The power of history is the power of stories. In looking back at what has happened, we gain a sense of meaning that can be helpful today. Saint Paul recounts salvation history to show the people the stories of God’s care for us, ultimately in the care Jesus gives us.Readings for Today.
The Power of Stories
In so many ways, the study of history is a study of stories. Unfortunately, I think for too long, the way we presented history, the way many of us learned it, was to miss its primary storytelling role. We were encouraged to memorize facts and dates, when things happened, and all kinds of details.
And the result was that I think many didn’t see any value in studying history, because they weren’t good at memorizing dates and details and so forth. I think the best teaching of history is to be a very good storyteller. And that, in fact, is what Paul is doing in the first reading. He’s telling a story.
They want him to give some words of exhortation, and I suppose on some level, the telling of a story can be that. But I’m not sure that exhortation is necessarily the primary task that Paul is about. He’s reminding the people of the stories that demonstrate that God cares for them.
He chooses ancestors of the people that Paul is speaking to to be those people that live out what it means to follow Jesus. Then he goes through all the ways in which he has been with the people, leading them out of Egypt, giving them wise individuals to make decisions about how they should live their lives in the order of society, how they sought a king, how even when that king proved not to be faithful to God, he gave them another king.
And from that king, King David, he gave us Jesus, the great Savior who is a tremendous example to us, a tremendous presence of God to us, that we are loved more than we can possibly imagine, more than we can possibly know.
In all these instances, we don’t see a God who gets tired of his people and abandons us. Even though you’ll be happy to know that it’s a good thing that I’m not God, I would have gotten tired of you a long time ago. When I was leading people out of Egypt, those people would have… I would have said, “Go ahead, God. Just destroy them because they’re being obnoxious.”
All these things that are occurring where God is constantly pouring out, I have to confess that too often in my life, that’s exactly what I do with God. God shows constant attention to wanting to show me his love, wanting to lead me forth into a life that is far more fulfilling than anything I could create on my own.
And then we see in the gospel the fulfillment of what Paul is discussing, Jesus himself, who has just washed the feet of his disciples. And in that, he’s giving us kind of what it is we should do. Jesus washes the feet of the disciples to prove a very important point about service.
And since this occurs in the context of John’s discussion of the Eucharist, we understand there’s a very close connection between the Eucharist and our recognizing that everyone is a member of the body of Christ and every human being represents to us an opportunity to serve Christ.
And so as we think of the story of our own salvation, let us also think today of our responsibility on how it is we are to respond to the call that God has given each one of us. Let us ask the Lord today for the grace, the care, the love, and the memory of all those things that we have been given. And let us ask God to help us to share those things with everyone we come in contact with.
