177 -The Story – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

Sunday morning I was looking over the Advent and Christmas songs in a hymnal (Celebrating Grace) and came across these lines in a litany –

The time has come!
God’s church relives the drama
of the story we inhabit.
 
It is His story!
It is our story!
Let us confess together.
 
In Advent the church yearns for Christ.
At Christmas we receive Him.
 
In Epiphany the church follows Christ’s light.
Through Lent we share His struggles.
 
“At Easter the church beholds Christ, risen and coming again.
At Pentecost we receive His fire to live His life anew.

I very much like this summary of the Christian year and will come back to that later but this morning I want to call your attention to the first six lines and especially to “His story … our story!”

Time and time again we will hear people say “the Christmas story” and in many churches and homes someone will say to those gathered there, “Let’s read the Christmas story.”  And that’s what they do.  They read the story.

Put look at these words again,

The time has come!
God’s church relives the drama
of the story we inhabit.
 
It is His story!
It is our story!
Let us confess together.

Are we going to relive the drama this year?  Are we going to inhabit the story and let God’s story inhibit us?

Do we really, really believe it is “our story”?  And if we do catch the vision that this is our story, how does that call us to live into Advent, Christmas and Epiphany?

I already see I need to put myself into the story as it is retold and then to put the story into me as I walk each day and encounter each person along my way.

 


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *