September 24thThe Present Past
To my dear TFMC family,
I will openly confess that I’m far more comfortable in the New Testament than I am in the Old Testament. I think for me, it’s because I’m far more comfortable with Jesus than I am with millennia of prophets, kings, judges, poetry and history of the Old Testament. And that’s, at least, partially why I was rather excited to take on the challenge of the Narrative Lectionary for this year.
Designed and structured as a way for congregations to engage with the biblical story, the Narrative Lectionary doesn't give worship planners much choice, in the same way that other lectionaries do. You have one scripture passage to engage with each week. On one hand it’s easier because it focus’ you, on the other hand, if it’s a difficult or a tough passage, you don’t really have any other option, or any place to ‘hide.’
It’s been a good challenge this fall to engage in some quite familiar scripture passages, and to engage with some challenging ones too. It’s good to stretch these muscles, and to then also wonder and ponder, how are all these passages fitting into God’s great story. Taken on their own, it might not be immediately obvious or evident, but when looking at the larger story of scripture perhaps a thread emerges.
Take the book of Genesis for example. The couple of stories we read from here were not the easiest to hear, listen to or engage with. Each has their pitfalls, each had their rough edges, and each didn’t exactly resonate with our modern sensibilities. In some cases, we looked with frustration, maybe even disgust with the human beings in the story. And put together all these stories are telling us about the start of something, a genesis, of God’s relationship with God’s people.
And if we know anything about our own species, that is humankind, it’s that we don’t always get things right the first, or even second time around. Humankind messes up, a lot, in Genesis. Humankind doesn't understand God or God’s purposes, or even God’s dream in Genesis. Despite the ages mentioned, humankind is just too young. And I would go so far as to suggest that we are still too young.
Given the violence that it seems humankind has chosen to fall back to, we have not learned lessons from the past. History both ancient and modern seems to be reverberating with the repeating of hurts, harms and cycles of vengeance. We see it written in the earliest stories, and we see it still played out on the evening news. Again and again, humankind returns to the familiar patterns of mistrust, domination, and fear.
Yet even in the midst of this immaturity, Genesis reminds us that God does not abandon the human story. Instead, God works through the mess, calling humankind forward, patiently shaping us toward something greater—toward reconciliation, justice, and a maturity that we have not yet fully embraced.
Yours,
Craig Janzen Neufeld, Pastor