Rob's Blog
Created by Robert Turnbull on Sunday 6:21 pm, March 9 2008
- I said to myself: "Self, ..." - Robert Turnbull
- Why stories are important in the Bible - Robert Turnbull
- Gabriel would tell us off as well - Robert Turnbull
- No longer pokey - Robert Turnbull
- Purpose of this blog - Robert Turnbull
I said to myself: "Self, ..."
I've recently started everyday to study a Psalm then read it aloud a few times. I hoped that this would improve my normal reading of the Bible aloud as well as work on my voice and also be a great spiritual exercise. I've found it fantastic. This morning I was reading Psalm 62. Reading verse 8 aloud struck me:
Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah - Psalm 62:8
When David wrote these words in Psalm 62:8, he was addressing them directly to people to urge them to trust God, talk to Him and rely on Him. If we were to read this aloud at church, we would have the role to be urging people in the same way. What a wonderful honour.
But, as I was thinking about this and reading the Psalm again, another verse struck me
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken. - Psalm 62:5-6
Here David is addressing himself, encouraging himself to hope and wait in nobody else but God. I guess he that although he knew this to be true, he knew he needed to be reminded of this and to encourage himself with these words. As I was reading these words aloud, I was addressing these words to myself, and found them to be marvelously heartening. Maybe David was a little like me, needing to constantly remind myself of true things about God.
It made me think of all the other places in the Psalms where the writers said the same thing:
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! - Psalm 103:1
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. - Psalm 116:7
Posted by Robert Turnbull on Monday 1:41 pm, August 4 2008
Why stories are important in the Bible
With surprising consistency, after describing my job as a Biblical Storyteller to a person I meet, the response is: “So does that mean you work in schools?”. While I consider telling Bible stories to children one of the highest privileges in my job, this response betrays a thinking about the stories in the Bible, that after you graduate from Sunday School, Bible stories are no longer as relevant. Naturally, any perception that undervalues more than 50% of the Bible needs to be challenged. Therefore, here is why I believe that the stories in the Bible deserve to be cherished, honoured and continually retold by all.
The Stories are filled with life
Often our storytellers receive comments from audience members that ‘You brought the Bible to life’. Though flattering as this may be, it isn’t actually true. The Bible already is living and active. As God’s powerful word, it already is the source of life for the hearers. To bring the Bible to life is ask the patient to perform surgery on the doctor. The responsibility of us all as storytellers (be it sharing a Bible story over a coffee, from the pulpit or as a theatre performance in my case) is to tap into all the life and the dynamism that is already there. These stories are filled with life, drama, humor, tension and emotion. Sadly, I believe that the comments that we receive about ‘bringing the Bible to life’ are really statements about the lifeless way these stories have sometimes been presented on other occasions. In our experience, everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike, are impacted profoundly upon experiencing the richness and beauty of these Biblical stories.
The Stories are part of a greater Story
In order to abandon all absolute reference points and in rebellion against God, our society has largely rejected any concept of an over-arching story to understand the world by. What we are left with a universe which started as an accident, continues by chance and signifies nothing. Nevertheless, God is a purposeful creator and the Bible records and interprets God’s actions in history to bring about his plans. History stands as a testament to the will and the design of this God who acts in it. All the Bible, including even the non-narrative sections, sit within this grand story from Creation to New Creation. I still remember daydreaming during a year 10 German class when this aspect of the Bible dawned on me; I gave such an audible gasp that I startled the students around me.
It’s this over-arching story that gives humanity meaning and therefore one of the grandest things in the world to do is to share these grand stories. Each story reveals to the hearers an episode in the eternal plan of God of which we are part and which is marching towards it’s wonderful culmination.
The Stories reveal God in action
How can a wife know her husband loves her. Firstly, he may tell her so. Countless times during courtship and in promises on their wedding day, the wife knows and believes the husband’s love because of his words. Secondly, he may show her by her actions. If the husband, time-after-time acts sacrificially in the interest of his wife, his love will be revealed by what he does. These actions powerfully reinforce and give meaning to the words that he had spoken. So it is with the stories in the Bible. How do we know God is faithful? We hear God tell us that He is faithful, but we also see God in action through the stories that show God acting in faithfulness. Consider any or all of the characteristics about God that you believe in. There will be stories in the Bible which demonstrate these great truths about God. Moreover, the stories give meaning to these truths. The statement ‘God is Salvation’ is itself meaningless without reference to actions in history work God had worked to save. God is a God of action. To know a God of action, you must see him at work.
The stories in the Bible communicate God to the world. The real need is for us to connect with these stories for what they are, to see these stories as real events and the characters as real characters, with real motivations, problems and emotions. I imagine those who originally heard these stories would have had no problem in this regard. Then, once a story is deeply connected within our soul, will we be able to share it with the integrity that it deserves and our hearers see the reality of which it speaks.
Posted by Robert Turnbull on Tuesday 1:52 am, May 13 2008
Gabriel would tell us off as well
I had a conversation with a man last week about Science and Christianity. He thought (as do many others) that the people in the times the Bible was written were naive enough to believe in the resurrection and Jesus' miraculous conception because they were from a pre-scientific age. In times past, people had to explain the world using God but now we have the benefit of science which helps us study things as they are.
I've had the privilege of storytelling both the resurrection story from Matthew's Gospel and the announcement to Mary in Luke's Gospel this week and these are my thoughts.
In Matthew 28:16, we are told that at the point where the disciples see the resurrected Jesus in Galilee, they worship him, but some doubt. People study this text and debate about who Matthew is talking about to what extent they doubted, how could Matthew be saying this at this climax in the story. But all this debate emphasises the strange addition of that line, the exclusion of which would have made a much neater story. But the fact that it is included gives be a great deal of comfort, in the integrity of the Gospel's author and in the disciples. The only reason I can justify Matthew including the reference to the disciples' doubt at this key moment is that he is simply recording what happened. Secondly it shows that the disciples weren't simply pre-scientific and gullible. You don't have to know the Theory of Relativity or have studied Grey's Anatomy to know that dead people don't rise. To think that we are so much more enlightened on this issue than the disciples would have been is arrogant and false. They were in just as much a place to be skeptical about a resurrection as us, even when they were face-to-face with their friend who'd be resurrected.
Secondly, I've been able to prepare a storytelling of Luke 1 where the angel Gabriel goes to Zechariah to say his aging wife will be pregnant and then goes to Mary to say that she will be pregnant. Again, we don't have to be experts in Quantum mechanics or IVF to know that a virgin can't become pregnant or an aging couple is extremely unlikely to become pregnant. The skepticism of Zechariah at hearing the announcement is central to the story. Similarly with Mary: 'How can this be, since I am a virgin', she said. Mary isn't so naive to think that this could just happen the Gabriel sets both of them straight: "... nothing is impossible for God".
How dare we think that the creator of the universe who first thought of conception, death, gravity, galactic clusters and everything else could be bound by our simplistic understanding. How dare we think we so sophisticated now 2000 years later with so much more knowledge than these saps when God know infinitely more about the created order that we could ever imagine. We are neither cleverer than our first century counterparts nor less gullible, except we might be more foolish than them because we presume we must know everything. A very unscientific attitude.
Posted by Robert Turnbull on Tuesday 12:01 am, March 25 2008
No longer pokey
Most of you reading this won't know this, but I've felt like I've been in a 'storytelling rut' for a long time. I used to be confident when telling stories but for the last while, I've felt inadequate and foolish. The word that kept coming into my head was the heard 'pokey'. I don't really know what that word means - but the way I thought about my storytelling was that it was second-rate, unprofessional, lame and so on. Sometimes I felt encouraged after a storytelling but more often than not I'd feel disappointed. I've felt like a fraud starting to do this as a job full-time.
This morning, driving to do a storytelling at a school to do an Easter storytelling, I was impacted again by the truth of the Gospel and the fact that Jesus has been resurrected means this truth must be told. I was impacted again that these were God's powerful words and that it was true regardless of how well I performed. These were God's words and I should speak them like they are God's words.
These weren't new things but I really needed a good reminding.
The result was that I more confident that I'd been for a very long time and I enjoyed the retelling more than I had for a long time as well. I'm sure that the kids were more connected because of it. I feel like today is a new stage in my storytelling ministry. I might still struggle with doubts about my ability and so forth, and I may still be disappointed after storytellings, but I'm sure that I will begin to enjoy storytelling again and people will be connected to God through His powerful word. It's a priviledge to be part of His work.
Posted by Robert Turnbull on Monday 5:48 pm, March 17 2008
Purpose of this blog
Hey everyone,
This blog is here is a place for me to express my thoughts on life, God, the Bible, storytelling and the world. It may not be of interest to anyone but me but as long as I have a place to collect my thoughts, it will save frustration when can't remember a brainwave that I'd previously had because I hadn't written it down.
Happy reading!
Posted by Robert Turnbull on Sunday 6:27 pm, March 9 2008
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