Like so many others my story begins with, “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor.”[1] With some people this beginning may be the only point of connection to my story and with other people will there will be more connections but nevertheless the story begins with the righteous Aramean and God. It is a long story that begins with plots and subplots of kingdoms and kings, broken relationships and exile yet throughout the story is the presence of God that invokes hope in the people for yet another King and Kingdom.
Years before I was born, though, a character entered the story and a new story line erupted. It parallels the first, in that the people look forward to the promised Kingdom but at the beginning of this storyline people told others that they had met the New King. That is, a man who was God himself, who by his presence in the story, his death, and his resurrection transformed lives and peoples’ understanding of the coming Kingdom. His story was and still is so compelling that unlike most subplots in the story it did not fade with time but grew and spread.
Then I was born; just another random character in the story really, but, I, as so many encountered God and traced my roots to the Aramean. I am in the new story line. My story lives in tension with the other story line. My story lives in tension with the beliefs and storylines of all other people in the world, including the people in my storyline. You see, we all understand the story differently coloured by our own personal experiences of God and influenced by our particular storyline. Oddly enough, it is the same God throughout the whole story and in the entire story up to now, God reaches out to all people and offers a gift – the Promised Land. But how do we understand this gift? How do we journey to this promised place; receive this gift? From the storyline I am in, I must point people back to the man/God character for the answers to these questions. And to stay in my storyline, I must have some idea of what the man/God character did specifically that altered the story; not just altered, created a new storyline, my storyline.
I have no doubt that the man/God wanted to bring a new understanding of God. I do not believe the man/God wanted to end the original storyline. I believe he/He wanted to correct some misunderstandings of God that had developed over time. But his/His words and actions created such tension in understandings that my storyline could no longer live in the original storyline and my storyline was force to break free and journey alongside the original, for better and for worse.
I know that a great deal of time has passed since the man/God character appeared on the scene and that the misunderstandings that the man/God sought to correct have re-entered the story. But like all participants in the story, I look forward to the promised Kingdom so that I can get the story straight.
[1] Deuteronomy 26:5, NRSV
Years before I was born, though, a character entered the story and a new story line erupted. It parallels the first, in that the people look forward to the promised Kingdom but at the beginning of this storyline people told others that they had met the New King. That is, a man who was God himself, who by his presence in the story, his death, and his resurrection transformed lives and peoples’ understanding of the coming Kingdom. His story was and still is so compelling that unlike most subplots in the story it did not fade with time but grew and spread.
Then I was born; just another random character in the story really, but, I, as so many encountered God and traced my roots to the Aramean. I am in the new story line. My story lives in tension with the other story line. My story lives in tension with the beliefs and storylines of all other people in the world, including the people in my storyline. You see, we all understand the story differently coloured by our own personal experiences of God and influenced by our particular storyline. Oddly enough, it is the same God throughout the whole story and in the entire story up to now, God reaches out to all people and offers a gift – the Promised Land. But how do we understand this gift? How do we journey to this promised place; receive this gift? From the storyline I am in, I must point people back to the man/God character for the answers to these questions. And to stay in my storyline, I must have some idea of what the man/God character did specifically that altered the story; not just altered, created a new storyline, my storyline.
I have no doubt that the man/God wanted to bring a new understanding of God. I do not believe the man/God wanted to end the original storyline. I believe he/He wanted to correct some misunderstandings of God that had developed over time. But his/His words and actions created such tension in understandings that my storyline could no longer live in the original storyline and my storyline was force to break free and journey alongside the original, for better and for worse.
I know that a great deal of time has passed since the man/God character appeared on the scene and that the misunderstandings that the man/God sought to correct have re-entered the story. But like all participants in the story, I look forward to the promised Kingdom so that I can get the story straight.
[1] Deuteronomy 26:5, NRSV
3 comments:
I didn't really understand the first bit, the bit about the Aramean. I think it's because you started writing because of a specific incident, but didn't clarify that with your audience.
However, once you started talking about Jesus (yes, I could see that it was Jesus), I got it, and it's really good.
:D
Linda,
I think what you say is OK. It certainly does justice to the continuity/discontinuity of the relationship between Israel and Christianity.
I'd want to give an account of the emergence and persistence of the 'new story' in terms that bring out more clearly the decisiveness of Jesus' ministry, not least the way he himself becomes the story.
Happy to talk about it face-to-face now that I've read it.
Geoff
Thank you. I had been considering adding in abit more about the event that caused the new story line but haven't had time to pull it together. Will keep you posted. Linda
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