God's Story

I am skeptical of anyone who turns scripture into principles. It is true that certain principles can be gleaned from scripture. But there can only be so many sermons that speak to three ways to raise a child, five points on a godly marriage, or three steps to a stress-free life that one can exegete out of the pages of the bible.

Instead I approach the scripture as a story. By calling scripture a "story," I am not implying it is fiction. It is affirming that God meets us in history and speaks to us as one who has been involved in history. Narrative theology affirms that God really became involved in our world and that God continues to work in our world. Often, people approach scripture with the impression that God has presented us with a set of ideas and if we can just push aside the story we can get to the real meaning. The story is the real meaning. God's story intersects with our story. The gospels are not primarily a set of ethical principles. Instead it is an encounter with God in Jesus upon the lives of individuals. God in God's infinite wisdom used the narrative form to allow the reader to see the story from God's perspective in hopes that we may get caught up in the story and live our lives from God's perspective.