The Epic on the Ground: Reinhabiting Life
This entry is part of a set of discussions on Inhabiting God's Story
A slightly revised version of this discussion, with extensive notes and a bibliography, will appear in the forthcoming book Reality According to the Scriptures: Initial Reflections
A slightly revised version of this discussion, with extensive notes and a bibliography, will appear in the forthcoming book Reality According to the Scriptures: Initial Reflections
Having explored Eldredge's approach in Epic, I should now clarify an important point about the nature of reality that is very relevant to how we inhabit God's Story.
I'm finding it helpful to realize that our aim is not to inhabit the epic per se. We can't really stay at the level of the big picture, of the larger Story. The big picture itself sends us down to the interpersonal level, because that's where life happens.
Life happens here at the intersection of the big picture and the existential level of reality: what David Ford calls the "middle distance," which is Levinas' "face-to-face," and David Kelsey's "quotidian," everyday life. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann call it "paramount reality." I call it "life on the ground."
We want to know the larger Story well so that we're clear about who we are and what's going on. So we can spot falsehood when we see it. We want to remember history and trust God's promises for what's to come. We want to play our part well in that larger Story.
But the biblical epic itself locates us on the ground, loving our neighbor and caring for creation. Even loving God doesn't happen up there somewhere. It is fitting to lift up our eyes and our hands to him in prayer and praise. He is above. But he's also here: he who is behind all things is also here, on the ground, with us (e.g. Isa 57:15). It is here that he's proved himself faithful; and it's here that we love and trust and obey him. Just as Jesus did.
This would seem obvious, but somehow I had missed it. Perhaps because of all the Platonism going on around me or something, I imagined living God's Story as somehow rising above "ordinary" life. But this can't be. Our daily experience of life on this beautiful planet is what God intended for us when he created all things. It is life on earth he's redeeming. This is home!
I think Terry Eagleton is right on target on the question of the meaning of life. What is the meaning of life? "Life itself," he says. Why? Because "life is an end in itself." It's what God intended when he created us. Life is the point! All of life.
I'm finding it helpful to realize that our aim is not to inhabit the epic per se. We can't really stay at the level of the big picture, of the larger Story. The big picture itself sends us down to the interpersonal level, because that's where life happens.
Life happens here at the intersection of the big picture and the existential level of reality: what David Ford calls the "middle distance," which is Levinas' "face-to-face," and David Kelsey's "quotidian," everyday life. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann call it "paramount reality." I call it "life on the ground."
We want to know the larger Story well so that we're clear about who we are and what's going on. So we can spot falsehood when we see it. We want to remember history and trust God's promises for what's to come. We want to play our part well in that larger Story.
But the biblical epic itself locates us on the ground, loving our neighbor and caring for creation. Even loving God doesn't happen up there somewhere. It is fitting to lift up our eyes and our hands to him in prayer and praise. He is above. But he's also here: he who is behind all things is also here, on the ground, with us (e.g. Isa 57:15). It is here that he's proved himself faithful; and it's here that we love and trust and obey him. Just as Jesus did.
This would seem obvious, but somehow I had missed it. Perhaps because of all the Platonism going on around me or something, I imagined living God's Story as somehow rising above "ordinary" life. But this can't be. Our daily experience of life on this beautiful planet is what God intended for us when he created all things. It is life on earth he's redeeming. This is home!
I think Terry Eagleton is right on target on the question of the meaning of life. What is the meaning of life? "Life itself," he says. Why? Because "life is an end in itself." It's what God intended when he created us. Life is the point! All of life.
The Gospel of Life
And that's what the gospel itself is all about. What was the Lord's message? It was the message of the kingdom of God. The kingdom had come through him. And what is God's kingdom about? How did the Lord Jesus himself live it out? What did his life and ministry look like? It looked like blind people seeing, lame people walking, the guilty and shamed forgiven and restored so they could enjoy the gift of life with the rest of the community. He came to give us life (cf. John 10:10; Rom 6:23).
This is confirmed by John's understanding of the kingdom. While the synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) record Jesus proclaiming the "kingdom of God," John the evangelist shows Jesus talking about "life" and "eternal life." There seems to be a consensus among New Testament scholars that "eternal life" in John's gospel functions as "kingdom of God" does in the other Gospels. And it's basically about God's will, about God's intentions for his creation and his commitment to bring it about. And how did John proclaim this message? To capture God's intentions for the world, which is the good news of the gospel, John had to speak of nothing less than "life" itself.
To Israel, "the kingdom of God" meant shalom, peace, justice, God's presence again among his people, his promises finally realized, fullness of life at last. That's what God wants for us, and that is the offer of the gospel: fullness of life, here, in our lives... and a whole lot more to come after the resurrection.
This is confirmed by John's understanding of the kingdom. While the synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) record Jesus proclaiming the "kingdom of God," John the evangelist shows Jesus talking about "life" and "eternal life." There seems to be a consensus among New Testament scholars that "eternal life" in John's gospel functions as "kingdom of God" does in the other Gospels. And it's basically about God's will, about God's intentions for his creation and his commitment to bring it about. And how did John proclaim this message? To capture God's intentions for the world, which is the good news of the gospel, John had to speak of nothing less than "life" itself.
To Israel, "the kingdom of God" meant shalom, peace, justice, God's presence again among his people, his promises finally realized, fullness of life at last. That's what God wants for us, and that is the offer of the gospel: fullness of life, here, in our lives... and a whole lot more to come after the resurrection.
Reinhabiting Life
So it's not the epic per se we want to inhabit. We want to inhabit the larger Story of which we're a part, but this must happen on the ground, at the interpersonal level, where the drama of life goes on.
It's through the lens of our experience of life that we must zoom out to envision the big picture and then find ourselves there. Once there we're still in our lives, where we belong. But now we're in a different story, so our experience is transformed.
Now the truth of all the stories and the voices we had heard is tested by God's Story. We start to wake up to God's future for his world. And our present is transformed.
We re-imagine our lives, we reinhabit life, because we've found our way home.
Reinhabiting Life
So it's not the epic per se we want to inhabit. We want to inhabit the larger Story of which we're a part, but this must happen on the ground, at the interpersonal level, where the drama of life goes on.
It's through the lens of our experience of life that we must zoom out to envision the big picture and then find ourselves there. Once there we're still in our lives, where we belong. But now we're in a different story, so our experience is transformed.
Now the truth of all the stories and the voices we had heard is tested by God's Story. We start to wake up to God's future for his world. And our present is transformed.
We re-imagine our lives, we reinhabit life, because we've found our way home.
