“Every story is true and some of them really happened.”
Do you remember the first story you realized was speaking
about something much deeper than what you saw at first glance? Like when you
first realized Aslan was a stand-in for God or how the Hunger Games is about
class warfare?
I want to tell you about a story that deeply impacted me a
few years back.
“Cogenitor”, a Star Trek episode from 2003 directed by Lavar Burton;
was about an alien race that had 3 sexes. The episode feels like it came
straight from the original series with all the joys and flaws that brings. Its
message is about as subtle as a Klingon in a china shop. The acting is choppy,
and it fails to take the prime directive seriously.
Gene Roddenberry envisioned a show that could deal with
real-world problems under the guise of fiction. He wanted sci-fi to be a vessel
for truth-telling, “Cogenitor” did just that. It took LGTBQ rights, slapped a few facial
prosthetics on it and asked us whether their community deserved to live as
second-class citizens or be treated as equals. To a young man raised in a very
conservative bubble, it was a revelation.
Over the course of 43 minutes, I realized I had thought of
the LGBTQ community as something less
than human. It’s not that I
thought they should be hurt, it’s just that I was cruelly indifferent to their
suffering. An arguably bad episode of Star Trek helped me to see the humanity
of an entire group of people.
I think this is why Christ spoke in stories more than
statements. When Christ talked about the Kingdom of God he never described the
gps coordinates of where it was. Instead, Jesus spoke about mustard seeds growing,
leaven rising the bread, and pearls of great price. When Christ spoke about the
nature of God he told of a prodigal son and a loving father. First are last,
and last are first at His table. You have to scatter to receive and die to
live.
What I have found in my own life, and I imagine you have too,
is that I’ve rarely had my mind changed by someone besting me in an argument.
There’s a name for this phenomenon, it’s called motivated reasoning
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning) and it’s the reason you can’t
“win” arguments.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote, "the reasoning
process is more like a lawyer defending a client than a judge or scientist
seeking the truth.”
That means, even if you win the argument, you run the
risk of losing the relationship.
Rather then eloquent arguments meant to win debates, Jesus
told compelling stories that penetrated the heart and challenged the mind.
Christ told the story of a son who asks his father for his inheritance, spends
it on frivolous living and ends up so poverty-stricken and hungry he ends up
eating pig food . The story picks up in Luke 15:17-20…
17 When he
came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have more than
enough food, and here I am dying of hunger
18 I’ll get
up, go to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and
in your sight.
19 I’m no
longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired hands.’
20 So he got
up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his
father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around
his neck, and kissed him.
“But while the son was still a long way off”. The image of
the father looking for his son and longing for his return, paints a picture of
love that a “top ten facts about Gods love” article could never capture.
Information and the truth are two very different things. Was Christ telling the
story of a child and a father or the story of every person and God? The story
is truer than quoting facts could ever be.
Jesus used great stories to communicate the “good news”.
“Every story is true and some of them really happened.”
If I’m being honest, my life has been challenged and changed
more often by sci-fi than sermons. When I look at the impact stories have had
on me and the way that Jesus chose to communicate, I can’t help but feel like
many pastors, religious speakers and Christian writers have missed the mark.
When we argue, there will always be a winner and a loser. Ben Shapiro might “destroy”
liberals in arguments, but has he ever changed a mind? It feels good to “best” someone,
but is it worth destroying a relationship and losing their soul?
As a child I fell in love with Jesus because of what I was
taught in Sunday school. The stories of His miracles, how Jesus spoke truth to
power and ministered to the outcasts. It wasn’t a proper theory of atonement or
proper theology that made me a Christian, it was great stories about the “good
news”. What if instead of trying to convince people about God we invited them
into the grand narrative of the gospel? What if the greatest minds in Christian
culture were more interested in telling stories about God’s nature then setting
verbal traps and finding “gotcha!” facts. How would it change us and the world
around us if we set our efforts towards inviting people to enter into the
greatest story ever told, instead of beating them in a verbal battle?
I think everyone wants to know that they are a part of
something greater then themselves. We all want to know that our suffering and
pain is aiming us towards something grander than we can see. Christians, we
have the greatest story ever told, and if we don’t invite others into it they
will settle for whatever story they stumble into.
Let’s start a new narrative for this generation of
Christians. Let’s be storytellers. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said:
“If you wish to build a ship, do not divide the men into
teams and send them to the forest to cut wood. Instead, teach them to long for
the vast and endless sea.”
Let’s invite others into the gospel of grace instead of
selling them a set of facts.
Grace, peace and may the force be with you,
by Jonathan Owens
Jonathan is a lucky husband and father, minister of the
gospel of grace and proud nerd.
