My summer preaching has focused on well-known stories from the Old Testament. Stories like Noah’s Ark and the Flood in the book of Genesis, the story of Moses and the burning bush in Exodus, and more. I’ve called the series Great Stories because they really are great stories. However, I have consistently tried to emphasize that what makes these stories to be great stories is that they are God stories.
God stories.
Let that sink in. The great stories of the Old Testament are stories of God at work for his redemptive good. Whatever role other characters have in the different stories throughout the Old Testament, God is the primary actor, the active agent in the stories.
All the stories of God acting for his redemptive good are part of the larger redemptive story told throughout scripture, from Genesis to Revelation.
I’m really convinced that we need reminding of God’s redemptive work. More importantly, we need to know that God is at work not just in the past but in the present, for a future already revealed in the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Jesus Christ.
Why?
As churches face decline and the society around us increasingly becomes more post-Christian, frustrations rise. In such times it’s easy to think we must fight back for the faith,1 forgetting that God has already established his victory in Jesus Christ.
In remembering God’s story, the focus shifts from the changes taking place around us because we give our attention to what God is doing Jesus Christ.
The story of Moses and the burning bush reminds us that God sees and hears exactly what is going on (Ex 3:7). So a part of the redemptive story of God that we participate in as followers of Jesus is knowing that God knows what is going on in the world.
Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to remember the story we participate in. By remembering the story, we remember that God sees and hears. Perhaps then we can remember that God is at work as we speak, even if we can’t always see and hear how he’s working. In remembering God’s story, the focus shifts from the changes taking place around us because we give our attention to what God is doing Jesus Christ.
I bring this up because Christianity, throughout history, has gotten into trouble when the church took its eyes off of Jesus. This is how the church has turned to courting the powers of worldly kingdoms to serve itself at times. On the other hand, when the church has kept the focus on the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Jesus Christ, we see how the church has valiantly participated in the mission of God—even from the most marginal of places.
A few weeks ago, while I was in Indiana, I stopped by one of my favorite indulgences, otherwise known as a used book store. I ended up picking up a little book containing select writings from the late Flannery O’Connor. I’ve never read any of O’Connor’s books, but many preachers and teachers I know and respect have. So I bought this little book by Flannery O’Connor and start reading. I’m glad I did so.
Here is something that Flannery O’Connor wrote in a letter to Dr. T.R. Spivey, an English Professor at Georgia State University. The letter was dated June 21, 1959, five years before O’Connor’s death from Lupus. Here’s what Flannery O’Connor wrote:
I don’t believe that if God intends for the world to be spared He’ll have to lead a few select people into the wilderness to start things over. I think that what He began when Moses and the children of Israel left Egypt continues today in the Church and is meant to continue that way. And I believe all this is accomplished in the patience of Christ in history and not with select people but with very ordinary ones—as ordinary as the vacillating children of Israel and the fisherman apostles.2
That’s what it sounds like to remember our story and participate with God in his redemptive work as followers of Jesus.
Jesus never said living as his church would be easy. However, we will always come out on the good end as we follow Jesus into the future of God’s kingdom. The redemptive work of God the Father, Son, and Spirit says so!
Andrew Root, Faith Formation in a Secular Age: Responding to the Church’s Obsession with Youthfulness, Ministry in a Secular Age, vol. 1, Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2017, 102.
Flannery O’Conner, Spiritual Writings, Modern Spiritual Masters Series, ed. Rober Ellsberg, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003, 77.