Writing
I was reminded why I am not a huge fan of book introductions when I was trying to pick out a nook book for vacation. You can download a sample, so I did, but the introduction took up all but TWO pages of the sample. ARRGH. Don’t go into long detail about why you wrote the book – just get down to the good stuff. So too, it is easy for me to gloss over the beginning of Luke’s gospel, just proclaimed. I don’t really care. Let’s get down to talking about Jesus. Yet, it is important for Luke to tell us: “Many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us.” Luke was obviously familiar with the gospel of Mark, because he quotes it, pretty much word for word, in his gospel.) He continues: “I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.” Luke writes the story of Jesus, grateful for those who came before him, but wanting to tell this incredible good news his own way. And though I am not a fan of introductions, it is a great way to begin a gospel…
So let me ask: How will you tell the story of Jesus through your personality, using your words, in your way? Those first followers of Jesus told the story their way, those who followed told it their way, from century to century, – it has been passed down to us. Had they not, we would not be here. So I ask again: How will you tell the story of Jesus?
Luke gives us two guideposts for that undertaking.
I have decided to write it down in an orderly sequence. Not random, but according to a plan. So, how would YOU organize your experience of the Good News.
I suspect many of our Baptist and Pentecostal brothers and sisters would begin with the ‘moment they were saved” – when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and go on from there to describe their walk since then. I wonder if we Catholics in St. Louis instinctively begin by saying: Here is what high school I went to. And what parish I am from. Then we’ll talk about the priests that we knew who affected us, and the things we got away with back in the day. And though it is less than an overt telling of Jesus’ impact in our lives, it is a ‘safe’ way to talk about our very personal experience of faith.
My college students will tell you what Stuebenville Conference they attended and where it was held. If they have the courage to go further, they’ll talk about a retreat that changed them, a homily that hit them square between the eyes.
I realized at one point, that I could tell the story of my vocation by the songs in my head and that I played on the guitar in my prayer. I heard a talk once that did it through the types of shoes they wore… Spend some time reflecting on how YOU will organize your story – loves lost? service given? communities you belong to? It doesn’t matter WHERE your start, only that you do.
Secondly, Luke writes so that all of us would understand “the truths concerning the things about which you have been instructed.”
I remember the conversation in the threadbare house with a pair of students I had the gift to marry where they changed my perspective on stewardship and my own approach to money. “It’s not our money. God gave us the talents and skills and opportunities to earn what we do. So we never view it as ‘our money’ – rather it is on loan from God to do as much good with as possible.” Suddenly, I knew one of the truths of the life of faith.
As I watched my friend Dave face the gradual loss of control over his muscles to ALS, I also saw this profound courage to LIVE each breath God allowed him to have, even when breathing itself was a choice he made. What did the death of a close friend teach you?
I remember seeing my grandpa Kempf attending to grandma Kempf for 13 years as she was confined to a bed. Every day, unless the snow was 10 inches high, he was at her side in those nursing homes. I learned about the faithfulness of God by watching his loving care of grandma.
So, how will YOUR orderly account of the life of Jesus and the truths he taught you be told? Because the reality is this: we are writing that book with each day we live. And if you need advice about that, there is a bumper sticker that sums it up in 12 words: “Live so that the preacher won’t have to lie at your funeral…”