Story

I don't watch a lot of EWTN, but one show I do like sometimes is "Parable." It's something about the composition. Plus it's fun and intriguing how people play the saints as teachers.

Anyway, I was watching the program last night and one of the brothers was talking about how the parables of Christ were analogous to the Incarnation. Just as the life of God becomes available to us when the Word quietly takes our human life in Jesus of Nazareth, so the doctrine of the Kingdom of God comes somewhat secretly in examples from ordinary life.

It makes sense that if God wanted to communicate with us he would tell a story. Everyone loves stories. It's something you certainly notice when you preach. You might be losing the assembly as they space out to your abstract and mystical doctrine, but as soon as you say, "One time when I was a kid," or "I remember when," or "This reminds me of the time," they start to listen intently.

Indeed it's one way we can understand the Trinity and Incarnation of God. The Word which God speaks from all eternity, this word is a story. When God speaks the Word in the creation of Genesis, things come to be. Creation becomes the illustration of the Story that is within God. And then the Word, the Story of God becomes one of us in Jesus Christ, making a path for us to enter into the Story at the heart of God.

It's kind of corny, I know, but I think it's at least a little beautiful.