3 pages or less...holy smokes!

Below is my first paper of the semester. I'm afraid it's not very good. But, what a doozie of a paper! Write in 3 double spaced pages the story of salvation history and development of the church from creation to today. Good Grief! If I'd had just one more page, this might could have been something. Whew! It's not due until Wednesday, so if you have any feedback, I'll take it. By the way, I know that I have fragments. Let me know if you think they're okay stylistically, or if they become distracting.

The text of the Bible is a story, a love story. Of how there is a God who is, who always has been, and who always will be. A God whose very nature is Love and who creates in order to multiply God’s love. Therefore, God creates existence as we know it: heavens and the earth, day and night, light and dark, plants and beasts. God declares all of this good. Then, God creates humanity. And these creatures are special, for they are made in God’s image, with qualities like those of God. God creates males. But God sees that man is alone, and this is not God’s intention. For God is not alone, and neither should this creation be alone. So, God creates females, that the two can be helpers and companions for one another. These creatures, made in the image of God, have both a spiritual soul and a physical body. Man and Woman, together stewards and cultivators of God’s new creation in community with God, their creator.

There is no shame between man and woman, nor man and God, nor woman and God. However, both man and woman doubt that God was as good as God seems or claims to be. They yearn for the only thing forbidden to them, the fruit of the tree that discloses the knowledge of good and evil. The woman, thirsting for the power of the fruit is seduced by a serpent. She eats of the fruit. Man, following the woman instead of God, eats of the fruit. Thus, all of creation becomes estranged from God, and what was meant to live forever becomes subject to decay and death. Something called “sin” becomes a pervasive influence on man, woman, and all of their children, as well as all of creation.

In fact, as time goes on, God’s creation becomes so wicked that there are few who even remember God who created them. So, God wipes out the earth with a great flood, saving only a man named Noah, his family, and the animals that they take with them on a huge boat called an Ark. After the flood, Noah and his family begin to repopulate the Earth.

God chooses a man to be the one through whom he will build a people to show God’s Love to all of creation, and to provide a way for human souls to be with God after their earthly body dies. That man, called Abram, is renamed Abraham. From Abraham and his descendants God builds a chosen people, the Hebrews of Israel. God performs great miracles and is faithful to the chosen people. God gives the people laws by which to live, a way to make restitution for sin by sacrifice of animals. God leads them to a Promised Land, sends forth Judges to correct the people when they strayed from faithfulness to God, and God performs miracles. God selects the most unlikely of people to be a part of his work to show Love to the people of his creation: murderers, liars, thieves, and sinners of all types. God chooses those of low status to make into kings and queens. God uses those who suffer to accomplish miracles to make evident God’s Love to the people of creation.

Along the way, God leaves hints, called prophesies, of a new thing God is going to do. God tells the chosen people that he is going to send a Messiah, God’s own son, a person who will redeem the sins of men and women.. Even though humanity chose to be apart from God by eating of the fruit, God loves his creation so much that he wants to provide a way for humanity to find its way back to relationship with God, even to the point of sacrificing God’s own son.

When the messiah comes, it happens among the peasants in a town called Bethlehem. A young woman named Mary, a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, is visited by angels, and told that she is pregnant with the Messiah. She is to call her son Jesus. Jesus is born in a stable, the lowliest of places. God performs miraculous signs, bringing lowly shepherds to the birth. Scholars from the Far East trek to see this baby, led by a miraculous bright star. Kings hear that a Messiah has been born, and they feel threatened, one even tries to have the baby killed. But, Jesus is protected and his family warned of the danger, and they escape, eventually to their home of Nazareth.

A time of great prophecy takes place, foretelling the upcoming ministry of Jesus.
John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, preaches in the desert of Judea about the birth of the Messiah, God’s Son, sent to save humanity from sin. Jesus is baptized at the age of 30, by John the Baptist, and at this event the people hear a voice, presumably God’s, saying, “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." Jesus then begins a ministry that flies in the face of everything that everyone has known about religion, about God, about creation, both spiritual and physical. Jesus is fully God, but also fully man. He says outrageous claims, that he has come to save humanity, that he can forgive sins, that he will show humanity how to live, that by following Jesus, people can have eternal life. Jesus claims that faith in him is necessary to avoid eternal punishment in Hell after one’s earthly death.

Jesus performs miracles, healing the sick. He hangs out with prostitutes, the poor, women, and lepers. Jesus and a group of 12 men whom he has selected go forth preaching and teaching Jesus’s radical message of others before self, love and sacrifice, and eternal life. Jesus is sent to show humanity how to love. The leaders of government and the church are outraged. Jesus is a threat, so they bribe one of his 12 followers, and he is arrested and hung on a cross to die. His followers are bereft, for this man who fit every prophecy in the Old Testament has been put to death. They think it was all a dream or some horrible lie. However, on the third day, after his crucifixion, Jesus is not found at the tomb. He appears to some of his women followers who have come to prepare his body. Jesus is spiritually and physically fully resurrected from the dead! For 40 days, he appears to a vast number of people before he ascends into heaven. Before his death, Jesus speaks of a Holy Spirit, “God with us” that shall be God’s presence in all followers of Christ.

From that day, Jesus’s disciples and followers go forth, sacrificing their lives, enduring torture, and even death, to build the Church. The Church, the community of believers is God’s continuing legacy of God’s love on earth. That by the love of Christ’s followers others shall be drawn to and hear and have faith in Christ. As the societies of earth grow increasingly wicked, and pass away, perpetuate evil, and deny the truth of Christ, those who believe in Christ have the presence of God in the Holy Spirit, leading us to show love and preach this Gospel to others. While we know that one day, Jesus will return to resurrect the spiritual and physical creation to its intended state, and those who refuse to accept the grace of God shall pass away, God continues to write a story of Love. God sacrificed God’s son even to death, so that we might know how to live, and be able to receive forgiveness and grace for our sin through that sacrifice. The Church is to be God’s expression of that Love to others in the interim.