Brazilian theologian Dr C. Rosalee Velleso Ewell reflects on our participation in God’s story in this extract from Langham publication ‘Breath and Bone – Living Out the Mission of God in the World’:
One of the gifts Christ has given the church in his writings and preaching is the emphasis on the biblical narratives as stories. He not only draws key principles for life and mission from the texts, but also directs us to reflect more deeply and to take more seriously the narratives themselves. We learn about obedience and faithfulness through walking with Abram from one land to another; we learn of suffering and patience through the stories of Israel in the desert and in exile; we are encouraged to have ears to hear through the stories of the prophets, through John the Baptist and the crowds listening to Jesus on the hillside.
In Genesis 3 we read of the terrible consequences of what happens when we do not listen to the stories of God and turn our attention to the narratives of others. In Colossians 3 we read of the wonder and the challenge of participating in a story far greater than our own and being transformed in and through that greater story. In these ways, the missiological impetus of the Scriptures is about participating in God’s story. As Stephen Shoemaker puts it,
Our lives must find their place in some greater story or they will find their place in some lesser story . . . To give ourselves over to these lesser stories and images (sex, money, ambition, fame) is to live a life diminished and fragmented. The purpose of Scripture is to unite us to our Maker and to invite us into God’s world of justice, grace, peace, order, hope, mercy, where God is making us and all the world whole. It is the story itself that moves us into its sacred sphere.
The God of the Bible is the God who continually makes new garments for his people, teaching them how to dress, how to be, so that the world might know who is the one true God. This missiological view of Scripture also highlights that we are not alone in this story. It matters who is on the journey with us. Being God’s people and participating in God’s mission implies being with others, and especially with others whom we might not have chosen to be with if mission were on our own terms. It is in the messiness of the narratives that God works out our salvation. In the stories of imperfect churches and broken relationships, God gives us new clothes and a new way to be God’s people in this world.
As we draw closer to Christ and are hidden in Christ (the “Christification” of which patristic theology writes), we are drawn closer to one another – we are not alone when hidden in Christ. The missiological expression of this is precisely in being a people who show in words, deeds, and character that another world is not only possible but is already here in Jesus and his kingdom. We are to wear the clothes of this kingdom and rejoice in God’s promises to bless us and to raise us up with Christ in all his glory.
Dr C. Rosalee Velloso Ewell is a Brazilian theologian from the city of São Paulo and is the New Testament editor of the Latin American Bible Commentary.