“Well, how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them.” (Hebrews 11:32-33 NLT)
Chapter 11 of Hebrews is the famous roll call of the saints, a listing of the historical figures who inspired the Jews and early Christians. How many of the names do you recognize in the verses above?
Um… Gideon had a trumpet? Samson was that strong dude with the big hair, right? David fought Ginormica… er… Can I buy a vowel?
One of the reasons the Bible is central to our faith is because we learn God’s will through the experiences of our ancestors. The great thing about Christianity is that this isn’t some mythology where people are super strong and impossibly pure-hearted.
The Bible is full of very human heroes: people who are jealous, shy, or greedy, cowardly or boastful. The Bible is full of people who fall in love with the wrong person, who have family feuds, who are down on their luck. The Bible is full of people who get mad at God and try to run away and hide.
In short, the Bible is full of people like us. As we read the stories of their challenges and how God helped them to finally triumph, we learn a thing or two about our own faith and God’s fathomless love for us.
Chances are, you’ve heard some of these stories. Jonah in the whale, Zaccheus up a tree, Adam and Eve and the Apple of Doom. (Or was that an Indiana Jones movie?) But you’ve probably never put the whole “capital-S” Story together. That’s what we are doing at church from now through May as we discover The Story in our Sunday School classes and Sunday morning worship.
See, we tend to get caught up in the little bit of the story we can see. We know what happened to us growing up, and we might know a few stories about our parents or grandparents. We can guess what will happen next week or next year. We can see how our actions affect others around us. But that’s just a brief paragraph in The Story – that’s just the “lower story.”
The “upper story” is God’s big picture view. Imagine flying in the space station and seeing all Earth spread out below you. Imagine being able to make out individual people going about their business. Imagine being able to count the hairs on someone’s head. Now imagine that you can see with perfect clarity how it all works together – how what this person does here affects those people over there, and what that person did twenty years ago will impact these babies being born tomorrow. And imagine above all that you can see how beautiful it is, how it all will work out perfectly in the end, and how much you’d like to share that lovely view with each little person far below.
That is the difference between The Story and our story. God created the universe, and it was good. People sinned and that was bad. But ever since, God has been patiently, persistently, and lovingly working with each and every person to restore the beauty of creation and help us see it. Christ’s death and resurrection make that possible for us. The Holy Spirit makes it a reality in our lives.
Come and know your story. Come and know God’s story. Come and know the story of those who have gone before us… and be inspired. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
– Pastor Park