Day 22 - stories

Ive just been to see the new Star Wars film with the family.  A whole lot of shouting and light sabres and deep meaningful staring into the middle distance.😀  I cant say I massively enjoyed it but I always find it interesting that when watching Star Wars I feel God speaking to me.  Its probably because the essential story about the battle between good and evil is so stark and obvious.  But there are more subtle messages too.  There is a whole thread running through all the films ( but particularly the early ones) about fatherhood and identity.  In this latest one I was reminded of Jesus in the wilderness - I will give you all the kingdoms of the earth if you will bow down and worship me ( Satan)    I wont spoil it for anyone who hasnt seen it yet, but there is a magnificent effort on behalf of the writers to tie up every loose end and answer all the plot cliff hangers.  And of course the special effects are everything we have come to expect.

After we saw the film we retired to McDonalds for sustenence and a bit of a family critique of what we had just seen.   My boys had their opinions about all sorts of things, but I was left wondering what it is that drives us a) to go and spend our hard earned cash to watch a film and b) to then discuss it as though it was something important and ' real' and then c) to spend even more money buying the merchandise and the toys and watching it again when it comes out on the telly.

I conclude that it is something to do with the power of stories.

Jesus knew the power of stories, He told them all the time.  There is something about the human imagination which loves to construct imaginary scenarios in which we can play out all possible outcomes and imagine ourselves in situations which will never happen to us.  Through stories we can travel in space and time.  We can right wrongs, be heroes, solve dilemmas, make the world laugh and cry and think deep thoughts.  We can escape the rather dull realities of our everyday.  We can live in worlds which dont exist except in our imaginations.   Stories are also powerful ways of passing information and culture across generations.   They can hold up a mirror to our lives and help us see things from a different perspective.   Jesus was a master at telling those sorts of stories.



Today Im off to do a Nativity play in church.  And Im going to have to have a word with the person in charge about a last minute change to the script.  Because at the end of the play someone thanks the audience for watching the nativity story.  But its not a story.  Its not fiction or a myth or an imagining.  It's a fact.     We use the word  'story' with reference to the Bible all the time.  Bible stories.  The story of David and Goliath or the story of the feeding of the 5000.  And we do it because it is conveninet and easy and lazy.   Perhaps we should change the way we speak.  In a culture which is so addicted to stories I want to be ultra certain that nobody thinks my God, my Jesus, my gospel is a fiction.   Jesus told stories but He is a fact.   The Bible is history, not fiction.   Today as so many of us watch nativity plays and attend carol services and listen to readings from Luke let us not engage with the same ears and hearts and minds as we engage with Star Wars.  The birth of the saviour of the world is not a nice story with a happy ending.  It is a cataclysmic historical event which forever changed the destiny of mankind.

Fact.