The Grand Story

I'm, like, really "into" Richard Hays at the moment. I've quoted him on the blog already here, here, here and here. His book Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul is one of the richest, most eye-opening books I've yet to read, and I'm very much looking forward to tucking into The Conversion of the Imagination as soon as I can. I of course don't agree with everything he writes -- heck, I probably don't even agree with everything I write -- but he writes so well and so persuasively that it's hard not to get caught up in the whirlwind he conjures up.

I mention him again because he has fed my new-found fascination with the grand narrative of the Bible. I mean when all is said and done, what's it all about?

Well, in a lecture entitled The Art of Reading Scripture Faithfully, Hays tells the grand story of the Bible in three sentences. Here they are:

The God of Israel, the Creator of the world, has acted astoundingly to rescue a lost and broken world through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The full extent of that rescue is something we don't yet see, but God has created a community of witnesses to this good news - the Church. While we wait for the final conclusion of the story, the Church, in the power of the Spirit, is called to reenact the pattern of the loving obedience of Jesus, and to be a sign to the world of God's redeeming purpose.