I love old movies.  

Old ones.

Casablanca. Top Hat. North by Northwest. The Philadelphia Story. The Awful Truth.  

Lots of 'em.

The Wizard of Oz, not so much.

I've watched my favorite films dozens of times.

No matter how many times you watch an old movie, though, it always turns out the same. Victor always ends up with Ilsa. Fred always dances off with Ginger. Hitchcock always makes a cameo. Hepburn is always captivating. Ralph Bellamy never gets the girl. Never. It must have been a contractual thing.   

Similarly, I love the lost days of Major League Baseball.

When men would play for the same team their entire careers. Like your favorite movies, you knew the cast of characters. Chances are they rode the subway to the ballpark with you. 

Going to the ball game back in the day was like going to a matinee to see your favorite movie.

Except it wasn't Bogart, Astaire, Hitchcock, Hepburn, or Grant out on the field. Although on any given day they might well be in the stands--just a couple of seats down from you. 

On the diamond--day in and day out--for the Brooklyn Dodgers of the '50s, for example, you could count on seeing men like Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson.

But what was thrilling about going to an afternoon ball game--unlike a matinee--is that no matter how often you came out to the park, you never knew how the game might turn. And you felt that by your jeers and cheers you could influence the outcome. (Imagine, if every time you viewed your favorite film, it had a different, often gripping, ending!) 

The spectators at a ball game back in the day, unlike those at a movie, felt relevant. Sitting-on-the-edge-of-their-seats relevant. And, occasionally, they might just catch the errant foul ball, further evidence they were "participants."  

Which, in part, illustrates my passion for scripture as story. I'm playing a role in the Master Storyteller's continuing narrative--a narrative of God's relentless pursuit of reconciliation with man. I'm surrounded by a familiar cast of characters; I'm filling the shoes of faithful men and women of previous generations. I can effect outcome. I am relevant.

How wondrous is that?

The word of God is, perhaps to many, a reference book akin in literary style to an encyclopedia or a dictionary, a book of quotable quotes, filled with precepts and promises, marked by chapter and verse. Inspired, yes. Readable as a book, not so much. Many never get past this entry-level perspective of scripture.  

Consequently, their Bibles, for all practical purposes, might be subtitled, Book of Regulations Encapsulating Duty of Man, or by the acronym thereof. What would it take to reframe scripture as a narrative in which you are a relevant participant?