Stories, the guiding narrative…

One of my favourite images about the power of stories comes, as I heard it told, from the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. The tradition of this people group is an aural rather than written one, and because of how deeply connected  their lives are to nature, much of the most important information that needs to be preserved and transmitted has to do with the landscape – where essential things like food, shelter and water can be found. This information is always important, but never more important than in a crisis, when finding your way home becomes a matter of survival.

In this tradition, the important information is contained in stories, and the stories are contained in songs. The elders teach the younger ones the songs (and hence the stories). To make a long tradition into a short tale, as long as the people can remember the songs, they can find their way home. Lose the melody and you lose the story. Lose the story, and you’re lost for real…

We might not live in a culture that does it’s literal mapping with stories, but we do need to learn and remember the stories that help us make sense of the world around us, and that help us find our way. This always matters, and never more than when we are feeling a bit lost or confused.

So this week we are going to start into a series that will take us through the story of the Bible – through the guiding narrative of the Christian faith. We will encounter it in the words of the Bible itself, but also in images, in songs, in related stories. God knows, we could all use a little help finding our way home.

See you on Sunday morning.

Peace,

Tim