You, the Sermon

The end of Romeo and Juliet is messy.  Both of the main characters die, largely because of a misconception.  Yet, because of their deaths, peace comes to the warring Montagues and Capulets.  The story is labeled a tragedy, yet it ends with renewed relationships and hope for the future.  Sorry if I just spoiled your efforts to relive the ninth grade English class you chose to sleep through.

"Good Night, Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow."

Our culture has a fascination with redemption.  We're uncomfortable when a piece of art leaves us with only tragedy.  "Where was the redemptive value in that?"  We'll ask it every time, if only in our hearts.

The stories people tell through art can be grim.  But the stories we tell through redemptive art are grimly hopeful.  Art that redeems has a characteristic that moves us.  Stories of redemption move us toward redemption.

Movement is something that occurs through relationship.  What relationship do we have with the stories that we know and love?  What draws us in and causes us to invest in narrative?   

Aristotle is actually the guy who came up with the idea that a narrative has a beginning, middle, and end.  Now you know who to give the credit to.  But this is actually important, because it helps us apply the concept of story to stuff.  The most relevant of this stuff (for now) is the story that unfolds throughout the Scriptures, or the Biblical narrative.  Right in the middle of this grand narrative that documents the rise and fall of everything, we find that this story is a redemptive story.

The relationship kindled through the stories of wrongs being made right is formed because of our place in that sweeping Biblical narrative.  We are living a story within a story.  When we take in redemptive art, the story we're absorbing speaks to the story we're living, which in turn mimics the meta story of everything.  Moving stories move us because we can relate to them.  The story we're living testifies to the story of Scripture.  

Sometimes redemption is hard to see.  Not every story redeems.  Our stories are messy.  But I'd like to think that they're messy in a hopeful sort of way.  

Keep this idea in your head.  You'll start seeing examples everywhere.