There is a Lutheran theologian named Robert Jenson who passed away about four years ago. He was instrumental in advancing ecumenical dialogue, particularly the dialogue between Lutherans and Roman Catholics. He would have discussed frequently our common baptism, or the love we all share for Sacred Scripture and how we hold dear our understanding of salvation through faith in Christ. He would have discussed frequently those areas where we do not agree, in order to come to a greater understanding and to grow together in unity.
Jenson was also known for his theology of narrative or story. Essentially, there is a great story that exists outside of us, and the very meaning of our lives is only truly accomplished when we can see and understand where we fit into that story.
What is the story? It is the story revealed by God that speaks to us of all that there is. It is the story around which St. Thomas Aquinas will organize the Summa Theologica: exitus reditus, how all created things come from God and the great drama of their return to Him. It is the biblical narrative of the creation of the world, and of humanity’s fall from grace and the introduction of sin and brokenness, death and destruction into the world; the story of how we were lost, and of how God searched for us and gave us the commandments to reorient our lives, and the prophets to draw us to fidelity to His covenant. It is the story of how God promised us the Messiah and the coming of Jesus Christ into the world; the story of Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection and the sending forth of the Holy Spirit after His ascension. It is the story of our return to God, an amazing and glorious end to the greatest of stories.
Curiously, St. Thomas Aquinas does not teach that we possess the ability to choose the end of the story. Champion of freedom though he is, what he emphasizes is that we have an end, not that we choose one. God gives us a final end, and it is eternal life with Him. There is no other ending. We choose in accord with that end, or we choose contrary to that end. We either cooperate with grace and share in eternal union with God, or we choose to act contrary to that final end and we are responsible for our own eternal loss, condemnation and what is commonly called hell. The reason we rejoice and have hope this morning is because God has given us everything that we will ever need to cooperate with Him and enter His heavenly bliss. We have the sacraments of the Church, the teachings of our faith, and His grace to guide us and motivate us on our pilgrim journey towards our final end.
The Church’s mission, according to Jenson, is “to tell the biblical narrative” to God and to the world. To God? But doesn’t He already know the story quite well?! Of course He does! Jenson says that we tell the story to God in worship, and to the world in proclamation. In other words, we gather as a people of faith and recall all that God has done: how we were lost and broken and God found us. We praise and worship Him for the way He has treated us and continues to be present in our lives. We tell Him that story and then, says Jenson, we move on from that glorious act of worship and we proclaim to the world that same message. We announce to everyone who will listen that God is faithful, God is merciful, God is calling us to be with Him forever. That is evangelization, and it is the Church’s primary mission and reason for being (cf. Pope St. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14).
Jenson, in his more recent theology, laments the fact that the world has lost its story. Starting with modernity, he notes how the world accepts that there is such a thing as a story, but that God and the Judeo-Christian tradition has nothing really to do with it. The story is about art, architecture, science and technology. It is a story based upon the premise that humanity is on the rapid road to progress and that is how we all fit into the story. Of course, the First and Second World Wars rather flattened that storyline.
Nonetheless, in the post-modern world, says Janson, there is no longer a coherent story at all. There are fragments in which my story does not necessarily connect with your story, nor need it be so. In this fragmented, post-modern world there can be many different stories and none of them need to connect in any way. In such a world, gender ideology can claim that the body I have been given is not the body I wish to accept, and that such a truth as “Male and female he created them” (Genesis 5:2) is meaningless at best and possibly even hateful.
In a world without a story, emphasizing the need and possibility for forgiveness and mercy, redemption and hope, what we are left with is a world filled with violence, meaninglessness and hopelessness. It is a world in which we are paralyzed by fear and wonder where, if at all, we fit in.
I mention that this morning because the disciples in the Upper Room after the resurrection have lost their story. They had found meaning and purpose and their lives had been totally transformed when they had encountered Jesus Christ. Suddenly that entire story had died when Jesus was crucified; they had hoped that He “was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). Yet things had taken a terrible turn for the worse. Now they have heard news about His resurrection from the dead. If such a thing was even possible or true, what would that mean for them? They had denied Him, abandoned Him. If He was to come back, what might He do with them? These men were utterly lost in those days following Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
To their astonishment, Jesus walks into the upper room and announces, “Peace be with you” (Luke 24:36). Such an amazing experience does little to settle their fragmented reality, as St. Luke goes on to say that “they were startled and terrified.” Jesus reassures them: “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?” (Luke 24:38). He is not angry with them, He has not turned against them. Quite the contrary, He engages them directly and begins to reconnect them to the great story. He says to them:
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
—Luke 24:44-45
He opened their minds! He was reconnecting them to the great story of which they were intimately a part of. He would have brought them back to the Book of Exodus and to the lamb that was sacrificed to bring the people out of slavery and lead them towards the Promised Land. “I am that lamb, and I was sacrificed for you,” He would have assured them. He would have showed them the prophets and reminded them of how God was a faithful spouse to the unfaithful Israel; how God was relentless in reaching out to them, and even promised them the Messiah who would come to them. “I am that spouse,” He would have shown them, “and my fidelity remains with you.” And He would have reconnected them with the great psalms in which God lovingly guides and directs His people. He would have reminded them of the words:
The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want;
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
He restores my soul.
—Psalm 23:1-3
He would have reassured them that He was that Good Shepherd, leading them even at this very moment to the waters of life. Jesus Christ set their hearts on fire and then sent them out into the world to announce that same saving message of forgiveness, mercy and love.
This weekend, where is Christ reconnecting us to the great story of salvation? How are we being called to a deeper and more intimate spirit of worship as we tell God the great story of all that He has done for us, as we worship Him with humble, contrite and hope-filled hearts? Here we ask for the grace to be totally reconnected to the story of our salvation, and to be set on fire as we are sent fourth from this place to announce that same message to a world that is in desperate need of a really great story.
