The Road to Shalom

"What's the story on the One Story?"

• Fran Sciacca • Season 3 • Episode 2

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     If someone were to ask you, "What is the Bible?" How would you respond? Would you say, "It's the Word of God"? What if they asked you another question, like, "About what?" What would you say then?
     Our perspective on the Bible not only determines what we think about it. It dictates what we do with it, and why. Is the Bible really an anthology of books and letters? Or is it a textbook of sorts, with answers to all life's conudrums? The source of a distinctly "Christian worldview"? Or perhaps it's a handbook, a sort of "disciplopedia" on how to live "the Christian life"?
     What if it's all of this, but much more? And, what if the "much more" has a claim on your life on one hand, and is the very thing you were made for on the other? In this episode, Fran Sciacca takes us on a journey into the One Story of the One God, with a particular focus on how getting this right can shape our lives, and getting it wrong can make people hate God.
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Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

You and I have an almost insatiable need for things to make sense. To add up. To explain what we’ve seen and heard. Or even heard about. We’re always foraging to find reasons for life’s pain and the events around us. We want to connect the dots. This is such an intrinsic  facet of human nature we don’t even talk about it. Its reality is assumed for all kinds of things. Everything from the storyline in a good murder mystery to conspiracy theories like Qanon. We need for things to add-up. To make sense. Even Hollywood messes with our dot connecting obsession. From futuristic movies like Inception and Source Code, to modern who-dunnits like, “Knives Out” or “The Little Things.” Truth is… we’re hardwired for cause and effect. For some perceivable linearity to life. For plot resolution. But, so what? What’s this need to connect the dots got to do with the bigger issues of life in the 21st century?

Hi, I’m Fran Sciacca, and I’m glad you’ve decided to travel with me on The Road to Shalom, a podcast based on the belief that life’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but can be, once it’s clear what it should be. I’m glad you’re here.

Okay, back to this idea of plot. At the end of the last episode, “Is God Trying to Wean His People,” I laid out a challenge that this year—2021—would be the year you made it your goal to become familiar or perhaps re-familiar with what I called, “the One Story of the One God.” After I recorded that episode I thought, “you know, it would be really helpful to spend an episode unpacking what I meant by this One Story of the One God. And that, Beloved, is why we’re looking at the notion of “dots and plots” and making connections.

So, put on your floaties for just a few minutes, we’re gonna wade into the shallow end of the pool of philosophy, and talk about the question of purpose. Or, why we’re here. The first thing I want to put on the table is that purpose is dependent upon non-randomness. A car accident can have a cause, but not a purpose. It’s random, unless of course it’s an act of terrorism. But, most aren’t. Order in the natural world is breath-taking, but scientifically, none of it has any inherent purpose, even though of course, it all has amazing function. Snowflakes are beautiful and even useful, but they’re not purposeful. They’re random acts of chemistry and physics. On the other hand, those of us who profess to be people of faith maintain that all of nature bears the signature of God, and all of humanity uniquely bears the image of God. And this God revealed in the Bible is relational as well as rational. You start believing stuff like this and…well things become real deep, real fast. Using these optics, a rational and relational God, non-randomness, and the idea of purpose all converge in the world of narrative. Of a plot. A story. Or to push it out even further, because God is involved…a metanarrative.

Let’s face it, we all need a story to be in. A plot to be a part of. I’d say this is vital for all of us, to have a sense of purpose rooted in something big enough to carry us the distance. And guess what? This becomes serious real fast too. Because, no plot…no purpose. Last episode I threw out the assessment that much of American evangelicalism right now resembles a cast of characters in search of a plot.

Okay, so plot is important. What are our options…on this whole of plot and purpose thing? Well, this is America in the 21st century, so there’s a viral illusion that we have tons of options. I mean, there’s nearly 2,000 different types of breakfast cereals. Surely we’ve got lots of options for finding a purpose. Uh uh. I’d say it’s a lot more like an episode of NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” There are only three major options when it comes to the question of plot and purpose. And, they can’t all be true. Here’s the three options:

FIRST OPTION - There is no metanarrative. No plot. No purpose. Solomon got it right 3,000 years ago in his journal called, “Ecclesiastes.” He journeyed down a bunch of different roads looking for a purpose for what he called, “life under the sun.” Pleasure, learning, travel, writing, architecture, wealth, status, power, love…to mention a few. His conclusion? “Meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless.” Thirty-one times he said that, in a journal of only 222 verses! So, if there is no plot to be a part of, what do we do? Well, party till our eyes bleed, I guess. No plot…no purpose…no point. Hedonism is definitely allowed here. Maybe the Eagles were right in 1972 when they sang, “Take it easy, take it easy, don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive your crazy. Lighten up while you still can. You don’t have to understand. Just find a place to take your stand…and take it easy.”

SECOND OPTION - There can be a narrative. And, here’s the best part…you get to choose it! It’s either your own creation, or someone else’s you’ve hijacked. Life, it turns can be a “Choose your own adventure.” You, or someone you admire is the author, and you get to be the protagonist. you get to write the script, choose the key characters, and a bunch of other parts of the story. Narcissism is definitely allowed here. And in our age of social media self-branding, this sounds amazing. But…and it’s an important but…you’re responsible for all of it. All of it. you carry the weight of your own purpose. you carry the responsibility for maintaining an exciting narrative, and you have some responsibility for the existential safety of the other people in your story. And, unless you choose to end your own life, you have no idea or control over how it ends. And, it’s no secret that how a narrative ends turns out to be the thing that gives meaning to the Story.

THIRD OPTION - There is a metanarrative. One grand Story that makes sense out of life as it really is. A Story that has a plot because it has an Author. A story that is adequate but not exhaustive. It has enough information to keep us sane, but not enough to allow us to believe we know everything. A Story that can simultaneously give us hope without making us arrogant. A story that has a place for everything, except hedonism and narcissism of course. A story full of surprises, yet leaves no loose ends. And, a Story, as it turns out, that is the very thing I was designed for. Who I am fits the fabric of the tale. And since design determines purpose, getting THIS right is enormous for my individual sense of purpose, as well as the larger existential question of the purpose of life itself. And best of all, what if this grand Story, this comprehensive metanarrative belongs to God Himself? What if He has a Story? What if He has a “plan or storyline for the fullness of time, to unite all things in heaven and earth in Christ?” What if there really is such a thing as the One Story of the One God? Well, look at that! We’ve circled back to where we started. Sorta, but not quite. I had to take us on that roundtrip to get us to the door we have to now walk through. We’ve got to push in a little further. This might raise some of your blood pressure a little, so maybe sit down. Maybe do some yoga.

The door we need to step through is a very important question. It may actually be a question you’ve never asked yourself. So, let me ask you, what is your view of the Bible? What is it…really? The Bible? Guess what? We’re back at , “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” again. Three options…

{1} Some people of faith speak about the Bible objectively, as some kind of divine textbook about all of life—from psychology to ethics to science. It’s a citadel of Truth and needs to be defended at all costs. In this view, a disciple is someone one who uses the Bible to forge what is called, a distinctly biblical worldview, and believes their responsibility to the Bible is to study it, know it, and defend it? That’s what you do with citadels. Apologetics is held up as a key weapon for Christians in the never-ending battle to protect and preserve this citadel of Truth from an endless onslaught by pretenders.

{2} Others—most in fact—see the Bible in a more personal and practical way. For them it’s not so much a textbook as a handbook. A sorta “disciplopedia.” A “go to” for insights and principles for personal happiness and fulfillment in what is called, “the Christian life.” How to run a church, how to do ministry, how to manage a family, how to be financially secure. How to loose weight, how to have good sex. How to understand what God thinks about your Enneagram results. How to lead your dog to Christ. Well, maybe not that last one, but the list is pretty endless. With the Bible as a “disciplopedia,” discipleship is understood in terms of Christian values and virtues. How a believer should be living and why. Emphasis is on a Christian lifestyle. Behaving like a Christian. The disciple’s responsibility to the Bible here, is to study it, know it, and apply it.

{3} Now, to be fair, both of these two perspectives on the Bible are valid, and both have a place in the life of a believer. But, that place, I believe, is inside the circumference of this third view of the Bible. Okay? A third way to view the Bible is as a “Story…Book.” Listen carefully. I didn’t say a “storybook,” a book full of stories. An anthology. But a “Story…Book” A book that contains a Story. A single, divine narrative, in fact. One that’s is inclusive, linear, and adequate. All of human history fits into it, and derives its meaning from it. A true metanarrative. And here’s the heavy part…exciting, but still…pretty heavy. my responsibility to this Story is to study it, know it…and submit to its storyline because I’m now in it. In fact, this is the true basis for what we glibly call discipleship…submitting to God’s storyline. We’ll talk more about that in a bit. But first, we need to “unlearn some untruths” about this Story we call the Bible. The first is to deconstruct our mistaken 3-story Bible. 

What do I mean? Well, let me play with some words and metaphors for a minute. I’m suggesting—playing off the image of a 3-story building—that we’ve invented what I call a “3 story Bible.” First, there’s the bottom level, the foundation. For us that’s the “Old Testament.” For lots of Christians, the Old Testament is just the story of God’s chosen people, the Jews. They’re sorta way “back there” when it comes to the Bible. Next we have the second level, the basement. For us that’s the four Gospels, books that tell us everything about Yeshua, or Jesus as we’ve christened him. Finally, there’s the main floor, the story about the church and the future. For us, that’s the rest of the New Testament. It’s where we get our instructions on how to do…Church and “the Christian life.” And for believers, just like in our homes, we spend most of our time here, on the main floor of the Bible—the New Testament. And to be honest, we spend the majority of our time in one room on the main floor. 

But, what if the Bible’s not a “three-story” book? What if it’s a “one-story” book. What if it’s a single narrative? Now, to be fair, the Bible does contain individual stories. Tons of them. In fact, stories make up half of the Bible. Half! But, there’s a beauty to that you can only see by stepping back and looking for the big picture. First you see a multitude of separate stories about individuals. The Book of Ruth is an example. A really cool story of love and redemption that takes place about 33 centuries ago. But, Ruth’s story is an important part of an even bigger story. As the Book of Ruth ends, we discover that her story is part of the bigger and magnificent story of David. In fact, without Ruth, we’s have no King David. Turns out she’s King David’s great-great grandmother! And…she’s not even a Jew! Neither was her husband Boaz’s mother. She was a Canaanite prostitute. That means King David’s own story is full of intrigue. And, all of these stories are part of a much larger story. There’s an unbroken series of individual stories for 1,000 years from David’s story to the story of Yeshua and the salvation of the world. It’s a straight line. The dots all connect. This is just a trailer of the multi-layered, highly nuanced, complex, single-story nature of what we glibly call the Bible, and chop up into “Old” and “New” Testaments.

The tragedy beloved, is that we haven’t been taught to think in terms of God’s story, so we end up living in terms of our own…and then look to the Bible for insight on how to best live out our own stories.

So, I’d like for you to mentally discard the categories of “Old” and “New” when it comes to the Bible. I’d like you to think of the Bible as a single Story that is comprised of five Acts of a screen play. Ready? Here’s our five Acts:

ACT I – is COMMENCEMENT.  The beginning of the Story. This Act is the first two chapters of Genesis, the first book in the Bible. The curtain opens and we see the setting of a garden. The main characters are introduced, and the narrator informs us that everything is “very good.” Everything is as it should be. This initial statement about the state of affairs in the garden is absolutely vital to the One Story of the One God. Everything as it should be, and all that you can imagine that to be in real life, is packed into the Hebrew word, “shalom.” But shalom doesn’t last long.

ACT II – is CONFLICT. The antagonist appears, the protagonists fall into sin, and sin spills out from the garden and corrupts everything that was “very good” in ACT I. Deceit, death, decay, deprivation, and despair become the new normal. This is Genesis 3-11 of our Bible. Yet, even at the very beginning of this outward and downward spiral, there is a mysterious promise that it’s all going to be recovered. It’s all going to be redeemed.

ACT III - is what we’d have to simply call, Complication, and takes up the rest of our “Old Testament.” Genesis 12 all the way through Malachi 4. This is one of the longest of the five Acts, occupying 917 chapters and lasting about 2,000 years. We have the creation of a unique people group called Jews from a single, idol-worshipping pagan from Iraq named Abram. He is given both a promise and a mission to restore shalom. To “bless the nations.” The remainder of the Story in ACT III traces the complex and convoluted antics and periodic heroes within the Jews, and chronicles their few successes and multiple failures to fulfill the Abrahamic mission.

Then, there’s an “Intermission,” where the script of the Story pauses. A sort of “blank page” between the Old and New Testaments. The 400 years between the prophet Malachi and the arrival of John the Baptizer. But during this Intermission, Yahweh is rearranging the stage in massive ways for ACT IV. Things like working major geo-political mayhem with the rise and fall of Babylon, Persia, and Greece, followed by the rise and dominance of Rome. During this Intermission, the Jews find themselves scattered throughout the entire known world, to serve as future bus stops for a radical rabbi named Saul who will enter center stage after the Intermission. Yahweh also sees to it that local worship centers called synagogues are everywhere in the known world, all with a growing hope for an anointed deliver. A messiah. During Intermission the entire known world is saturated with the Greek language, in preparation for the spread of a glorious announcement from God that will come in ACT V. It will be a proclamation of the good news of the arrival of the Kingdom of God. We know it in its abbreviated form as, “the gospel.” During Intermission, even though we have no script, Yahweh has been a busy, busy God, setting the stage for ACT IV.

ACT IV – Is the Climax of the Story. The script is in our four Gospels: Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John. In ACT IV the antagonist and all the damage he did in ACT II are dealt with, and Yahweh begins to unveil his mysterious plan for the fullness of time to reclaim what was lost in ACT II. Yahweh appears in a body as Yeshua, enters the Story, inaugurates the Kingdom of God, and unleashes His unstoppable process of restoration through his death, resurrection, and ascension.

ACT V - Is the Consummation, the part of the One Story that leads up to the “end” of this life, and the beginning of what is called, “the life to come.” Time ends, but the Story doesn’t. ACT V has three Scenes:

• Scene 1 - is what we could call, “the apostolic age”; This is the Book of Acts through the Letter of Jude in our “New Testament.” In Scene 1, the announcement of the good news of the arrival of the Kingdom and forgiveness of sins is taken to the known world. This is done primarily by a group of Spirit-filled men called “apostles,” who had been with Yeshua, or trained by those who had. One person in particular, Saul of Tarsus is transformed into Paul the apostle, and is given the monumental task of introducing and explaining God’s plan for the fullness of time, a “mystery” hidden for ages to redeem all of the human race, not just the Jews. 

• Scene 2 - is the “present age”; This is us in real time. I can only call this an era of “Spirit-led improvisation.” The apostles are all dead, All we’ve got is a bunch of apostolic letters written by apostles to first century believers dealing with first century problems. We’re tasked with making use of them for twenty-first century life and ministry. Oh, and of course, we have the Holy Spirit. But beloved, the truth is—and those who’ve been alive and doing ministry for a long time know this—we really don’t know what we’re doing! We study, pray, and step into what appears to be the things God wants us to do, without any Instagram posts or Updates, or emails, or letters, or texts, or phone calls from Yahweh. I know this sounds a little comical, but…it’s true, beloved. It’s true. Oh I know you’ve been around people who talk like they have God on speed dial. But, they don’t. Now, don’t hear me throwing anyone or any ministry under the bus…including myself and what I do. But, I think it’s vital to confess that we are living after the apostles, and the New Testament letters are amazing in themselves. And are for us. But, they weren’t written to us, and at the end of the day, we’re still left with spirit-led improvisation when it comes to how we do what we do. It makes for genuine humility, and a radical dependence upon the Holy Spirit for those willing to admit it.

• Scene 3 - is “Conclusion and Credits,” the final 22 chapters of our Bible, the Book of Revelation. Everything that had been inaugurated in ACT IV with the work of Yeshua Meshiach—Messiah Jesus, is completely resolved. Evil is vanquished, along with all who wielded or submitted to its power. Everything sin vandalized is restored, shalom is back. And the family of God from throughout time is reunited for an eternity of fellowship and worship.

And, in light of our One Story of the One God motif, it’s really amazing when you look closely at this last Scene. Do you know where the One Story ends? It doesn’t end in heaven. It ends where it began. God’s Story ends on earth. The Tree of Life from Genesis 3 shows up again, 1,186 chapters later. Scene 3 of ACT V closes the Story with God’s people singing the Song of the Lamb, AND the Song of Moses, and beloved, Moses entered the Story 1,147 chapters and 1,500 years before Scene 3 was written. The Story ends with a vision of a city coming down to a new or renewed earth. this city is built on twelve foundation stones, each with the name of one of the Twelve Apostles on it, and this city has twelve gates, each with the name of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel on it. Can you picture this? God puts His arms around the entire Bible, both the “Old” and the “New” testaments, and He and Yeshua say, “Behold, I make all things new.” This is the fulfillment of God’s plan for the fullness of time. This is the One Story of the One God. Beloved,This is the Bible.

Getting this “Single Story” perspective on the Bible radically transforms how we interpret the Bible. If this Story is real, and it is true, and it belongs to God Himself, it should elicit a heart of worship in us for its complexity and enormity. But, it should also give birth to a willingness to submit to God’s Lordship. The apostle Paul found himself on his face in worship whenever he simply thought about this whole thing. Listen how he ends Romans, his most theological letter. I mean, Paul has been cranking on for 16 chapters about deep theology and its profound implications for the world’s most influential city. Then, as he wraps it all up, he lays this card on the table:

“Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”

This is the worship that results from seeing the Story of God for what it is. Paul saw it. And it captured him. You need to let it capture you.

But, it should also make submitting ourselves to God a reasonable thing. What do I mean? Well, this idea that God has a metanarrative, “a plan for the fullness of time,” radically informs and transforms what it means to be a disciple. A Christ-follower. And probably the biggest change…one that’s actually enormous if you take time to chew on it…is that it means that the Bible’s authority is not the authority of imperative. Of command. The Bible is not a book of “thou shalls” and “thou shalt nots.” It’s not a book of rules and restrictions. That’s the authority of imperative. If you’ve viewed the Bible this way, I want to ask you to have a funeral for that perspective. It’s oppressive and produces people who are either bitter and resentful, or mean and arrogant.

On the other hand…if the Bible is the Story of God, then its authority is the authority of narrative. A narrative, by virtue of what it is, has an authority built into the genre. The storyline has to be followed. Let me show you what I mean. Try to picture this. Imagine you and some friends have decided to watch “The Social Dilemma”…again. And right in the middle of one of the interviews with Tristan Harris, there’s a ten second blip from “Despicable Me - 3.” You’d spin and look at each other and say, “What the heck was that? Why was that in there?” What just happened inside you was the tug of the authority of narrative. The very nature of narrative prohibits inserting something or someone that has little or nothing to do with the storyline. That’s the authority narrative creates. This, beloved, is why submission to God—acknowledging His Lordship—is a reasonable response in the heart of anyone who is truly a Christ-follower. Suddenly, Lordship or discipleship no longer centers around obeying certain rules, or even mastering certain spiritual disciplines like Bible reading, prayer, etc. Even though these are important for spiritual vitality. If the Bible is truly God’s narrative, God’s story, God’s plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in heaven and in earth in Christ, then my calling is to submit to that Story. It means…and I want to say this slowly and gently…it means a believer makes every effort to find his or her place in God’s Story, instead of trying to squeeze God into their own. And do you know why? Because we’re in it!! 

Okay. Remember what we’ve been saying all along? No plot, no purpose? Well, now we know there’s a plot—it’s the Story of God. There is a metanarrative. And beloved, you’ve got to get this. It’s so enormous. This Story of God’s…it’s not over! It’s not a photo. It’s not an Instagram story. It’s not a great movie. It’s still happening. And…if you are a believer, then you are in this Story. You’re a story dweller not simply a story teller. And so is Abraham, Jeremiah, King David, Martin Luther, and Martin Luther King! Can you see this? Their Story is your Story because it’s the One Story. What’s that got to do with me and you?  Well, for one thing, it means God has some things He wants ALL of us to do IN the Story, and some things He wants all of us to do WITH the Story.

One is to cooperate with Him in what I call the Great Reversal. The lifelong process in which the Holy Spirit makes you less and less like Adam, and more and more like Yeshua. St. Paul wrote about how it happens AND what’s the goal:

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Your spiritual transformation, beloved, is a vital part of God’s Story. It also proves that the Story is real and that you’re really in it! Christians who don’t resemble Yeshua more and more, not only invalidate the Story. They make people hate it.

Another responsibility with the Story is to share it with the nations. We call this the Great Commission, from Yeshua’s words about “going into all the world to make disciples.” But, what we call the Great Commission, God calls the Abrahamic mission. It didn’t begin with Matthew’s Gospel. It was the same role Yahweh gave to Abraham in Genesis 12…to bring the blessing of God to the nations. And that blessing is the restoration of shalom. Between humanity and God for sure, but also restoring it in all the places where it’s vandalized, compromised, or missing.

Our third role in the Story has to do with “blessed deeds.” The unique part in His script that God has for each of us that all serve to accomplish the same goal: pointing people’s to our Father. Paul told the Ephesians:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for blessed deeds, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Yeshua said it this way: “…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your blessed deeds and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Beloved, there are specific things God has written into your script in His Story. Specific people to meet, specific relationships to build, specific careers to pursue. Specific acts of justice and mercy. Unique ways to announce the arrival of the Kingdom of God. He’s actually shaping you for them now.

The final one has to do with how we handle the Story. Listen to St. Paul one more time:

“This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”

Paul’s word, “steward,” is a beautiful Greek word, and has immense application for you and me. It’s the word, “oikinomos.” The oikinomos was a servant who his master trusted, and to whom his master entrusted everything. But, none of it belonged to the oikinomos. It belonged to the master. And, the oikinomos knew it. His faithfulness was measured by what he did with what belonged to his master.

Beloved, WE are the oikinomoi now. The apostle Paul’s gone. And God has entrusted His “mysteries” to us. Things that were hidden for ages, but have now been revealed. And, Paul tells us this mystery is the One Story of the One God. His plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in heaven and on earth in Christ. Beloved…God has entrusted us, God has entrusted you, with His Story. You are not only in it, you are a steward of it. Right now. Paul said it’s “required of stewards that they be found faithful.” People are watching us to understand who God is, what He’s about. Most aren’t going to read His Story in the Bible. They’re going to read His Story in us. In you. How I live matters. How you live matters. How you talk matters. How you treat people matters. How you get along matters. How much you resemble Yeshua matters.

Beloved, purpose depends on a plot. We also know what that plot is. We need to have a funeral for our partisan agendas, and as true subjects of our King, relinquish our story to the only one that really matters. So…that’s the story on the One Story. There’s a final question: Are you truly submitted to the One Story of the One God, or are you trying to find a way to fit His Story into your agenda? Shalom.
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