Guest Post | The importance of Stories is undispute

Author | Toby Neal
web: www.middlechildrenofhistory.info |  twitter:  tobiasneal |   facebook: toby.neal1

Alasdair MacIntyre writes, ‘Deprive children of stories and you leave them unscripted, anxious stutterers in their actions as in their words.’ That is if you don’t hear stories as a kid, not only do you not know how to talk, because you are not familiar with language, but you don’t know how to act as a character in their life story. Aristotle said, ‘When the storytelling goes bad in society, the result is decadence.’ Yet one of the essences of postmodernism is that there is no overarching story that rules over all times, cultures, histories, and people. Everything is contingent on culture and perspective. Lyotard defines postmodernism simply as ‘incredulity towards meta-narratives’. In the novel, Fight Club, writer Chuck Palahniuk, through the character Tyler Durden, gives voice to a generation without a Metanarrative:

“We are the middle children of history—no purpose or place. We have no great war, no great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very ****** off.”

Palahniuk shows that notices that a world without a great war or great depression is left to create its own futile story. What the world needs is a story which is not only worth living for, but worth dying for. In 1 Corinthians, there is such a story. A story which has been foretold and revealed by a divine storyteller (2:10), which Paul reminds the young and troubled church in Corinth, to lead them out of decadence. Such a story, if McIntyre is correct, is eminently practical for, ‘I can only answer the question “What am I to do?” if I can answer the prior question “Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?”.’
The Story of the Jesus the most important story you will hear: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, … he was buried, … raised, and … appeared’ (1 Cor 15:3-5). This story is all about Jesus first and foremost, not about us and our salvation. One of my favourite lecturer’s at Moore college used to say, ‘It is Christ‘s story which gives meaning to our lives, not our story which gives meaning to Christ’s life.’ It is no wonder Dietrich Bonhoeffer can expound: ‘I find salvation not in my life story, but only in the story of Jesus Christ.’

And yet, the surprising twist in this story is that the main character notices the minor characters. In fact in a display of love for those characters, Jesus Christ, although being God himself, gives up his privileged position and becomes one of us in order to die for us. In a “Great Exchange” Jesus is punished in our place for our sin of writing God out of our life stories and in exchange we are forgiven and written back into the story of faith, hope and love which God is telling. This story so affected JRR Tolkien that he wrote,

The Gospels contain…a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. But this story has entered history and the primary world…. There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many skeptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath…. This story is supreme; and it is true. God is Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.

*Toby and a team of people are excited to tell this story to the world, starting in the inner-city of Sydney. If you would be interested to find out more about the church-plant, please check out his website or get in contact with him via Facebook or Twitter.