Stories – Then and Now

Stories – then and now

Propositions don’t mold us. Narratives are the things that mold us. Stories are the things that shape our lives. They can be oral, written, dramatized and, in our age, made into movies. And this is the genius (and at times the evil genius) of Hollywood. Stories are told through the medium of a movie now so technically advanced that is hard to believe you are not actually living it! But because this is so, they can have a profound impact on us for good or evil, especially in the lives of our young people.

Scripture is a narrative which we must learn to tell compellingly and live authentically. The kingdom of God and the new creation are central to the masterplot of scripture and in the narrative we find all the principles that enable us to proclaim the new creation and become a prophetic people whose lives reveal the firstfruits of what is yet to fully come. As Alasdair Macintyre said “I can only answer the question “What am I to do?” if I can answer the prior question “Of what story do I find myself a part?” Unless we can become better than Hollywood in telling the authentic story of which we are a part (not by technology but by incarnating the masterplot of scripture in our personal and corporate lives) the rising generation will be lost. And we will be responsible.