"Simply stops too soon"

I have a general complaint about sitcoms. Full disclosure – I’m not much of a t.v. watcher, so maybe my credibility in this is lacking. However, my limited exposure to one of the most watched genres of television suggests to me that an overarching problem with comedy in general and situation comedy in particular is that it simply stops too soon. (You mean you want to watch MORE of that, Tim?!)  What I mean is NOT that I wish the episodes would last longer. God forbid! For a story to hold our attention there needs to be a conflict – something to be resolved. Comedy writers know this. So they offer us something in that vein – a misunderstanding, a miscommunication, an innuendo….something that keeps us hanging on for a resolution. And then, in twenty minutes or so, they give us what we want – the “ahhhh” of the story line making everything o.k.

And this brings us to what I mean by “simply stops too soon”. Real life is nothing like that. Actions and choices in reality carry us to places we have to live in – from plot to subplot, from event to consequence, from previous relational reality to new relational reality. When we make choices in real time, we don’t get to turn the story off at the end of the current episode. We go on living in the story written by what we have set in motion.  And sometimes, if we have a short sighted, sitcom educated view of the world, we can forget that and make choices with catastrophic consequences.

Given that so much of the culture we live in is informed by myopic story telling, what might help us see a bigger picture? No surprises here, perhaps – I’m going to suggest that more substantial stories are the corrective, and that the Bible is a unique source of those kinds of narratives. This week, still keeping our “reboot” idea as a guide, we are going to consider the story of David and Bathsheba. It might seem odd to say, but this is a story that often gets treated like the morality play version of a sitcom…and it shouldn’t.

Show up on Sunday and I’ll explain what I mean by that. While you will be subjected to my interpretation of some segments of the story, we will also hear a couple of outstanding songwriters takes on portions of the tale. Once again, an attempt to open our imaginations to what God might have to teach us about living in world of consequence, justice, grace and restoration – living in a story that is big and hopeful rather than small and desperate.

A couple of reminders – we will be back in the A Gallery at 318 Ross this week – watch for the signs.  Bring your own mug – we’ll provide the coffee, as long as we don’t trip a breaker….

Peace,

Tim Plett