Pastor Wrinkles: the Glory Of Story Pt. 2

When God wanted to reveal himself to man he started by telling a story. Though today we know much of God through the theological teaching of the apostles Peter, John and Paul all of their teaching is tied to the stories told in the Old Testament and by the gospel writers. When God wanted us to understand prophecy He did not give us doctrinal lessons about the future. saying things like:

“The second advent will not be like the first. Where Christ came the first time through human gestation coupled with Holy Spirit Incarnation the second time He will come by a divine act of miraculous teleportation from the dimension of Heaven to the dimension of Earth. Further he shall teleport a large army with him and at the second advent Christ shall engage in a battle of monumental proportions.”

That’s how we teachers of the Bible make the way God taught it boring; But when God chose to relate the prophecy of  the end of time He chose to tell us a story. He gave us word pictures seen through human eyes translated by human understanding.

¹¹ I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”^[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

king of kings and lord of lords.

¹⁷ And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, ¹⁸ so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”

¹⁹ Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. ²⁰ But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf.With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. ²¹ The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. Rev. 19:11-21 NIV

Now you tell me which method provides a more powerful punch?

Pastor Wrinkles: The Glory Of Story Pt 1

Here is the first excerpt of Pastor Wrinkle’s New Year sermon.

When I first learned I would be preaching this baptism service I prayed and sought God as to what he would have me bring as an offering to this service. I heard the words “the Glory of Story” and that has become the title of my message today.

This morning as each of the baptismal candidates entered the water they were asked to give a brief testimony or story about how they had gotten to the place of deciding to follow Jesus with their lives. At every baptism my understanding of how real God is becomes renewed. The stories shared do something deep inside of me that reinvigorates my faith.

We humans have a fascination with story. We each like different kinds of story: Some like adventure, some romance. Others enjoy a good mystery and some like the rhythmic cadence of war stories. Whichever genre is our favorite we learn best from the examples encased within its words and the pictures it draws.

 

Activist and theologian Robert Mcafee Brown said “

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

 

And Dr. Pamela Rutledge of the MediaPsychologyResearchCenter says,

 

Stories are how we think. They are how we make meaning of life. Call them schemas, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, or narratives. Stories are how we explain how things work, how we make decisions, how we justify our decisions, how we persuade others, how we understand our place in the world, create our identities, and define and teach social values. ”

What stories have most influenced you?