, hard to talk about, hard to say. A story steps in and does the work for us. And when it’s being most honest, the story never resolves.
One of the central narratives (if not THE main narrative) of the Biblical text is Exodus and Redemption. Freedom from slavery. Entry into freedom.
There’s this sense within humanity that’s been there from the beginning (as scripture tells us) that we live separated and unaware of The Divine in ways we don’t even know how to communicate. We sense it in the internal stuff: the ache in our guts when a loved one dies; the anger at injustice; the exquisite warmth of love; the protective power that rises up within us over our children; the calling of the wind and the ocean, the moon and the stars; and it almost feels like if we could listen a little more keenly, and see a little more clearly, we’d be able to make out the incredible mysteries they’re all trying to tell us. It’s like being homesick for a land we can’t remember, or an ache for a loved one we can’t quite picture.
This condition, this separation, that affects us all whether we are awake to it or not is the antagonist of our story. The Villain. He weaves his deception of separateness across the ages through division, hatred, greed and more. He’s been trying to tell us from the beginning that ‘separate’ is how we should live – estranged, disconnected, fingers pointed, guns raised, walls built… us against them.
But the hero of our story, our protagonist (Jesus) tells it differently. He retells the story of our origin and connection to The Divine and others through the prose of grace. His words are wisdom and kindness, thick with faith, hope and love. The way he retells the story of our lives and the universe, makes redemption and divine connection seem possible, in a miraculous kind of way.
“Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free!” Eph 1:7-10 MSG.
What story are you seeing? Divine connection or separation? Leave us a comment below.
Go to Part 2 – All Things »
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