I just finished reading Stanley Hauerwas’ “The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson”. In it, he describes the virtues as the characteristics formed in us by practices that accompany a particular narrative in which we have been located. How then does inhabiting the Christian story transform us as we bear that story out in our very lives – our bodies, decisions, and so on?

In Part 3 of “Your Place in the Story”, having already talked about the necessity of church participation, I’m looking at how saturating ourselves in the Scriptures and in Prayer gives us the wisdom to joyfully and beautifully improvise… to enact this storyline on the stage of our lives alongside others, to jam along with the song God is singing over us, or to join the Trinity in their conversation of holy love.

How do we find our place in the Story Jesus is telling? Beginning last week, I started a series of episodes exploring that theme. In part one, I talked about how, broadly speaking, liturgies are simply a human phenomenon (even apart from religion) that work a story into our bones. And this week, I’m jumping off from there exploring how the unnoticed narratives we involve ourselves in name us – for good or ill. Names are how we understand our essential relation to things, the truth of our being.

Everybody does liturgies – inside and outside the church. I’m thinking of a liturgy as any shared practice or discipline that situates us within a particular narrative that gives our life context and meaning. Liturgies provide language, images, events, and storyline. They work that stuff down into our bones, until whatever story we’re practicing becomes the measure for everything. The next few weeks, I’m exploring things that help us find our place in The Story Jesus is telling.

This week, we welcome singer/songwriter Nicole Kelley. Her disarming and wise way of talking about Jesus made me think how much I’d love to get her to share something here, and this week she’ll be talking about Peter’s faith and failures and how Jesus’s steadfast grace gives us permission to let go of regret and “press on toward the prize” as Paul says. Nicole’s new album “Canyon Wide” is available everywhere online. Visit her website: www.nicolekelleymusic.com

Sometimes we forget that God works through regular people to get things done. The Bible didn’t just magically appear out of nowhere; God invited real people throughout history to join in his long redemptive work. In the Bible, we see evidence of it. This week, I’ll share how I’ve experienced that personally, and some thoughts on how God provides for us through Creation, wisdom, and friendship.

This week, I wanted to read a letter I wrote almost exactly one year ago today. I was feeling all the dismay and bewilderment of that moment as lockdowns began, and I wrote this piece for the Spring 2020 Issue of The Cultivating Project. The Lord can enter into and redeem absolutely anything, if he can transform the cross and the grave. So, though I don’t see how, I know he’s not dismayed or bewildered. Jesus will bring life and eucatastrophe in a thousand little ways as we continue our Pilgrimage toward the Joy set before us.

…But wait, there’s more! It’s still Easter, or Easter-tide, all the way till Pentecost on May 23rd! So, today I’m sharing two interrelated readings on the theme of Easter Joy. One from Alexander Schmemann that I’ll read, and one from Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” read beautifully and joyfully by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson. We may weep, yes, but since Christ has come we have a “secret strength” and participate in a “deeper magic”. This changes everything.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Well, friends, thank so much for walking through this week with me. I’ve really needed it, personally. In this last Holy Week episode, Amy Baik Lee will read her piece “In the space of a single word”, Son of Laughter (Chris Slaten) will sing “The Gardener”, Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson will read John Updike’s poem “Seven Stanzas at Easter”, and Brian Brian will close us with a prayer. “One Thousand Words” will be back as usual every Monday.

What do we do with this strange, suspended Saturday? This in-between time, this “Nondum” or “not-yet” time, after Jesus’s death but before his Resurrection? For his first followers there was no certainty of what was to come. Surely, this silent Saturday is a part of Jesus’s gift to us, too, right along with Friday and Sunday? I’ll talk a little about that, read a poem, Taylor Leonhardt will share an original poem and her song “Lights gone out”, and Brian Brown will close us in prayer. Join us again tomorrow on “One Thousand Words”.