Such was a question addressed in one of my Naz pastoral spaces on FB. I’m guessing it was tongue in cheek as an attempt to say, …when I’m engaging “The Chosen” I feel like I’m living inside The Book!
What, I imagine is really driving the question is our (Wesleyan) understanding of Holy Scripture as narrative and as such the memory of the People of God, remembering Gods Presence and acts and often re-imagening those memories in new contexts.
Sadly, as a result of the Protestant re-emphasis on Biblical authority and in an environment that over-time divorced The Word from its creative human sources (the Church) we have increasingly read it flat—making every part equal, an authority on disciplines the creators and I dare say The Creator never intended,
The Chosen—which our community is engaging in teaching, preaching and fellowship as we all went to the Theatre Wednesday to watch their Christmas special—is compelling precisely because the medium, creators, use of back-story are placing Jesus life, interactions, teachings in its near original context; the disciples, Romans, tax collectors, Pharisees, the Baptist are each more human, compelling and givens its care to flesh out the times, restore the scandalous political context and thus meaningfully capture Jesus humanity and Divinity (in humorous tension).
The Chosen would be worthless as a teaching tool were it not for The Book itself being compelling as written, when experienced and interpreted within communities of faith that know how to ask our people to Act in our times, Biblically; not as a new cannon (for its power lies in its distance from us and intimacy with the Story.)
What we need is a realization that when we are in holy communion we are with John the Beloved (I John 1:1-5), at the same table and we then become the Story of God (not in ourselves) but precisely because we are living inside their ancient story, yet in our times.
It is the inter-active Communion of the Written Word as either a vivid or distant memory of the Jewish and Christian worshiping experience that make the Bible both timely and timeless.
Terry Blessings! :)
1) Additional thought: I am equally saddened when I hear a pastor or lay witness attempt to either make the Written Word God’s Spoken Inerrant voice and thus rob it of its real magic—it’s uniquely human and creatively interpreted experience of God with us …or… conversely so de-mystify it’s voice as to be just one, among many sources of experience with God rather than a uniquely Primary and shaping revelation of God’s acts within and around us.
2) This Christmas I published the first of I hope several children’s teaching books that dig into the magic of how we Christians and our Jewish sisters and brothers have both shaped and been shaped by The Book. It’s called “The First Christmas,” an origin story from which the Church re-imagined the prophecy of Isaiah, “Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign. The young woman is pregnant and is about to give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 CEB).
To See, go to:
https://www.amazon.com/First-Christmas-Childrens-Holiday-Story/dp/1792118619/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Ter
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