What is your story?

April 22, 2009

2 Peter 3:1-7 (The Message)

“My dear friends, this is now the second time I’ve written to you, both letters reminders to hold your minds in a state of undistracted attention. Keep in mind what the holy prophets said, and the command of our Master and Savior that was passed on by your apostles. First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings, they’ll mock, “So what’s happened to the promise of his Coming? Our ancestors are dead and buried and everything’s going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing’s changed.” They conveniently forget that long ago all the galaxies and this very planet were brought into existence out of watery chaos by God’s word. Then God’s word brought the chaos back in a flood that destroyed the world. The current galaxies and earth are fuel for the final fire. God is poised, ready to speak his word again, ready to give the signal for the judgment and destruction of the desecrating skeptics.”

Every year on January 6th, my mother calls me. Every year it is for the same reason—my birthday . . . and every year she tells the same story. “On this day, X number of years ago, I was in the hospital and they were pushing me into the operating room. They rolled me past your dad and I had green drool coming out of my mouth from the candy they gave me, your grandmother couldn’t stand being at the hospital and your Aunt Scotty and her boyfriend went to feed the dog and then . . ..” And so the story of my birth goes!

You have those birthday stories and like my family and me, you also have the stories of your growing up—the three year old birthday party, the first roller coaster ride, the adventures of your first date, graduations, college and on they go . . .. Our stories are the things that keep us centered. They remind us who we are and whose we are. Our stories remind us how we are connected with each other. Our stories remind us how God has been active in our lives.

In the same way, the stories of the Jews were verbally handed from one generation to another and then recorded for posterity, lest anyone of them forget the ways of God at work in their lives.

The Epicurean philosophy of those days when this letter was written was such that if they hadn’t seen a promise fulfilled they weren’t going to believe that it could be. The false teachers had brought the people of some of the churches to whom this circular letter traveled into the Epicurean belief. Peter writes to them in this letter having spoken rather coarsely to them heretofore and now writes from a slightly more pastoral perspective. Peter writes so as to shore them up spiritually so that when he passes, they know where to turn. The exhortation in the verses is clear. In order to keep to what we know is truth we must remember the lessons we have been taught—the stories of our history and faith.

So many centuries have passed since the writing of the Biblical narrative, this letter included and yet, as Christians, our book of lessons taught is the Bible. Some of us look at our Bibles and simply don’t understand what is being said. We haven’t had a seminary education. So we give up and hope that our ministers will just explain it to us. Some of us get very caught up in the details and the fundamentals that we completely miss the message that was trying to be taught to us. Some of us do comprehend it but don’t feel competent enough to share what we know with others. These stories are our shared stories and like the Jews before us, we are called to remember the stories, their promises and the truths they have to share and then allow them to be our guides in the living of these present days.

That’s all Peter wanted these people to do. Remember the promise of Christ’s return and just because it hasn’t happened in the first generation of Christians, don’t give up on the promise. Christian people are to be faithful people—people who are certain of what they cannot see.

I’m not sure that we are that different from those swayed by the false teachers. The Bible stories seem so far removed from us, how can they really be our stories? It is so easy to detach ourselves from the story of faith.

Being spiritual people means having a story of faith that guides our lives and being willing to share it with others. What is your story?