Yesterday I wrote about how narratives do engage us through identification and disassociation.  We can’t avoid that reality – it drives the popularity of movies, of bedtime stories, of Sunday School stories, of family fireside reminiscences, etc.  But biblical narrative always offers something more.  Our challenge as preachers is to be sure to always go there.

What if the passage is easy to understand and ready to be preached.  You’ve built a message based on the natural connection with a central character, or a minor character, or the original recipients.  Your time is filled, the message will preach, that bird will fly.  You aren’t done.  You’re not ready.

Biblical narratives either overtly or implicitly urge us to engage with the central characer in the canon – with God himself.  Was it really David’s courage, or was it something about his faith in God and his instruction?  Was it really about Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, or was there something going on in terms of her loyalty to a God who had so far not seemed very “effective”?  Was it really about Joseph’s moral convictions, or was there something deeper going on in respect to his living by faith in a God who was with him when every circumstance screamed that he’d been long forgotten by such a God?

How does the narrative point us to the ongoing tension of faith or flight as creatures live in God’s world?  How does the narrative enable us to engage with the progressive revelation of the trinitarian self-revelation of Scripture?