THE GLORY OF A STORY
Deut. 6:4-25
John Tung, 1-4-15
I. Introduction: The Story of the World in 2014
Happy New Year, everyone! As we say goodbye to 2014, we can say that it was quite a year.
On the international front, we had the Ebola crisis, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370, and now also flight 8501 of AirAsia with 162 on board. In April, a ferry capsized off the west coast of South Korea, leaving 304 dead. The incident led to a period of national mourning during which many South Koreans wore a yellow ribbon in remembrance.
We had the brutal beheadings in Syria by members of the Islamic State. There was also Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea in March, and the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight 17. Meanwhile, the fighting between Israel and militants in Gaza in July and August resulted in a combined death toll of nearly 2,000. And continuing civil war in Syria had resulted in massive numbers of refugees fleeing to bordering nations (huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/23/biggest-international-news-stories-of-2014.html).
And here in the U.S. grand juries refusal to indict police officers in Ferguson, MO and in Staten Island, NYC, led to protests. And that was followed by the shooting of two policemen in Brooklyn.
What are we to make of these major stories of 2014?
People can debate and wonder if there is any significance or connection between these major stories. As for me, I see that one of the themes of these major stories in 2014 is that conflicts between people is as real today as it ever was in history and also that tragedy and disease still strike and yet now we are all so connected electronically so that we all know about them. We feel the world suffering and we know that people are living in the midst of conflicts with other people.
It feels as if the world is lying near a fault line, like an earthquake fault line (slide).
For people who live near a fault line, it can be very calm and peaceful for a long time and people go about their business and ordinary life. But every now and then, the fault lines of this world – whether it is political, social, ethnic or biological fault lines – can crack and some people can fall into the fault lines and suffer. Then life halts, while we try to rescue those who are hurting – and after a period of time – if it’s quiet for a while – then humanity goes on about living their lives again. Until the next fault line cracks. So, we have to have compassion for people since we all have these fault lines around us.
I would say that these fault lines are the result of sin entering into the world. When sin entered the world, not only did sin affect us individually and create fault lines between us and God and between us and other human beings, but fault lines also came about in nature, between people groups, between governments, in diseases, and in all aspects of human life.
These fault lines are not God’s fault – they are the result of sin in this world – both Adam and Eve’s sins, but also due to present sins and neglect humans commit.
But in redemption and in God’s mercy – God keeps those fault lines bearable and so humanity as a whole can live lives of relative peace. But because this world still lives in sin, and the fault lines have not fully disappeared – so every now and then, the fault lines shake and they quake and people fall and they suffer. This tells us that this world is not our final home. God is bringing forth a new world through Jesus Christ that has come, is still coming, but not fully here. That is redemption. That is God’s mission. And it is also our and the church’s mission to join with God in his mission.
The passage I want to give guidance for us as we enter 2015 is an ancient text. It is from Deut. 6:4-25. This passage tells us how to live with fault lines [Read.]
NIV Deut. 6:4-25, “4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you - a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant – then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. 16 Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah. 17 Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the LORD’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers, 19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the LORD said.
20 In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?’ 21 tell him: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 Before our eyes the LORD sent miraculous signs and wonders - great and terrible - upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. 23 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our forefathers. 24 The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”
II. The Glory of a Story
This passage begins with a call for the people of Israel to obey God’s commands. In the previous chapter, chap. 5, it is recording of the Ten Commandments. So, this section has to do with obedience, something all believers want to do.
But it’s interesting that before we get to chap. 5 which lists a second time the Ten Commandments – the first time was in the Book of Exodus - the four previous chapters in Dt. leading up to chap. 5 is telling the story of how God led Israel through the wilderness for 40 years.
It talks about their leaving Mt. Horeb, where God had given them the Ten Commandments. About how Moses appointed leaders for the people. About the people’s rebellion against God. About their ensuing wandering in the wilderness. About the defeat of the Canaanite kings. About the promise of the division of the land to the tribes of Israel and about Moses being forbidden to enter into the land of Israel.
And after these stories – real historical events in the life of Israel – then we have the re-reading of the Ten Commandments to the people who had survived the Exodus and about to enter the Promised Land. That is what the word “Deuteronomy” means – it is the second reading of the law.
So, before the law was read again, the people’s history is re-told. History and then the law – that is how the 5 books of Moses are structured. It is not just the law, but it is history and law, then back to history again, then the law again. This shows that history and law are intertwined.
Why is that? Why is the story of Israel so important from God’s point of view for his people? Why not just give his people the Law and tell them to obey it without any history connected to it?
The reason is that the law does not exist meaningfully without a historical context. The reason for obedience to the law becomes unclear without a clear historical context of why the law is given.
This would be like kids asking their parents why should they obey a particular rule the parents have set, and the parents’ response is “because I said so.”
Ok, you said so. You as parents have the authority to set rules and expect the kids to obey your rules. But a better way to do it is for parents to give the reason for the rule - some context for why this rule is needed. When parents do that, then the rule makes more sense – the child can see better why the rule was created – and therefore more likely to cooperate willingly to obey it.
This is what Dt. 6 is saying. After giving of the Ten Commandments, Dt. 6:20 provide an interesting insight into the mind of children.
There, it says, “In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?’”
In other words, after all the sacrifices the parents and grandparents have made for their children in teaching them about God, children will ask, “What is the meaning of these laws?” “You tell us we should obey the laws of God, but why?”
And this might catch the parents or grandparents off-guard. Parents ask their children: “What do you mean why we should obey them? We should obey them because God told us to obey them.”
But that answer is not going to satisfy the child. He or she doesn’t understand the reason for the law. And unless the reason or the story about why the law is given, it will seem to the child that we should obey God for no other reason than because God told us we should obey it.
And that is hard for a child to accept for long. Sooner or later, that child will forget the laws and forget what he or she should obey. This is what Dt. 6:12 is saying, that when you have received so many blessings from God, it’s easy to forget God and just to enjoy the blessings. So, vs. 12 says, “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
We do not only tell our children the laws of God to obey, but also the story of what God has done to help us and our parents. We tell them of real-life events in which we suffered and in which we experienced God’s deliverance. Stories of life in the fault lines. Those stories will enable children and grandchildren to understand the reason for the laws and the real presence of God in his or her family’s life.
Stories of what God has done for us and of our sufferings are powerful tools to lead us to teach about the laws of God. These stories – even if it’s about slavery and of hardship – are used by God to give a fuller understanding of why we should obey God.
This is why parents should read Bible stories to their kids and expect the kids as they get older to ask, “Why do we need to obey God?” Telling them the stories of what God has done and what we have experienced in life from God’s point of view sets the children up to receive the law of God. This is the glory of our story – it enables us to see God in all that happens.
And when kids grow older, parents should personalize the stories of their experience with God by telling them specific examples in life where God was with them. These stories will give greater reasons for the children’s need to also love God and to experience God. This is the glory of your own story.
These stories are not fairy tale stories – these are real-life stories about us and our ancestors – and God uses stories to teach us about Himself and about his people.
This is why it makes a lot of sense to see the whole Bible as a story – a beautiful story of God’s redemption of sinful humanity.
And like a good story, the story told in the Bible has several acts. It has interesting characters – both good and bad – and has a tension, a climax and a resolution.
Act 1, Scene 1 –
If we think of the whole Bible as a play, then Act 1, Scene 1 of the Bible is the story of Creation (slide).
There, once upon a time, out of a misty darkness, God brought forth creatures one after the other. He set the stars in the sky, he laid the land on the earth, and he filled it here and there with pools of water branching out into streams.
And in this perfect landscape, God placed two people: Adam and Eve – like a king and queen - to reproduce and to care for the earth.
They had a biological AND an ecological duty. And these two duties were not contradictory, but worked in perfect harmony.
There was just one thing they were never to do and that was to never eat fruit from a particular tree. This was the end of Act 1, Scene 1.
Act 1, Scene 2 –
But Act 1, Scene 2 introduced a new character into this story.
In Scene 2, a devious, evil one slithered up to this king and queen and lied to them that what they had was not enough. If the king and queen would eat of the forbidden fruit, then their wisdom would increase, and they would gain insight into so many more things.
This was so tempting – and they were the King and Queen – so who would dare to stop them from tasting of this fruit. So they ate of the fruit and then their eyes were opened. But what they saw was not something more beautiful or wiser, but they saw their shame and guilt in disobeying God.
That is the end of Act 1, Scene 2. It is what is called the Fall (slide).
Some people don’t like the story of the Fall to be included in the Bible. They feel it’s too negative and the Bible and God should only be about positive things.
But there is a very important reason why the Fall is included in the Bible.
This is demonstrated by the attempt to recover the black box of Flight 8501.
John Cox, a former captain for US Airways and now chief executive of the Washington-based consulting firm Safety Operating Systems, says that “‘In the black box will be story of what brought down the AirAsia flight,’ Among the critical questions is whether Flight 8501 broke up during flight or hit the water intact.
‘It’s important to know because that tells you whether it was a force like a storm that destroyed the airplane in air or if it was a matter of the pilots losing control and never able to recover from it” (washingtonpost.com/world/debris).
In other words, the black box contains the story whether it was human error or some storm in nature that brought the plane down. And without the black box, we don’t know the answer to that question. And therefore we don’t know how to prevent this mistake again in the future.
You see, Gen. 2 - which contains the story of the Fall of human beings – is the “black box” (quote, unquote) that tells us the story of what brought humanity down.
It tells us how did sin occur in the perfect world. It tells us whether it was human error or something in the environment that caused this crash into sin.
And that’s why God protected this story so carefully so that the truth about what brought humanity down can be preserved for all of humanity to know.
And when we know it, we know how to respond to it. Without the "black box" of this story, we will not have the answer which is so crucial for us to go through life safely.
Another way to think of the story of the Fall is that this is the Conflict that every story contains (slide).
Act 2 –
Act 2 is the story of Redemption Begun in Israel (slide).
From the calling of Abraham, and his descendants, Act 2 is the story of redemption begun in Israel. This story is recounted in Deut. 6, which we just read, and it goes further until the time when Israel was exiled in Babylon.
That’s why we have books called Chronicles in the Bible – because they tell the story of Israel. And Chronicles simply means stories.
Intermission –
Then there is an Intermission. It is called the “Inter-testamental Period” – the time between the Old and the New Testaments. Here the story takes a break.
Act 3, Scene 1 –
Then Act 3, Scene 1 begins and this is the story of Redemption Climaxed in Christ (slide) though his life and death for our sins and his blood shed on the cross for us and his resurrection from the dead. That is the Gospels.
Act 3, Scene 2 –
Then we have Act 3, Scene 2, the story of Redemption in the Church and the World - including our church (slide). That story begins in the Book of Acts and the letters of the NT writers and continues to today. That has to do with evangelism and missions and church planting and discipling and deacons and elders and pastors and all believers as servants of Jesus Christ.
Act 4 –
And finally, we have Act 4, when Christ returns, and that is the Conclusion (slide). This is when the story connects the ending with the beginning – and a new creation and a new heaven and a new earth is completed.
The whole Bible is a story. It is God telling us the story of the world. About how it began, how it became conflicted, how it was redeemed and how it will end. The story of the world, and the story of your people, and the story of your family, and your own story – they are all part of this story the Bible tells us.
III. Implications
So, what does all this mean for our life and for this year?
I would say 4 things:
1. God will have a story for your life this year (slide). You might know some of the things that might happen this year – such as a wedding, such as a birth, such as a trip, such as a new school, such as a work assignment. Be thankful for them.
There are also things that will happen this year you will not have any ideas now that will happen. Surprises of different kinds will be in our stories. Be open to them. And when they happen, respond to it with humility, wisdom, faith and prayer.
2. God will have a story for our world this year (slide). Just as this year brought expected and unexpected news to our world, so it will happen again in 2015.
When good things happen in our world - rejoice and thank God. When it is not good – you know that the fault lines of sin is the reason for it. And then pray hard to God to have mercy upon those who suffer and for those who survive to endure with God’s grace and to bring justice to those who do evil.
3. God will have a story of missions and evangelism for you this year (slide). As believers, the story we are living in is Scene 3, Act 2, the story of the redemption of Christ that has climaxed and is now being told and re-told to the peoples of this world. There are people nearby in our counties and there are people further away in other cities, states and countries that need to hear this story of God at work in the world. They need to know this story in order for us and for them to make sense of our own story. And all of us believers are to include missions and evangelism as part of our story this year.
4. God will also have a story for our church this year (slide). This past year the main story of our church was that about 100 people were baptized or personally came to know Jesus Christ. That is great news!
What about this year? I believe the main story of our church for this year is to disciple and mentor these and other believers so they grow further in Christ. Will you be a part of the discipling or mentoring of believers? Will you be a part of ongoing missions and outreach to non-believers?
Christ is the center of our church, and missions and the Bible are to be the center of our church’s story. That’s why the elders have chosen as the theme for CBCM in 2015 as “Christ and Bible Centered Mission” (C.B.C.M.). We want to see that Christ and Bible Centered Mission is the story of our church in 2015. Will you be a part of it? Do we all agree to work together to write the smaller stories this year that will make that our church’s larger story? “Do we?” (“Yes!) Amen.
Let’s respond by singing the song: “I Love to Tell the Story.”
