Today's piece will be continued with an addition tomorrow - from "The Church is a Social Ethic, by Stanley Haurwas.
The church is where the stories of Israel and Jesus are told, enacted, and heard, and it is our conviction that as a Christian people there is literally nothing more important we can do. But the telling of that story requires that we be a particular kind of people if we and the world are to hear the story truthfully.
I find myself going back to the notion of us being a people who tell stories. In fact, in the Bible studies that are going on in the congregation I use the language "in the storytelling of Israel...or the early church" we are handed a great gift. The stories - whether we think of them as literal reporting or faithful accounts of an inspiring story - are what gives us something to offer a word of direction as we move through our day. Even when the story is dated and we do not "catch" all of the information that critical biblical study has handed down to us, the story is still a vehicle for powerful shaping of the character of a people. It is around these stories that our discussion must be free and open and never bound up by one way of looking at that story. The storytelling in scripture is like the storytelling we may offer within our own lives as we attempt to be just who we have been called - the church.
Connection: The story of the Church is being written even within this day...we are the story...imagine that.
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let this day at hand be blessed. Amen.
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