Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Luke 24:13-35
We are shaped by stories. Long before we can explain who we are, we are already hearing stories that help us understand the world.
Stories told around kitchen tables. Stories passed down through families. Stories about where we came from and the people who came before us. Stories of triumph and disappointment, courage and failure, loss and hope.
Some stories become part of us so deeply that we hardly notice we are carrying them. Faith is shaped by stories too.
In Deuteronomy, God’s people are told to keep telling their story. They are to speak of God’s commandments with their children, talk about them at home and on the road, when they lie down and when they rise. In other words, faith isn’t meant to be something we encounter only occasionally, but something that saturates their life.
Then, in Luke’s Gospel, we meet two disciples walking along a road to Emmaus. They’re talking about the story they have just lived through – the story of Jesus, his death, and the hopes they once had for him.
They’re trying to make sense of what happened. And then Jesus joins them. At first, they don’t recognize him. He just listens to their story. He walks with them.
And eventually, he helps them see their story differently by placing it within the much larger story of God’s relationship with God’s people. Their story wasn’t over. They had just misunderstood the chapter they were living.
Sometimes we can become so focused on our own little piece of the story that we forget we are part of something much larger. Our lives contain joy and grief, beginnings and endings, questions and discoveries. There are chapters we would gladly read again and others we might rather skip.
But Scripture reminds us that our stories do not exist in isolation. We belong to a story that began long before us. We inherit the faith of people who walked with God centuries before we did. We sing words written by generations who came before us.
We pray prayers that have been prayed by countless people in countless places. We gather around stories that have been told and retold for thousands of years. And now those stories have been entrusted to us.
And we aren’t just readers of the story. We are story-bearers. That means we have something to receive, and something to pass on. Maybe there’s someone who will learn about God’s love because of something we say. Maybe someone will discover hope because of the way we respond to difficulty. Maybe a child, a friend, or someone new to faith will encounter a sacred story through us that they will carry for the rest of their lives.
We don’t know where our part of the story will lead. But we don’t have to know. The disciples on the road to Emmaus didn’t understand everything either.
They just kept walking. They kept talking. They kept listening. And somewhere along the way, they discovered that God had been present in their story all along.
So this week, take some time to remember. Remember the people who first told you stories of faith. Remember the moments when Scripture gave you words for something you were experiencing. Remember the stories of this community that have been carried across generations. And then ask yourself:
What story am I carrying forward?
Take some time to sit with both the Deuteronomy and Luke readings, and reflect on the following questions:
- What stories – family stories, faith stories, or stories of people who have influenced you – have helped shape who you are?
- Who helped pass the story of faith on to you?
- Is there a particular biblical story that has taken on new meaning as your own life has changed?
- What part of the story of faith might you be called to carry forward for someone else?
Let’s pray:
God of every generation, thank you for the stories that have carried faith to us. For those who told them, lived them, and passed them on, we give you thanks. Help us to recognize our place within your larger story. Give us wisdom to learn from those who came before, and courage to carry your story forward for those who will come after us. May our own lives become stories of your love, hope, and grace. AMEN