Who Is Narrating Your World?

July 5, 2020

Ephesians 1:3-10

Introduction: Stories (Narratives) Guide Our Lives

Life…human existence is a story. Stories trace the actions and interactions of people with each other and the world as we know it or wish to know it.

Stories have been called “equipment for living.”

There are a multitude of stories (or what we might also call narratives) in the world which determine our values and actions. There are family stories. And who knows that better than the young couple who has been married for only six months. Remember that season of life? Remember the tension as you and your spouse were trying to sort out the values – sometimes competing values – that came from two different family stories? Tough times. It’s a good thing we had stars in our eyes! Then there’s America’s story with all of its romantic rugged individualism and heroic sacrifice. But it also includes nearly centuries of slavery and the doctrine of eminent domain which brought unspeakable tragedy to Native Americans. There’s the story of capitalism and democracy. Socialism, Communism, and the progression of society are other interrelated stories. The Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century brought us the modern scientific narrative which has given us wonderful inventions like the light bulb, cars, and computers. But it has also multiplied the atrocities of war and normalized the murder of unborn children.

Ours is a world of competing stories.  And, thanks to digital and broadcast media, there is no shortage of people who will champion their understanding of current events according to the story to which they subscribe.  It really is as amazing as it is plain as day.  Take the same event and compare coverage by CNN and Fox News.  The facts are the same, but the reporting and the interpretation are vastly different.  There’s the progressive Left and the conservative Right.  The same event means something entirely different to each side.  On this the 244^th Anniversary of the founding of the United States, we are anything but united.  Any unifying vision for what we should be as a nation is all but gone.  We are deeply divided.  And it all depends upon which Story one subscribes to.

Nations rise and fall.  The cultural and political narratives that are screaming in our ears right now are hopelessly flawed.  But there remains one Narrative that will rule them all.  If you know Jesus, you are a subscriber to that Story.

Text: Ephesians 1:3-10 (NLT)

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.

The Mess We’re In

There’s no question.  Our country is a mess right now.  We have anarchy in the streets.  Property, businesses, and lives are being destroyed.  Hatred is being spewed at the men and women who are sworn to protect life and property.  Incredibly, some local politicians are voting to dismantle their police departments.  We are deeply divided and it seems nearly impossible to have any meaningful dialogue about how to address our problems.  Congress is deadlocked.  Social media is on fire.  Even family ties are strained by our political differences.  And all of this unrest has been boiling underneath the surface while an unpredictable and deadly virus has devastated our economy and isolated us in our misery and angst.  Satan is the author of violence, hatred, and confusion.  This smells a lot like him.  And oh, yes!  Did you know?  This is an election year!

There are two primary political and cultural narratives that Americans subscribe to today: the progressive Left or the conservative Right.  There are, of course, people who subscribe to a little bit of the Left or a little bit of the Right.  But our political parties and our information outlets generally subscribe to just one or the other.  There are very few true moderates.  Battle lines seem to be drawn.  And typically, the opinions that people hold depend upon whether they subscribe to the Left or Right narrative. 

The progressive Left, or liberals, are always pushing.  That is the nature of what it means to be progressive and liberal.  The purpose is to change the status-quo and move the culture and the nation to a better place.  And the liberal tradition has brought much good to the country.  It was the Republicans who were the liberals of the nineteenth century who sided with the abolitionists to rid us of the curse of slavery.  It was Teddy Roosevelt, a liberal Republican who took on the big business moguls in favor of the working man.  In the twentieth century, it was the Democrats who took up the liberal cause for progress that gave us all of the wonderful building projects during the Great Depression as well as Social Security and Medicare – programs that every American senior depends upon today.  Liberals always push.  It is their nature. 

While liberals push, conservatives resist.  It is their nature.  They want to hold on to what they believe is good in our country.  In the twentieth century, American conservatives served as a bulwark against oppressive taxation, led the defeat of Soviet Communism, championed the cause of the unborn and traditional family values.  Liberals feel like they are pushing the national agenda upwards to a better future while the conservatives are always resisting them.  Conservatives, on the other hand, feel like they are trying to keep the nation from sliding down into a cultural disaster.  Both sides believe they have the moral high ground. 

History offers both hope and despair.  We have risen above our difficulties before.  We came through the Depression.  We defeated Soviet Communism.  We recovered from countless recessions.  We came together after 9/11.  We even rose from the ashes of a devastating Civil War. 

But the trajectory of western culture, of which we are the fullest realization, is one that is determined to forge ahead without God.  Those are the tracks that we are running on right now.  It’s very clear that we are moving as fast away from God as we can.  Read the wisdom that is found in the book of Proverbs.  We are a nation of fools and we are going headlong into disaster.  The history of the world demonstrates our brokenness.  Unless we change our course, the pandemic of our own sinfulness will be our undoing.  

God’s Story

Our cultural and political narratives will never save us.  But there is one Story that will be standing at the end.  We read it in both of our texts today.  God is the sovereign King.  Let this nation, and all the nations of the world, tremble before him.  God has a plan – a plan to bring all things together in heaven and on earth under one person – the Lord Jesus Christ. 

You can be a Democrat or a Republican.  You might be a Libertarian or an Independent.  You can wear the blue hat that says “Move on” to a better future.  Or you can wear the red one promising to “Make American Great Again.”  If you are an American, you have been given the privilege and the freedom to engage in the political process.  I believe it is the responsibility that comes with your privilege to engage politically.  At the very least, you should cast your vote. 

But understand, God doesn’t wear a blue hat.  He doesn’t have a MAGA hat, either.  I like what Pricilla Shirer said, “God didn’t come on the back of an elephant or a donkey.  God didn’t come to take sides.  He came to take over.”  Sometimes we get confused.  We think that God has aligned himself with a particular party or agenda.  But God doesn’t work that way.  When Joshua came up to do battle against Jericho, he encountered a man with a drawn sword.  Startled, he demanded to know whether the man was for him or against him.  “Neither,” the Warrior replied.  “I am the commander of the army of the Lord.” 

That same Warrior – Jesus Christ – stands with his church today.  Don’t put your trust in the donkey.  Don’t think the elephant will save this country.  God’s ways are not our ways and he will always prevail. 

God’s Story is simple but powerful.

Creation: He made the whole world, including the human race which he made for himself.  But we rebelled against God and brought the curse of sin and death upon the whole creation.  We turned it upside down.

Redemption: God sent his Son, Jesus, to give himself as a ransom for the world that was enslaved to sin and to reconcile the world back to God.

Re-Creation: Jesus, who defeated sin and death.  He is the first fruit of the New Creation that God is doing through him.  It’s worth repeating again: 

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth (Eph. 1:3-10).

So, what are we to do?  A few weeks ago, I wrote an article for the Register-Mail suggesting that we take a knee.  Take a knee in solidarity with our black brothers and sisters who have endured suffering that most of us can’t understand.  But mostly, take a knee in repentance and prayer for our nation.  For unless God intervenes, I believe we are on an accelerated pathway of decline.  Second, follow God’s Narrative, not the competing cultural narratives that are screaming at each other right now.  Interpret life through the lens of Scripture rather than CNN or Fox News.  Third, do the works of the Kingdom.  You are a citizen of heaven, after all.  Live like Jesus taught us in the Gospels.  

Finally, be glad!  You’re on God’s side.  In a few moments, we’re going to sing a Communion song that, though it was written forty years ago, speaks powerfully to this moment:

In these days of confused situations

In these nights of a restless remorse

When the heart and the soul of a nation

Lay wounded and cold as a corpse

From the grave of the innocent Adam

Comes a song bringing joy to the sad

O your cry has been heard and the ransom

Has been paid up in full, be ye glad

O be ye glad, O be ye glad

Ev'ry debt that you ever had

Has been paid up in full

By the grace of the Lord

Be ye glad be ye glad be ye glad

Now from your dungeon a rumor is stirring

You have heard it again and again

Ah but this time the cell keys they're turning

And outside there are faces of friends

And though your body lays weary from wasting

And your eyes show the sorrow they've had

O the love that your heart is now tasting

Has open'd the gate, be ye glad

So be like lights on the rim of the water

Giving hope in a storm of the night

Be a refuge amidst the slaughter

Of these fugitives in their flight

For you are timeless and part of a puzzle

You are winsome and young as a lad

And there is no disease or no struggle

That can pull you from God, be ye glad

Michael Kelly Blanchard © 1980 New Spring