The Story of the People of God

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—  children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:10-13

I love reading The Message Paraphrase, not just the Bible portions but the introductions as well. In his introduction to the Gospel of Matthew, Eugene Peterson writes:

The story of Jesus doesn't begin with Jesus. God had been at work for a long time. Salvation, which is the main business of Jesus, is an old business. Jesus is the coming together in final form of themes and energies and movements that had been set in motion before the foundation of the world. 

Matthew opens the New Testament by setting the local story of Jesus in its world historical context. He makes sure that as we read his account of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we see the connections with everything that has gone before….

Better yet, Matthew tells the story in such a way that not only is everything previous to us completed in Jesus, we are completed in Jesus. Every day we wake up in the middle of something that is already going on, that has been going on for a long time, genealogy and geology, history and culture, the cosmos—God. We are neither accidental nor incidental to the story. We get orientation, briefing, background, reassurance. 

Matthew provides the comprehensive context by which we see all God's creation and salvation completed in Jesus, and all the parts of our lives—work, family, friends, memories, dreams—also completed in Jesus. Lacking such a context, we are in danger of seeing Jesus as a mere diversion from the concerns announced in the newspapers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus should not -- he really cannot -- be disconnected from any areas of our lives, he forms and informs each of them. Neither can our faith in Jesus be disconnected from the story of the Old Testament people of Israel, it forms and informs us. Their story is our story; it is their story into which we have been grafted (Romans 11:17). As we continue on in our study of Romans, we will regularly see the intertwining of the story of the People of God -- now and then. As we do so, it is my hope that you will read the Old Testament with an even greater appreciation for your cousins and predecessors in the story. 

How do you think that might happen for you? How do you read the Old Testament now? Do do you see relevance for your story? How does that change when you think of your story as being added onto (or grafted) backwards into the great stories of the chosen people who preceded you?

Share your thoughts - with me and with others. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Being Preceded Doing

In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. Colossians 2:11-12

Last Sunday our journey through Romans brought us to Paul’s challenge to the Jewish people that the circumcision which marked their covenant with God was useless unless it was preceded and accompanied with a changed heart. It is the heart that must first be transformed, the behaviors then flow from that transformation; the being precede the doing. 

Why do you exist? Take a second and sit with that question. What is the purpose for God creating you? Take a minute and write it down. 

Once you have come up with something, click here.