I’ll be the first to admit it: having a Master’s in Communication doesn’t always make you a good communicator. Somehow what I wrote yesterday came across as a rant against preachers and preaching.

What I’m trying to say is that we often don’t know how to read narratives. [Jeff Hobbs made some interesting points (here and on Facebook) about everything being narrative, but let’s leave that for another discussion] We take a story and make the incidentals into the main points. It’s like reading Don Quijote to learn about how to use windmills or reading Moby Dick to study boat building.

Too often, we try to make narratives a part of a system of laws. In the Wright quote yesterday, he talked about turning the gospels into epistles. To do that, we have to create teaching points, “timeless truths” that we can pull out of every story.

In my experience, we’ve done that more with the book of Acts, since the gospels don’t really count. (Yes, that is sarcasm) We read Acts 20:1-12 and come away with lessons about the frequency of the Lord’s Supper, debates about whether the passage describes one meal or two, etc. Is that even close to what Luke was talking about? Acts 20 tells us the story of a man raised from the dead, and we’re focused on the meals surrounding that act?

In fact, most churches thoroughly enjoy studying Acts, up until about chapter 14. Then it starts to drag, because it becomes harder and harder to pick apart the stories. Part of the problem is that we really need to read the stories of Paul’s journeys all in one sitting to get the feel for them. More than stories, it’s one story, with different episodes. Those episodes find their meaning as part of the whole.

So how do we let narratives tell their own story? How do we keep the Bible stories within the framework of the bigger picture… and the really big picture? I’m at that point where I can see what not to do and haven’t yet come to what should be done. Guidance would be appreciated.

I regularly teach Bible class. Almost every Sunday. And it’s the rare Sunday that I don’t preach, even though I’m not officially a preacher. I’m expected to take the Word of God and make the message plain for others.

Too many times, however, I get in the way. Especially when dealing with narratives in the Bible. I don’t see them as sufficient (if you’ll allow me to be honest about it). The story isn’t enough; I’ve got to add some lessons to it. In a wonderful essay on biblical authority, N.T. Wright says:

In the church and in the world, then, we have to tell the story. It is not enough to translate scripture into timeless truths. How easy it has been for theologians and preachers to translate the gospels (for instance) into something more like epistles!

Guilty as charged. I don’t find enough power in the stories in the gospels; I’ve got to bring out my own lessons, based on those stories.

So many of the narratives in the Bible have no moralizing to them. The narrator doesn’t tell us if what the person did was good or bad, if it was right or wrong. That’s not easy for us to live with.

Maybe that’s why so many of the stories in the Bible get relegated to Bible hour, never making it onto the big stage in the main assembly. They’re kids’ stories, not material for adults. (Though a lot of those kids’ stories would get an R rating if they were made into movies!)

Wright also writes:

And as we tell the story—the story of Israel, the story of Jesus, the story of the early church—that itself is an act of worship. That is why, within my tradition, the reading of scripture is not merely ancillary to worship—something to prepare for the sermon—but it is actually, itself, part of the rhythm of worship itself. The church in reading publicly the story of God is praising God for his mighty acts, and is celebrating them, and is celebrating the fact that she is part of that continuous story. And, that story as we use it in worship reforms our God-view our world-view—reconstitutes us as the church. The story has to be told as the new covenant story.

How can we do better about letting God’s story be told? How can preachers and teachers get out of the way so that the story can be heard? Or is there enough value in the stories alone? Do they need our “three points, a poem and a prayer” to make them worthwhile?

Photo by Ove Tøpfer; from Stock Xchange

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we read the Bible. One aspect that I need to learn more about is how to read the Bible as narrative. Interestingly enough, several people have been looking at the same question lately. Among others, Sean Palmer and Patrick Mead have recently written about this. Sean approaches the subject from the point of view of preaching. I haven’t had a chance to read Patrick’s yet, but knowing the kind of research and study Patrick does, I have confident his thoughts are worth reading.

I was also directed to an article called Why “The Bible is our Instruction Manual” is the Worst Metaphor in the History of the World over at a site called The Ruthless Monk. While there, I explored the site and read a bit about reading the Bible as narrative.

I see at least two related trains of thought on this subject:

1. We need to learn to read the narrative parts of the Bible for what they are. We don’t handle narrative that well. Maybe that’s one reason why the writings of Paul are so popular in our brotherhood. Narrative doesn’t always seem as “practical” as we might like.
2. We need to learn to read the Bible as a continuing narrative. Each part of the Bible contributes to the overarching story. Too often we isolate verses, chapters or even books, without trying to place them within the whole narrative of the Bible.

I want to spend some time exploring these related ideas. I’m very open to insights, suggested resources, related questions, et. What do you think?