As many of you know, we won't be having class this Sunday because quite a few of us will be at the Men's Retreat. But rather than skip a weekly post, I thought I'd share something with you anyway. We've been talking about and reading about "The Story" on Sundays and in our small groups. For those of you who don't know, The Story is a narrative version of the bible, told as one story from beginning to end. Even though we're just getting started, I know many if not all of you know who is at the center of The Story: Christ. Our tradition recognizes 66 books in the bible, 27 in the New Testament and 39 in the Old Testament. However, Christ's life and teachings are covered in depth in only four books, the Gospels (I realize he's mentioned in others, but stick with me here). So given that the essence of The Story, the main event, the lead character really only gets His day in four books, shouldn't we put a greater emphasis on those books? In fact, without dismissing their value to the story, do we really even need to know the other 62 books in any depth? Finally, what if I decided that from now on I was going to base my entire faith on only the teachings of Christ as expressed in the four Gospels? When confronted with questions about life or theology I'm only going to refer to the Gospels for guidance and ask, "What Did Jesus Say?" Who's with me?
